Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2010

Next, I went to the Social Entrepreneurs Corner (a space set aside for the SEs) and ended up talking in detail with Iftekhar of Waste Concern from Bangladesh about the idea they floated in the bar a couple days ago for software to help cities reduce their carbon footprint.

South Africa 165

South Africa Bangladesh Norway Africa 165

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). D-Rev wants to create solutions to help the poorest people in the world.

Uganda 124

Uganda Africa Proposal Survey 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 30, 2012

Among the meetings and discussions I enjoyed at CASE was a conversation with a group of MBA students interested in helping NGOs that are working to advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals.

Award 154

Award Lecture Social Student 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

With this project and the recently adopted Treaty of Marrakesh on making copyright exceptions for people with disabilities a global norm, we’re looking forward to realizing the potential of Bookshare International to eventually help millions of other people globally live fuller lives.

Global 134

Global India Mobile Impact 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

and we needed more help. Last week I was able to visit Nairobi, and I sat down with Carol to find out how we could help her. 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!

Kenya 100

Kenya Social Student India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

Rebecca was looking for help with a familiar problem. But, what happens after doctors in Africa rave about how successful this or that invention are in their hospital? There is a great deal of opportunity to help get more of these started. Many universities do similar things, but Rice goes a key step further. So far, so good.

Global 178

Global Technology Marketing Kenya 178

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2009

She had been working in public health in Africa before heading to Stanford. I questioned her about how technology could help the health field, and she quickly came up with where she thought maximum leverage could be applied: helping those who are students in the health field get access to the content/textbooks they need.

Education 100

Education Africa Student Journal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2010

with print disabilities, with more than 70,000 copyrighted works in our library, the majority of which have been created under the US copyright exception by volunteers, mainly people with disabilities themselves, helping each other. • We now have global permissions for around 8,000 copyrighted books out of our 70,000. •

South Africa 150

South Africa Copyright Ghana India 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

The tough question that ran through my mind was: How can we as technologists in Silicon Valley help prevent this kind of atrocity? To help you understand it better, let me pick it up where I left off, back in 1993. I was aghast that it could take a dozen years for the world to believe the massacre had happened.

Burma 168

Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

The Marrakesh Treaty was signed last year, and now the efforts are ramping up to ratify and implement the Treaty, with the goal of helping overcome the book famine faced by people with print disabilities. The nexus for this work is the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations agency that deals with such matters.

Accessibility 247

Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

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

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

MAY 31, 2004

Last week in South Africa I was discussing adaptive technology for the blind and software for human rights groups. Our Martus human rights software was just covered today by the San Jose Mercury News in an article entitled Software Helps Rights Groups Protect Sensitive Information.

San Jose 100

San Jose South Africa Mozambique Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 31, 2006

That's what Jeff does with Participant Productions, and a big piece of the Foundation's efforts are around helping us tell stories. Only the tenacity of the filmmakers got this story out of Martin, who otherwise would be talking about his dream of helping turn poor farmers into rural entrepreneurs.

Paraguay 100

Paraguay Nepal Brazil Award 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 23, 2007

This content has been driven by requests from the SEs themselves, looking for help in developing their leadership style and their organizations. 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.

Social 100

Social South Africa India Global 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". Benetech is a non-profit venture that combines technology and social entrepreneurship to help disadvantaged communities across the world. Have I fallen into a den of liberal thinkers?

Egypt 100

Egypt Cambodia Africa California 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 14, 2012

Hint to the profession: if you link engineering to helping people rather than gadgets, women seem to be more interested! Mainly engineering students, but as EWB Canada has grown and matured, they've increased the size of their umbrella and welcome non-engineering students. Oh, and at least half of the engineering students here are women.

Canada 183

Canada Student Africa Hints 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Now, we have a nice little letter thanking them, explaining that we only help people with bona fide disabilities, that it’s legal, that we’ve worked with the big publishing associations and with authors groups, and wouldn’t they like to help us in the future by adding more of their books voluntarily to our collection. Wonderful stuff.

eBook 277

eBook China Copyright Library 277

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2016

Through adding accessibility features to ebooks that are critically needed by people with disabilities, and helpful to many other people, we envision a world where all commercial ebooks work effectively for the community we serve. We believe that our track record demonstrates how to drive this kind of equilibrium change repeatedly.

Change 100

Change eBook United States Conservancy 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Each one of these terrific people has committed to spending anywhere from a month to a year helping Benetech with his or her skills and passion. When he was 22, Craig launched a company to help partially sighted children. He followed up by launching another company helping startups find funding, write business plans, etc.

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles South Africa United States Statistics 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 18, 2010

Martus helps protect sensitive information and shield the identity of victims or witnesses who provide testimony on human rights abuses.

Congo 124

Congo Support Africa National 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 24, 2015

Our session was well attended and we received plenty of helpful feedback. There’s no other place where I can have a hundred useful conversations in one week with people from Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and yes, North American and even California.

Mind 100

Mind New Zealand Global Asia 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

Caption: Human rights workers receive Martus training in the Democratic Republic of Congo The first Congolese Martus training took place in Kinshasa, the state capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is located on the bank of the Congo River in central Africa.

Congo 100

Congo Training Train Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Consulted with some peer social entrepreneurs about whether we could help them with specific technology for their nonprofits. The Benetech team is very excited about helping with this important application: we’ve already built an initial prototype of the app for Kipp and his partners to evaluate. This time, I had the benefit of help.

New York 100

New York Boston Washington Africa 100