Larry Brilliant was recently elected to manage the 1Billion dollar Google Foundation - there’s an interesting rant on Wired Magazine about "changing the famous Google mantra ‘Don’t be evil’ to "Do something really, really, really good."   

"How do you get put in charge of $1 billion?
There are a number of contradictory stories floating around, all true. I gave a talk at a TED salon, and somebody there invited me to give it at Google. The next thing I know, I get a call saying, We have this Google foundation, might you be interested? And then began the Google hiring dance. I got to meet all 6,500 employees one on one, for an hour each. [Laughs.] They must have run out of good candidates, so they picked me."

"Where’s the money coming from?
One percent of the equity, 1 percent of the profits, and 1 percent of the people go into Google.org. The most important asset isn’t money, it’s people. One percent of the people means 60 or 70 of the smartest people in the world trying to solve some of the biggest problems in the world."

Since TED started publishing a blog and creating podcasts for download (and some video as well) I have been gets neat  tidbits of news from the TED Blog.  I think Larry Brilliant has his work cut out for him (as does TED) because there’s not that much BUZZ in the blogosphere about either him, TED, but a little about Google Foundation (and there ought to be more).