Earlier this week I wrote a brief bit about an interview Bill Gates did with CNET News. In that interview Gates stated that the value of Yahoo was in the engineers and their ideas not in the technology and market share already in existence.

In this video of Bill Gates speaking at Stanford, as you might expect, you will hear him speak about the future ubiquity of software applications. Toward the end of the video though you will hear Gates take a turn toward more humanitarian topics. Gates talks about world wide poverty and the role of technology in teaching students about poverty. Gates also speaks about the potential ability of technology to help lift world-wide living standards. Is Gates right, will technology help educate students about the plight of others? Will technology help to improve living standards?