http://blog.google.org/2008/01/introducing-our-initiatives.html

Introducing our initiatives

Thursday 1/17/2008 08:04:00 AM

Posted by Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org

Today Google.org announced five initiatives that we will focus on in the coming years. Predict and Prevent will seek to identify hot spots and enable rapid response to emerging threats, beginning in the area of infectious diseases. The other two efforts, Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services focus on building jobs and improving the delivery of basic services, such as education and clean water, in the developing world.

These efforts join our climate change-related initiatives announced in 2007: to Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE-C) and Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT).

There is so much good work to be done around the world, we've had to make some tough choices about our strategy and our focus. We spent more than a year building a diverse team, researching, and learning from others in the field. With Google's skills in information and technology in mind, we looked for areas where we could make the biggest potential impact by helping find scalable solutions. We are relative newcomers to these efforts and are enormously grateful for the guidance we've received from experienced partners as we've considered where we could best lean our shoulder against these global challenges side by side with local communities and the broader philanthropic community.

And now it is time to dive deep! Please visit the initiative pages for more specific information about the approaches we're taking.