I’ve heard a couple of things recently that I want to share and see if anyone has any feedback.

One. I was at a conference for Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the keynote speaker was giving a talk on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I already knew that the members of MPI were hot for CSR because every other blog post on their website talks about it. But I’ve also had a hard time taking it seriously because of the C, Corporate. The keynote speaker, Tim Sanders had an explanation that I could stomach. Corporate success is increasingly driven by talent. Talented employees are increasingly choosing to work for responsible companies. Therefore companies that want to succeed need to act responsibly. Google was his example. He called it the Responsibility Revolution.

Two. I was at the Social Graph Foo Camp and overheard a young CEO give his own take on the need to be responsible. He also referenced Google. He wasn’t sure whether the Google founders were actually good people or whether they just happened to be early to notice the “new reality” that in an age where every misstep is easily found, reported on, and amplified, companies can’t go around being evil. He was obviously creating a similar model for his company.

Three. I’ve been browsing through The Business of Changing the World, a book by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff about corporate philanthropy. It’s oddly compelling. Oddly, because Salesforce is a company that thinks of people as leads. As a non-salesperson, whenever I hear a person referred to as a lead I think of a grifter going after a mark. The book really inspired me to think of CrowdVine as a force for good that could make the world better.

So what’s the deal? Is this just a profit driven move by corporate executives? How much of this is ego driven? And who cares if it is?

Also, how much is this really going to make the world better? The MPI conference made a big deal about how they were not using bottled water. At the same time they ran five tour buses non-stop for 20 hours a day in order to shuttle people from the hotels to the convention centers. As far as I could tell no bus ever held more than four people. I tend to think that by celebrating the water they’re creating a culture where some other MPI employee could raise a stink about the tour buses. So that’s good. But what would you think if you heard that Shell Oil has a VP of Corporate Social Responsibility? (They do)

I’m interested in what this means generally, but also what this means for the tech industry. If I can, I’d like to get some discussion on this at the Web2Open.