MANILA, Philippines—From quake-devastated Haiti to the killing fields of Darfur to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, a Filipino-American “techie-preneur” shows how the Internet can be used to respond quickly and effectively to calamities.

Yobie Benjamin, 50, formerly from flood-prone Malabon City, is an Internet security expert who uses his cyber proficiency to raise emergency funds to aid victims of disasters and social injustice, as well as other advocacies.

Now based in San Francisco, and enjoying the perks and trappings of financial success, Benjamin has been described by colleagues as a “socially responsible capitalist.”

One example of this is when Benjamin helped Amnesty International (AI) in its campaign against genocide in Darfur, Sudan. He directed his software development team in Manila to build a virtual digital music player that allowed people to purchase and download from iTunes John Lennon songs performed by artists like U2, Green Day and Jakob Dylan.

The GoodStorm music “MixTape” was installed in over 300,000 blogs and social network pages. It helped drive iTunes sales of Lennon’s “Instant Karma” album to the Billboard 100, a good portion of which went to the coffers of AI.

Another example is when Benjamin helped the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the killer quake. His name was mentioned alongside Sharon Stone, Sean Penn and the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Cyber expert

But in the hub of information technology known as Silicon Valley, Benjamin is recognized for his contributions to Internet security and Web innovations. In 1997, he demonstrated the vulnerability of Microsoft Windows NT to hackers. He also proved to be an expert on electronic voting machines.

In 1998, he joined Ernst and Young (E&Y) as partner and chief of global strategy. E&Y is a global leader in assurance, tax, as well as transaction and advisory services and is the international affiliate of the Philippines’ SGV & Co.

Up to 2002, Benjamin handled multimillion-dollar portfolios to Web-enable US companies such as General Motors, Ford and Hewlett Packard.

Goodstorm, Emicus

In 2005, Benjamin founded an e-commerce company, Goodstorm, as a response to the damages caused by Hurricane “Katrina,” which inundated New Orleans. Aware of the programming talent in the Philippines, he hired an all-Filipino team to build Goodstorm.com. The company was acquired by Zazzle.com, whose investors include John Doerr of the legendary venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins.

The firm’s slogan, “Capitalism Done Right” reflected his commitment to social responsibility.

He also started another company, Emicus.com, which deals with responses to calamities. According to its website, “Emicus provides a suite of free tools to help you prepare for and recover from hurricanes and other natural disasters. We make it easy for you and your community to get and share disaster information.”

His latest start-up, TrueCarbon, intends to set up solar panels and other energy-saving devices for US schools.

An early techie

Benjamin was always interested in technology—which was one of the reasons he took up Broadcast Communications at the University of the Philippines in the late 1970s.

“In retrospect, my fascination with the technologies behind the television was a natural bridge to computers. The notions of video in and video out made sense and led to the concepts of zeroes and ones, bits and bytes, which are used in programming,” Benjamin says in response to questions sent by this writer via Facebook.

His father, Ramon, is from Dumarao, Capiz. His mother, Angela, is from Tondo, Manila. But he grew up in Malabon, raised by his maternal grandmother, Lola Diwata, a BS Pharmacy graduate from UP, who instilled in him the importance of education.

Risk taker

Benjamin left for the United States in 1983 and worked with a young technology firm, Lotus Development Corp. A risk taker, he chose to work as a software engineer rather than be a civil service employee with the San Francisco City government.

There was no turning back for this activist from Diliman. He learned quickly working with venture capitalists.

“I was fascinated by capital’s ability to drive innovation. Venture capital created Intel, Apple, eBay, Google and many of the marquee technology companies of today. New businesses and sectors were created by combining capital and innovation,” he says.

Commitment to education

On a macro level, Benjamin says the Philippines can surge ahead in technology if the government makes a firm commitment to education.

“It takes national commitment and political will to train the next generation of engineers, geneticists and software developers,” he says.

He cites Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru who built the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) system.

“IIT graduates have gone on to build some of the world’s greatest companies. The Philippines’ neighbors—Singapore, Malaysia, China—have all made a national commitment to education,” he says.

Creating new markets

What gets Benjamin excited is the possibility of creating something that can solve a business problem.

“I am not into building the next great snack or fast food company. I am not interested in meeting market needs. I want to create new markets,” he says. “eBay is a model for me. There was no online auction market before eBay and today it is synonymous to the word ‘auction.’”

Benjamin notes a dearth of innovative ideas from the Philippines. This can be traced to the lack of professional connections and access to the global venture capital and private equity markets, he says.

He points out, however, that there are many Filipino-Americans who can serve as gateways to these markets.

“Given the Internet, access and opportunity, Filipinos can invent, innovate and create the next great, global company,” he says.

Wanted: The next big idea

To this end, Benjamin is inviting interested readers to send him their business plans, ideally with prototypes, to bigidea@fractalfarms.com.

“I am particularly interested in biotech, green tech, water recycling, battery technologies (think Bloom Box), anything Internet-related (like Twitter), information security, mobile applications (such as mobile payments and SMS-related apps), games (for example, Mafia Wars and Farmville), Software-as-a-Service (Salesforce.com) and apps (think iPhone or Android apps),” he says.

Even as he continues to work on his advocacies and passions, Benjamin promises to pore over all the proposals.

“I am certain there are good ideas from the Philippines,” he says.

By Ruby Villavicencio-Paurom