An X-Prize for Altruism?

I found this via Emeka, but it’s all about the X-Prize considering awards for outstanding projects in the developing world. It’s an interesting concept that I think is exceedingly smart and a bold move in the right direction.

The X PRIZE Foundation is researching prizes structured around entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. The focus is to find methods that catalyze profit-generating firms both in terms of financial as well as human development metrics that address major development challenges in agriculture, capital, education, health and water. The goal of these competitions would be to highlight the most scalable enterprises that create wealth and uplift the widest set of stakeholders from poverty.

An example of a prize being considered:

The Village Utility X PRIZE
The X PRIZE Foundation has secured grants to explore a Village Utility X PRIZE. The ultimate objective is to use the power of competition to develop models that enable communities in the developing world to uplift their living standards and break the cycle of global poverty. The global competition would leverage technology-based innovation to develop more effective ways to deliver power, water and connectivity to communities in need in the developing world. This competition will reward invention of such a device and/or ways to distribute that technology.