Worldchanging tools promise the potential to bring on the future we seek, but unless tools find their ways into the right hands, they're useless. Therefore, while innovation is excellent, innovation diffusion is equally key.
InterConnection is a great example of an innovation diffusion organization. They build free/cheap websites for NGOs in the developing world -- check out their gallery, full of examples like the site they did for Help for Progress ("encouraging sustainability, dignity and hope") in Belize -- but they also deliver computers directly into the hands of people who'll put them to good use.
How? By collecting and rehab-ing old computer equipment ("ecycling" as they put it), which would have otherwise ended up oozing toxic chemicals in a landfill somewhere. In partnership with groups like World Computer Exchange, they deliver useful machines to folks who would not otherwise be able to afford them.
One question I had, which I couldn't find an answer to on their site: what software are these machines running? Some of them go to Microsoft technology centers in the developing world, which would sure tend to indicate that they're running proprietary code. (For a discussion of why this matters, go here, here, or here.)








