Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2012

They are already active in Africa and Latin America, in countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Liberia, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The founding team includes leaders from each of the first three Gold Standard clean cookstove projects (and these projects delivered more than half a million stoves). The economics are compelling.

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El Salvador Profit Nicaragua Liberia 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 6, 2010

His idea is straightforward: he believe the Middle East/North Africa region is ripe for values-centered for-profit social enterprises that can both make plenty of money and deliver social benefits.

SWF 140

SWF Group Asia Europe 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 29, 2011

Leila's dream has been to connect the people of East Africa with dignified digital work, and connecting Steve to our Bookshare team has been highly successful for Daproim, Samasource and Bookshare! We were introduced to Steve and Daproim through the great offices of Leila Janah and Samasource, the "Give Work" people.

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Kenya Student Africa University 228

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 10, 2009

But, I think Stevie Wonder is the top person in connections (example, when Stevie dedicated I Just Called to Say I Love You to Nelson Mandela while he was imprisoned, his music was banned in South Africa). I like their motto about submitting material: "Be nice. Don't steal. Tell the truth.".

South Africa 100

South Africa Africa Wiki Music 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2010

Running through the hall, I ran into Kristine Pearson of the Freeplay Foundation (hand and solar powered radios for mainly Africa), and heard about her new radio/MP3 player with 32 GB of storage. Each of these changemakers was dynamic and the crowd was excited about how to help them succeed.

South Africa 165

South Africa Bangladesh Norway Africa 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 4, 2010

Next year it will be in South Africa. This year's Summit is being held in conjunction with the Social Enterprise World Forum, which was in Australia last year and Scotland the year before that. This Summit will be my swan song in a leadership role at the Alliance.

Contest 100

Contest South Africa San Francisco Social 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 1, 2016

When we called an LGBT organization in Africa last year for a regular check-in, we found that they took the call from the back yard of their offices. My nonprofit creates the Martus software for human rights activists to securely store their sensitive information (via encryption).

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Develop Government United States Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

President Obama and President Clinton discussing health care reform From the opening “Mobilizing for Impact” panel moderated by President Clinton and featuring Bono, Khalida Brohi, Christine Lagarde, Mo Ibrahim and Sheryl Sandberg (including Bono’s hilarious “Clinton” impersonation, as well as Ibrahim accusing most of corporate attendees of exploiting (..)

Global 134

Global India Mobile Impact 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 22, 2013

It wasn’t too many years ago when our pharmaceutical industry more or less argued that people with AIDS in Africa should die rather than to license their medicines for low cost manufacture. I want to advocate for “giving the sleeves off your vest” strategy!

Syria 196

Syria Guatemala Open Source Lecture 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 18, 2011

KoBoToolbox is a toolkit for making it easy to collect survey data on mobile devices (turns out, I later found out we're already proposing to use this to do a survey in Africa). Plus, we discussed much more exciting tech that's in the De Novo pipeline, contributing to areas Benetech is very interested in!

Uganda 124

Uganda Africa Proposal Survey 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 12, 2011

As I mentioned in my previous two blogs about my Africa trip of last July, I had the pleasure of meeting many interesting people and learning about numerous exciting, cool projects during that three week long visit to Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana.

Ghana 165

Ghana Tanzania Kenya Africa 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

We get great services from Daproim, and we know that our money is also supporting the development of the new Africa through its smart yet disadvantaged students! So, if you’re searching for great data entry services for outsourcing, make your money work twice as hard like we do.

Kenya 100

Kenya Social Student India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 30, 2012

I was delighted to hear Joanne’s thoughts and to share some insights and lessons learned from the work that the Benetech Human Rights Program is doing to build the capacity of LGBTI-rights focused NGOs in Africa and the Caribbean.

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Award Lecture Social Student 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 8, 2005

Africa is definitely getting more attention from us. Susan Bazilli, an international human rights attorney, recently brought Martus to the attention of the women's rights community in Africa, through a posting to the Women's Information Technology Transfer site. Plus, we recently spotted this article on the Open Source Africa site.

Colombia 100

Colombia Nigeria Uganda Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

But, what happens after doctors in Africa rave about how successful this or that invention are in their hospital? Their students actually go into the field, work with local medical professionals, and learn their real problems, their real pain points. So far, so good. How do you go from ten or twenty prototype units to scale?

Global 178

Global Technology Marketing Kenya 178

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2010

Many of the publishers do provide us with permissions do not have global rights, and limit the availability of these books to certain jurisdictions • We first launched international Bookshare in India and have more than 1000 members there, as well as permissions agreements with more than ten publishers in India • We have recently concluded agreements (..)

South Africa 150

South Africa Copyright Ghana India 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2009

She had been working in public health in Africa before heading to Stanford. Although our efforts on RtF are mainly around serving people with disabilities, we are open to thinking more broadly about how these technologies could benefit more people. After all, that's the whole point of universal design !

Education 100

Education Africa Student Journal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 6, 2006

That same article was picked up elsewhere in Africa, such as the Mail and Guardian Online. And, our Martus human rights software was covered in a South African publication, with an article entitled: Free software working for human rights.

