As many of you know, the Digital Dividend program at WRI has evolved. Following the successful Eradicating Poverty Through Profit conference in December 2004, we began investigating all sustainable approaches to poverty alleviation, not just IT-enabled ones. As part of our new efforts, we have created NextBillion.net, a web portal featuring all the latest on how business, civil society, and the development community are approaching poverty through profitable, sustainable solutions.

As a result, we are no longer supporting the Digital Dividend Project Clearinghouse. We have, however, migrated the best ICT projects into Nextbillion.net’s new Activity Database. You can search for these projects yourself, or receive an RSS feed that let’s you know whenever a new IT-enabled project is added.

We also recommend you check out the searchable ICT database being hosted by the Stockholm Challenge. Over the past decade, the Challenge has won a world-wide reputation for finding and connecting innovative information and communication technology based projects in health, education, government, culture, business and environment.

One of the main features of the Stockholm Challenge is the ICT prize, the Stockholm Challenge Award, which has attracted over 3000 projects since its inception. You can search through more than 500 projects submitted in 2005, or browse through the winners and finalists over the past six years.

Are you an ICT entrepreneur? The Challenge is searching for the best initiatives that accelerate the use of information technology for the social and economic benefit of citizens and communities. The objective is to help local entrepreneurs, who work to close the digital divide, by bringing in research communities, development organizations and strong corporate initiatives. For more information, check out the contest homepage.

"Why can't we mobilize the investment capacity of large firms with the knowledge and commitment of NGOs and the communities that need help? Why can't we co-create unique solutions?" C.K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid