NYTimes: The Rise of the "social enterprise"

There's an interesting piece in the NYTimes, which talks about the emergence of the "social enterprise."  Essentially, it's a for-profit organization that has some type of social mission.

Some of the notable examples include:  Mozilla Corporation (which develops the Firefox browser), TechSoup (which distributes tech products to nonprofits), and the Internet Archive.

If anything, the new Web 2.0 technologies - and open source software -- are making it easier to launch such ventures.  Basically, the cost barriers are much lower. 

Also, new business models - such as using Google AdWords - makes it easier to find ways to monetize things.

Finally, check out Ideablob.com (which is something we launched last year).  It's a platform for new business ideas.  Interestingly enough, there are many that are social enterprises.