Timor 100

Timor News Africa Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 10, 2004

One of the issues I was exploring on my trip to Africa was the expansion of the use of our Martus software there. When we started working on Martus four years ago, we didn't look too closely at Africa. And, of course, there are many human rights and social justice issues in Africa. Times have changed dramatically.

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Sierra Leone Algeria Nigeria Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2004

I am just back from the Africa Economic Summit in Mozambique. Chissano Urges World to Note Positive Changes in Africa. I'll post more stories and ideas from my trip to Africa as I get back into the California swing of things! He also has a terrific sense of humor.

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Mozambique Africa California Story 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 26, 2004

I've been in South Africa for just two days and have had several exciting meetings. My base of operations has been the IDP Africa Forum 2004, a conference for organizations serving the blind throughout Africa.

Sierra Leone 100

Sierra Leone South Africa Africa California 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

One of the key leaders I met described China as "Europe in the cities, Africa in the countryside." In addition to the products and brands I knew, there were quite a number of China-specific brands (like 361 degrees and Sept Wolves). The department stores reminded me a lot of Macy's. And, there was an incredible building boom going on.

China 100

China San Francisco United States Europe 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 20, 2004

More stories from my recent trip to Africa. Being part of the Schwab Social Entrepreneur program, I had met Garth Japhet from South Africa, who works in this field, and I wanted to understand more of what he does. Although Benetech has no projects planned in the area of HIV/AIDS, I was interested in learning more about this.

Mozambique 100

Mozambique South Africa Africa NGO 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

You can read more about the many faces of the Martus user community and the impact that Martus has had on human rights groups , from Africa to Burma to Guatemala. In many cases, Martus also helped users turn those first-hand accounts into evidence of abuse in order to advance their causes.

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Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 14, 2012

I head out again soon to meet with potential Martus users in Southern Africa – in other words, I’m returning to focus on specific projects. I followed up the Chiang Mai gathering with other meetings with Thailand-based Martus users, and just touched down in New York.

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Global Group Thailand Burma 157

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 31, 2004

Last week in South Africa I was discussing adaptive technology for the blind and software for human rights groups. I'm working from Maputo, Mozambique on this U.S. Memorial Day. Today I've been talking to humanitarian demining groups about our proposed mine detector.

San Jose 100

San Jose Mozambique South Africa Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

We had a call with Aubrey Webson of Perkins International about their experiences in different countries (Perkins has done incredible work in Africa and other regions). There’s a huge interest at WIPO in helping developing countries get the assistance they need to help bring books to their people with disabilities.

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Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 9, 2007

That being said, in much of Africa and Asia, Kevin didn't see a culture of novel reading among the educated. He noted that PWD will say very different things when their “handlers” are present in the form of teachers, librarians, rehab people, nonprofit people. When teacher is present, it's about textbook access.

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Second Life Asia Avatar Life 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 1, 2004

I came away with a handful of great ideas (such as the possible marriage of digital talking books and community radio in Africa) and offers of assistance with some of the legal issues surrounding our work. We were able to talk about the complete range of technology and intellectual property issues.

Boston 100

Boston Africa Law Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 9, 2005

It's my first visit to North Africa, and I'm excited about the chance to meet more of the leadership of the international disability community (especially those engaged in technology issues). In November, I'll be speaking at a session of the Net Impact conference, and then off to Tunisia for the World Summit on the Information Society.

Tunisia 100

Tunisia Kansas City Dallas Japan 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 23, 2007

Schwab Foundation board members Paolo Coehlo (the noted Brazilian author), Zanelle Mbeki (first lady of South Africa) and Hilde Schwab, the co-founder of the Schwab Foundation. On Monday we were joined by a dazzling array of global leaders who are interested in social entrepreneurship.

Social 100

Social India South Africa Global 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 31, 2006

Ann Cotton talked about why it is so crucial for girls to have access to education, and I learned even more about her drive for girls education in Africa.

Paraguay 100

Paraguay Nepal Brazil Award 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 28, 2005

Tony Blair's talk (on Africa and global warming) had a quote that I think explains why: "it is based on enlightened self-interest". The top three amazed me: fighting poverty, equitable globalisation and climate change. Each of these topics received votes from the majority of the attendees. Have I fallen into a den of liberal thinkers?

Egypt 100

Egypt Cambodia Africa California 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 14, 2012

As an engineer who has been working on social good for over twenty years, and felt pretty lonely the first ten or so, it's exciting to run into an organization that has many engineers in the field (in Africa), and tens of thousands of members around Canada!

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Canada Student Africa Hints 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

We work in North Africa Latin America, Asia: most of the places where large scale human rights abuses are going on. Department of State just funded us to help LGBT groups in Uganda securely capture documentation of abuses against those communities (again, our funders are not responsible for this post).

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eBook China Copyright Law 277

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 27, 2007

Moving on to dinner, I sat next to Garth Japhet of Soul City in South Africa, a doctor/social entrepreneur who leads an organization that uses media to influence behavior that affects HIV/AIDS.

South Africa 100

South Africa Social Switzerland Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2016

This means that LGBTI groups in Africa, Tibetan groups in exile, indigenous groups in Latin America, and activists fighting gender-based violence globally will all have better and more secure tools in 2016. Benetech also supported data-based equilibrium change in yet another field: environmental project management.

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Change eBook United States Conservancy 100