Bono addresses tech leaders at Dublin conference

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Bono

Photo by AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

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Bono addressed many of the world's top technology entrepreneurs at the Founders conference in Dublin's Mansion House on Friday.

According to the Irish Times, the U2 frontman, spoke about his charity One International, an organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, and compared aid for struggling economies to start-up funding.

Appearing onstage with the charity's executive director, Jamie Drummond, Bono discussed the campaign and the many ways technology has empowered people around the world.

"The 21st century began last year in Tahrir Square, where the model of power over the millennia – the pyramid – was inverted. You have this incredible thing that technologists have known for years: the network effect,” he said. “Received wisdom is not going over very well. Everything has changed ... The more of it that is available, the easier our job.”

The invite-only, two-day event, nicknamed "Davos for Geeks," is limited to 200 of the most influential tech leaders and special guests, who discuss the future of the web, technology, the economy, politics and revolution.

The former president of Harvard was also in attendance and was asked about his dismissive remarks about the Winkelvoss twins, who are famous for suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea for a social network.

“You learn some things as a university president. One of the things you learn is that if undergraduates are wearing a suit and tie at 4 o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon, there are two possibilities. One is that they’ve got a job interview; the other is that there’s something a bit off about them. The Winklevosses did not have a job interview that afternoon.”

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