Making an Impact on the Internet

To the Editor:

As president of the Markle Foundation, I appreciate Mark R. Kramer’s kind words about our leadership in making a commitment to invest $100-million over the next three to five years to help build the public interest into the Internet (“Markle’s Bold Bid Leaves Some Big Questions,” Opinion, August 26). On the other hand, Mr. Kramer questions whether philanthropies can actually have an impact on such an industry. Of course, I believe they can.

Everyone agrees that the Internet and other new technologies are rapidly changing our lives. But how do we want our lives to change? How can the Internet fulfill its potential as a means of public benefit? What can be done to prevent it from devolving into a vast commercial wasteland? Will certain segments of society be left behind by the information revolution, and what would the implications be?

In my view, it is not only appropriate for philanthropies to ask such questions; it is incumbent upon them to help provide the answers. This is precisely the role of the philanthropic community in society. And foundations can help to provide answers by funding research, supporting innovative ideas, creating expectations for the use of this technology, and by participating in the development of new business models that also serve public needs.

Can Markle do it alone? No. That’s why we will leverage our resources in every instance we can by partnering with other philanthropies, non-profits, and businesses alike and working as a catalyst for public-interest thinking within the industry itself.

There are many opportunities for foundations to play a role. They can, for example, influence the role of the public in the future governance of the Internet, they can provide funds to the broad range of their grantees to insure that they are maximizing their own use of the Internet, and they can fund programs aimed at increasing use of technology to meet the learning needs of children and to enfranchise society’s poor.

Philanthropies often are confronted with entrenched social problems or face difficulty getting beyond the symptoms to the causes of society’s larger ills. This is one instance when we still have time to help shape the development and use of a medium that will, in turn, shape our lives. I agree that this is a big challenge, but we can meet it.

Zoë Baird
President
John and Mary R. Markle Foundation
New York