My uncle has started a new blog as sort of the hub for the blended value market. Xigi.net clarified a lot for me and it's an interesting place to see this market unravel. To provide some context:

"Xigi and other similar efforts are needed now because of a deep and significant shift in investor demand. There is a new appetite for blended value investments; those that do good while doing well, often within a new risk/return paradigm.

Xigi is an effort to put this new investment landscape into context in order to expand the field; it’s a market formation platform. In emerging markets nothing is more valuable than finding out who is doing what in all the various categories, how they are defining it, how it compares to other new market entrants and how they are being valued. That knowledge allows the most accurate analysis and eliminates friction, mitigates risk and clarifies opportunities.

Xigi wants to create a positive ecosystem of investors and entrepreneurs through analysis, research, community and events. That approach enables all players to make connections, and to learn and operate smarter better and quicker. We believe that creating an intellectual commons with timely information provided by the community will result in more deals done more quickly, more efficiently at more accurate valuations. We also think that a platform to enable discovery will help more individuals, foundations and institutions become familiar and comfortable with the concept of investing for good. Rather than a rigid typology or allegiance to a particular definition or set of definitions, xigi will serve to act as a Rosetta Stone; translating between and finding the commonalities between the various efforts to make sense of this emerging market in a fluid, continually evolving, open source method."

What fascinates me is this social good zeitgeist. My roommate (hey chris) and I often discuss what needs to happen for values to change towards a more socially/eco conscientious tide. I tend to think it will happen out of genuine concern for the good and then the hopefully the big wig corporations will begrudgingly follow suit. Xigi hopefully will put a spotlight on this process.