Using the Web to Create a New Economy

In 2004, Jessica Jackley launched a beta version of Kiva, one of the original microlenders aimed at battling poverty. That year, friends and family of Jackley  loaned a total of $3,000 - and all the loans were repaid.

This year, the nonprofit loaned $360 million in microloans aimed at empowering the poor to build better lives and better communities.

Ultimately, it is all about connecting people, Jackley explained Monday at The Atlantic Meets the Pacific forum, which looks at emerging ideas and technologies, and how people use and are transformed by them.

"I remember having these experiences of super-connectivity in crazy unexpected places," she says, recalling making cellular calls from a mud hut in Uganda. "Kiva is about connecting people in this new way. It's a different way to engage and get involved in the world."

Her latest company, Profounder, is a crowdfunding investor platform where investors and investments are screened and provided a pool of information toward microlending.

The way we conventionally think about investors was a problem, Jackley said.

"Even if you're not rich, you might be smart," she said. "I think it's ridiculous that net worth is equated with the ability to invest wisely."

That approach requires transparency -- and sharing knowledge is what makes it fly.

"I think people more and more want to know more about the company, they want to know where their investment is going," she said. "I think there's a blending of so many formerly separated spaces."

Her new frontier is collaborative consumption -- breaking out of the paradigm of purchase, sale and ownership.

"Think about sharing, borrowing, about nonfinancial return to investors," she said. "Think about how great it is to have your donation come back to you after someone used it to do something great."