Kiva.org is one of the greatest examples of how the power of the internet can be used to make this world a better place. It simply combined the idea of microlending with a kind of crowdsourcing-model and brought it to the internet to reach as many people as possible. At kiva.org you find a huge amount of entrepreneurs from developing countries around the world and you can make a lending to their loan request in shares from $25 on. Through a marketplace like portal with detailed information to each loan request and paypal payment, kiva.org managed to set up a very transparent and easy to use infrastructure. Also they use social media tools, a simple invitation-option and now even offer an api to get the idea spreaded. So far almost $30 million in loans have been realised with only 2,1% not repaid. I’m sure there is much more to come, cause they are doing a great job!

For learning more about kiva.org, watch the following interview with the founders Matt and Jessica Flannery:

P.S. I myself prefer microlending much more than donations, cause it is about enabling people to set up or improve their own business with self-esteem. So I just gave my part to my 6th and 7th loan at kiva. I like the function, that they ask you if you want to reloan before you get your money back. Imagine, if everybody just gives some $25 in and always reloans it, how much money for microlending is there available!

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Around 40% of the produced energy gets lost in the outdated power grid infrastructure. So it’s more than time to go for a new energy grid.

Samuel Palmisano, chairman and CEO of IBM, believes that smart grids – together with boradband and health-care IT – have “significantly greater economic and societal multiplier effects than traditional infrastructure like bridges and highways”, creating new jobs and business opportunities.

There are huge hopes for a smart grid, not only making it more efficient and reliable through sensores and data reporting, but thinking of it as a plattform with endless, unimagined applications – like the web.

Even being a very attractive investment area, also the Green Tech sector was hit hard by the financial crisis, letting it open if it really will become more than just a niche market. Solar-technology start-up Ausra had to step back from their ambitious IPO goals.

There is also a great article in German by Spiegel covering that subject: Tech-Riesen rüsten für Revolution der Stromnetze.

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• AT&T; plugs into grid, powers smart meters’ conversations (arstechnica.com)
• Why Smart Grids are good! (greenmonk.net)
• Smart grid opportunities opening up (mydd.com)