Was surprised to find yesterday that I'd been named to Internet Evolution's "IE100" list of the 100 most influential people in the internet space. If that wasn't enough, it turned out that I was named (along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu) in the "GreenTech" section.

Well, I do think that what DataDyne is doing to promote the use of web applications for international development (and as of this writing I believe EpiSurveyor.org is still the only web app for international public health) really is an incredibly important use of the internet to empower developing country organizations that just don't have big IT budgets. I'm also really proud of of our exploration of models like Freemium as a method of creating really sustainable capacity for poorer countries. But specifically green tech?

I have to say that the green part of work like EpiSurveyor was not really a conscious part of why I began that project. My goals initially, long before the mobile phone, were to make collecting data easier so that we in public health could better understand, measure, prioritize, and evaluate.

It doesn't take a genius, however, to realize that when almost 100% of public health data worldwide is collected on paper that process represents, very likely, billions of sheets of paper that are yearly used to collect information -- and that use of tools like EpiSurveyor to collect that data electronically instead not only is easier, and faster, but it also can save a lot of trees.

Not to mention the reduced shipping and fuels costs of transporting all that paper from the manufacturers to the field, and then transporting it to the survey sites, and then transporting it back to the analysis location. Probably millions of gallons of fuel every year, at least.

I guess we'd have to factor in the environmental costs of the internet, including cooling the servers, etc, but I'm pretty sure you still wind up with a big environmental win.

Now if we can get other organizations to join in and start building development and public health software for the web, instead of country by country, I know these environmental savings will really add up.