QED Press Coverage

Bill Gates has used his technical skills well: He co-founded Microsoft, making him the second richest person in the world with a net worth of $102 billion, according to Forbes. But Gates, 63, says he wishes he had done something differently — he wishes he’d used his tech skills to help people in need earlier on.

These days I spend a lot of my time thinking about how technology can help the poorest people in the world improve their lives. It’s been a big focus for me since before Melinda and I launched our foundation. But looking back, I think I could have started down this path even sooner than I did.

The African Soil Information Service — a global initiative to build digital soil maps for Africa that now falls under a new program called Innovation Solutions for Decision Agriculture — was having trouble converting one file format to another.

A few weeks ago, I spoke at a big data and open data event in Ethiopia. On the first day, William Wu, CEO of QED, gave an inspiring talk about how his team builds innovative technology to collect and analyze big data. As everyone in the audience hung on to his every word, a phrase from him caught my attention and made my heart sink in dismay.