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Communication is Soros' number one cause. His childhood experiences hiding from the Nazis and living under communist rule taught him valuable lessons about the dangers of closed societies. With the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Soros saw an opportunity to create institutions that "would determine the shape of the world for many years to come." If Soros has his way, that world will be based on open electronic communications such as the Internet. Last year, the Soros Foundation Internet/Email Program implemented electronic bulletin board systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The foundation provided low-cost connectivity to nongovernmental organizations in the Czech Republic and sent email starter kits to private organizations and high schools in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The program also put up a medical Internet node for 20 Slovakian hospitals. Soros isn't stopping there. "I have devoted exactly half my income and a substantially larger portion of my time and energy to my foundation network," says Soros. He vows to continue his efforts until open societies exist not only in cyberspace but all over the world.
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Dining in Zagreb, Croatia, Soros discusses the goals of the Open Society Fund. (Photograph by Filip Horvat)
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With a blanket protecting his computer from the 10-degree weather, a Romanian Soros Foundation worker logs on to the Net. (Photograph by Jean Pierre Laffont)
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ike Andrew Carnegie, the turn-of-the-century American industrialist, Hungarian-born George Soros has amassed a huge fortune and is now spending a good chunk of it on philanthropic causes. But whereas Carnegie built libraries, Soros is building information networks that provide access to libraries around the world. His Open Society Fund spends about $4 million annually launching and supporting computer networks in 22 countries of the former Soviet Union, plus Haiti and South Africa. Soros is almost single-handedly responsible for bringing the Internet to Eastern Europe.
