Google has named Larry Brilliant (what a name!) head of their philanthropic arm, Google.org. He gets to allocate 1% of Google’s annual profits and 1% of its stock to social development efforts.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft has announced a donation of $41 million in software and cash to NetHope and the International Working Group on Emergency Capacity Building for relief aid and disaster response.
Update: More comment via Owen Barder, who poses an interesting question about competition in global philanthropic health efforts. And more on Brilliant at TED2006 by Ethan Zuckerman.
Update: "I'm the luckiest guy in the world: I got to see the last case of smallpox in the world, and recently in India I may have seen the last cases of polio". —TEDPrize winner Larry Brilliant.
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