Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org, announced yesterday that he would step down from managing Google’s philanthropic unit and instead become its Chief Philanthropy Evangelist.
“It’s clear that I am most effective in helping to identify ‘big ideas’ and potential partners, as well as raising awareness about society’s biggest challenges,” Brilliant wrote on the Google.org blog. “I am therefore very excited to become Google’s Chief Philanthropy Evangelist. I think this is the highest contribution that I can make both to Google.org and to fighting the urgent threats of our day: from climate change to emerging infectious diseases, to issues of poverty and health care.”
Current Google executive Megan Smith will take over day to day management.
The move appears to reflect the philanthropy’s efforts to fund projects and initiatives that are more closely aligned with Google’s core technologies. Examples of past successes doing so include Flu Trends which uses geographically identified search terms to analyze flu activity.
“By aligning Google.org more closely with Google as a whole,” Brilliant wrote, “Megan will ensure that we’re better able to build innovative, scalable technology and information solutions.”
Not everyone is so impressed with the direction. Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, is quoted in the New York Times saying that technocratic rather than humanitarian and community needs are driving the philanthropy’s direction.
Since its 2004 founding, Google.org has invested approximately $100 million in global health, clean technologies and information access.
