Google, for their 10th anniversary, has launched an effort to generate and implement creative ideas to help people, saying 'May Those Who Help The Most Win". They believe in the simple wisdom that 'beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people'. They are collecting ideas during October, intend to downselect from a candidate list of 100 to 20 by January (using community voting), and will narrow their selection to 5 final ideas through an advisory board. They have committed to $10 million dollars to implement the ideas. Their categories are:

• Community: How to help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures
• Opportunity: How to help people better provide for themselves and their families
• Energy: How to move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy
• Environment: How to help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem
• Health: How to help individuals lead longer, healthier lives
• Education: How to more people get more access to better education
• Shelter: How to help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live

Their approach deserves more press than it's received, and will be an interesting thing to monitor over time.