IT expert using the Internet to aid charities By SU ZHOU suzhou@chinadaily.迷你倉com.cn As a child, Wan Tao admired chivalrous swordsmen from ancient Chinese folklore. h ey used a blade to i ght injustice, and as he grew up Wan found his own weapon to do the same — the Internet.Wan was an angry young man during his university years and became one of China’si rst generation of hackers. He founded a group called the Chi- naeagle Union, which became known for cyber attacks against foreign websites.“During my undergraduate period I was so angry about the US and Japan. h ose countries had bad relations with China,”says Wan, 41, who joined IBM China in 2007 as a senior man- agement consultant.“I was part of many online anti-America and anti-Japan activities, but then, I felt this cannot solve the real prob- lems we witness every day and I have been to many other countries to experience dif er- ent cultures. I am no longer as angry as before.”As Wan’s anger waned, his life altered. Still heavily involved with the Internet, he decided to do something that could change society using technology and co-found- ed Yiyun (formerly called Neteasy), which means “cloud of social benefit”, in Beijing, with the aim of providing technical support for charity organizations across China.According to Tao Chuanjin, director of the Research Cen- ter of Philanthropy and Social Enterprise at Beijing Normal University, “In the past, people expected the government, or government-funded organi- zations, to take care of public welfare and charity. But the (2008) earthquake in Wen- chuan, Sichuan province and the scandal of Guo Meimei changed people’s attitudes.”Guo Meimei posted pic- tures of her extravagant life- style online and claimed to be general manager of a company called Red Cross Commerce.Guo and the Red Cross later denied any ties to each other.“Guo Meimei’s case caused a loss of support for organiza- tions like the Red Cross Soci- ety of China, because people became concerned about cor- ruption,” says Tao.“h e Wenchuan earthquake stimulated a public desire to help strangers. People began to think and wanted to get involved in social charity activities personally.”The result of this was that non-governmental organiza- tions took on a greater role.On Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, there are millions of posts appealing for donations to a wide range of causes including chil- dren from poor families and patients with rare diseases.Fully aware of the power of the Internet, Wan has turned that might toward helping charities.“For ordinary people and companies that want to do something for charity, we make it easier to participate or organize activities,” Wan says.One of his projects deals with social welfare advertise- ments. His company offers a paragraph of code which can be included in a blog or web- site and generates social welfare advertisements on the site.For companies, his team offers technical support and IT solutions.Wan is also the director of IBM’s volunteer teams in the north of China and Yiyun pro- vides volunteer management sot ware to IBM, Canon and other companies.Over the past two years Yiyun has provided its ser- vices to more than 20 orga- nizations including Jet Li One Foundation, founded by kung fu movie star Jet Li, Adream China Educati迷你倉n Fund, and the YouCheng China Social Entrepreneur Foundation.Yiyun has also established strong relations with inter- national organizations and has hosted numerous events to cultivate young IT fans or exchange experiences with other IT firms, according to Zhou Li, a co-founder of Yiyun.Yiyun plans to work with MakeSense, a global IT vol- unteer network based in France, to host HackSense in December. h e event will be a gathering of IT talent from around China aimed at solv- ing charity issues. Companies attending the event are being asked to develop charity apps.Among the proposed apps are an e-commerce platform for disabled artists and an infor- mation app for children in rural communities.One of Wan’s passions is stimulating enthusiasm for information technol- ogy among young people.By doing this, he hopes to encourage others to follow in his footsteps and use the power of the Internet for good.Wan’s desire to help comes partly from his background.He comes from Jiangxi prov-ince, where poverty is rife in many areas. Experience has taught him that with desire there must also be a dose of reality about what can be done.“You need to balance your capabilities and the interests of people who need your help,”he says.Wan funded the education of poor students in Hunan province during 2006 and 2007. h e experience was like putting a drop of water on a desert, he says.“I wasn’t able to solve all of their problems. I funded their education to finish middle school, but at er that there was nothing. h ere are too many children and I cannot help them all,” he says.His experiences have also taught him the dangers of devel- oping dependence on charity.In some areas of China, poor people have become reliant on donations to such an extent that it will be difficult for them to become self-reliant again.Wan is concerned about the sustainability of charity work in China. “I have a job at IBM China, so I don’t take a salary from Yiyun, but most of my staf members are paid employees,” he says.“People may think charity means unpaid work, but I think people should be given a rea- sonable wage for their work.”Yiyun charges companies that use its on-demand ser- vices and is also considering seeking social capital.“We need them to under- stand our ambitions because we cannot provide them with short term returns on invest- ment,” he says.Wan’s original vision of using the Internet to help charities has come a long way but he has bigger plans in mind. h e next step is to provide management sot ware and apps.“Running a social charity organization is more or less like running a company,” he says. “Ordinary people care about transparency, which is a basic issue in charity work.The most important issue is not where the money goes, but how ef ectively it is used by a charity organization.”Wan hopes Yiyun, like its Chinese meaning, can become a cloud of social benei t which links IT developers, volunteers, companies and organizations together for the greater good.“In the future, I hope every charity project can share information on the platform so resources will not be wast- ed and more people can take advantage of the technology we of er,” says Wan.“Charity should be a life- style, and I believe with the help of modern technology more people will adopt this lifestyle.”儲存倉
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