Virtual philanthropy, digital poverty

Martin Varsavsky is an Argentine Spanish entrepreneur. He is an investor and foundation executive. And he has noted that virtual worlds bring with them a new way to be poor. Read his post about "digital poverty" in Stardoll, his thoughts about using his foundation to address the issue, and why he chose not to. Here is an excerpt and a call for the digital free trade movement:

"Since there´s little cost involved in producing these clothes. Couldn´t we start an NGO that actually gave them for free or for practically nothing to poor girls in say Ecuador, Peru, Colombia? And in general, now that wealth is both felt (no food) and perceived (Swedish girls can buy clothes, Peruvian girls can´t), don´t we have an opportunity in the virtual world to do virtual philanthropy and make a lot of little girls, boys, and even grown ups happy?... Personally I think that there is a chance of bringing digital justice to this world. Pricing digital property in terms of the average purchasing power of each country would be a good start. Cause as opposed to real property digital property has no cost for an extra copy. Let´s take advantage of this and start the digital fair trade movement!"

Tags: philanthropy, virtual