Independent Perspective News

Looking onto the world, with their backs turned on Silicon Valley, with a resolved optimism, an overwhelming self-confidence and, now that a great deal of their industry has evaporated, lots of spare time, they live what they call the "Po Bronson" moment.

High teck businessmen who made a fortune during the dot com boom in the late 90s (and many of tose who did not make as much as a fortune) are devoting the intense commercial wit they once used for making money to working for what they consider the human kind's sake. With the best of intentions, and maybe an important amount of kindness, these "new age saviors" spend their time building water filters, manual irrigation pumps, low-cost solar receptors, hearing aids and even resistant mosquito nets. Armed with Po Bronson's last best-seller, "What shall I do with my life?", they say they hope to save lives while finding a better meaning for their own.

"Many people in this industry is going through a Po Bronson moment", says Tom Rielly, founder of PlanetOut, an Internet site for gays and lesbians. "Many unemployed dot com managers are trying to figure out what to do and many seek to make a difference". This new spirit became especially evident in last month's conference of Technology for Entertainment and Design, a yearly meeting that takes place in Monterrey, California, and that attracts most of the computer industry elite. But instead of celebrating technology's intrinsic beauty and financial potential, the participants exhibited gadgets destined to enhance life conditions in the third world.

Instead of terms such as "broadband", "clicks" and "links", the notions that floated in the air this year were sustainability, ecology of terrorism and VIH. One of the most popular presentations was Dean Kamen's, the inventor known for the Segway Human Transporter, the high-tech scooter that still has to earn its place in the market. In the meeting, Kamen, 51, showed a water filter that also generates electricity. The gadget takes dirty water (the water present in most of the African territory, he said) and distils it to a crystal-clear purity. His gadget is still unready for massive production, but his plans are big. Kamen said he will travel to Africa in the next few weeks to explore his invention's distribution.

The gathering in Monterrey was not the only place where the enhancement of the world eclipsed investment return as the core of debate. Three weeks earlier, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the yearly meeting of economic and political leaders of the world, a dinner for executives of the area focused almost exclusively on poverty and illness at a world level. Bill Gates, president of Microsoft, participated in a panel whose subject was "Science for Global Good" and discussed the work done by his foundation to offer immunization programs to developing countries.

Although many people in Silicon Valley are still concentrating on making their businesses keep runing, a change of direction has appeared in wide areas of the technological elite after the collapse of the dot coms and the September 11 attacks. Fear of terrorism and war, and general nervousness about the planet's health, seem to have inspired a change of priorities. Many of the speakers during the Monterrey conference described the dangers of American egocentrism with the same passion they once devoted to public offers in the Stock Market.

"Five years ago, people was too busy getting rich and surprised by technology to think in wider terms", said Chris Anderson, owner of the Sapling foundation, which finances medical, technological and educational projects in the third world. This year's was the 13th meeting in Monterey. Participants payed 4.000 dollars for three days and a half of intellectual introspection and the million dollar gathered will be given to causes such as drinkable water, the preservation of the oceans and public health in the developing world, explained Anderson.

In many senses, this new idealism is associated to the old business spirit. "Dummy as it may seem now", said Kevin Jones, 52, who owned several successful high tech companies, "there was an element in the dot com industry in which people believed". That is to say, businessmen of the 90s embraced the virtues of an alleged new economy with an evangelic fervor. "People used to believe they were transforming something", says Jones. "And once the appetite has sharpen, nobody wants to go back to traditional business".

Of course, it is a good time for the Po Bronson philosophy. If the dot com bubble had never blown, many people would never have though of devoting their attention to making the world a better place. Many in the Monterey conference criticized the U.S. for consuming a great part of the planet's resources carelessly of the hostility this lifestyle might generate. It is not a coincidence that among these new entrepreneurs with a social consciousness only few talk of associating with public agencies such as the World Bank and Unicef or even with non-government organizations.

The traditional philanthropist' opinion is surprisingly positive. Doctor Richard Rockefeller, son of David Rockefeller and president of the American board of counselors of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders, said he admires and even envies the enthusiasm and experience of this kind of businessmen. Moreover, he admitted having advised his own children "to get some training before going out to change the world". And, instead of seeing this new cast of committed social activists in a cynical way, Rockefeller grants them the benefit of doubt. "It's complex", he says. "There are people who don't know what to do with themselves. Others had a vision and now want to do something about it".

Not all good deeds come from those who abandoned the world of high tech. Some are done by people who are still inside it. The latest version of the Money-Maker, a low-cost manual irrigation pump, was created by a company called ApproTEC, a non-profit organization that develops and commercializes new technologies in Africa. It was partly designed by Ideo voluntaries, an industrial design firm from Palo Alto, California, known for having designed the Palm V. Since the first MoneyMaker pump was introduced to Kenya in 1996, the average yearly income of the producers who use it has risen from 120 to 1.400 dollars a year. Ideo helped designing the latest version of the pump, which started being sold in Kenya last month, without charge for ApproTEC. Some 40 Ideo employees worked as voluntaries by night and on the weekends for almost a year.

But not everybody is thrilled about high tech solutions such as the Kamen water filter. John Wood, 39, abandoned his very well-paid managing post in Microsoft when Nasdaq reached a peak in Marhc 2000 and founded Room to Read, a non-profit group that distributes books and builds libraries and school in the poorest countries of Asia. Since its foundation, the group has built 33 schools and 400 school libraries, delivered more than 200 thousand books and financed 122 scholarships. "For the price an American pays for an expensive car, we can build six schools in Nepal", said Wood. "For what a wealthy banker pays for a pair of shoes, we can take a young girl out of the orphan home, dress her with a school uniform, give her a back-pack, a bunch of pens and send her to school".

But, how long will the commitment last? What will happen if disappointment results from the slow rhythm of social change? Or if a new technological boom takes place? A speaker in the Monterey conference provoked the laughter of the audience when he spoke of a sticker he had seen on a car bumper in Silicon Valley not long ago. It read: "Please, God, one more bubble". Wood, on the other hand, said he had no plans to abandon his project, no matter what happens in the world of high tech business. "I'm not planning to take part in the next bubble", he said. "I don't care whether Nasdaq reaches 20.000. I'll be in Nepal delivering books on a yak".