Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2014

It made a big impression on me and many in the audience. Gabby Giffords clearly struggles with communications: Mark Kelly forthrightly described her aphasia as knowing what she wants to say, but being unable to get the words out.

Ideas 223

Ideas Kenya Brain Software 223

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

We decided to create the James Franklin In Memoriam collection, with a focus on science and technology books written for the lay audience. Jim recently lost his father, retired ophthalmologist James Franklin Kleckner.

Life 147

Life Gift eBook France 147

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2007

Now, I was one of the many people in the audience who didn't see much room for the social enterprisers in the mostly binary world of Carl's speech (strong for-profits and traditional charities). And, the social sector isn't structured by its nature to encourage scale like the for-profit sector.

Blogger 100

Blogger Create America Articulate 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 7, 2012

The senior social entrepreneurs in the audience were listening in rapt attention. Because that's the sort of thing that social entrepreneurs want to get unrestricted money to do, getting money with these minimal restrictions is just about as good as receiving an unrestricted donation.

Fund 154

Fund Social Liberia Money 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2007

The questions from the audience were great, and it was one of the better panels I've been on (thanks to good prep work from the Microsoft team that organized the panel, especially Jane Meseck). I followed up with examples from my journey from tech entrepreneur to social entrepreneur.

Foundation 100

Foundation Seattle Blended Google 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 24, 2010

audiences who assume that some other authority provided the authorization. It's becoming increasingly clear that the term of "Trusted Intermediaries" is loaded with the issue of "trust" becoming a codeword for having received permission. In discussions with the advocacy community here, there's a strong desire to discard this term.

Authoring 150

Authoring Paraguay Law Copyright 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 30, 2009

Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive ( a forceful critic of the settlement), Tim O'Reilly, Marissa Mayer of Google were all part of the audience. One sample session was the one on the Google Book Settlement, led by Pam Samuelson of UC Berkeley.

Afghanistan 133

Afghanistan Michigan Amazon Mashup 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 18, 2007

In this case, we're recognizing that Benetech serves widely differing audiences. I think of it as being similar to the social networking sites (like FaceBook or LinkedIn) where people have more control on what information gets shared with whom. So, we now have the ability to sign up for one, two or all of our project areas.

Literacy 100

Literacy Voice Linkedin Structure 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 1, 2012

Chamber of Commerce’s Corporate Disability Employment Summit, Harkin called on the CEOs and business owners in the audience to join him in setting the goal of increasing the number of Americans with disabilities in the workforce from 4.9 One of Senator Harkin’s top priorities is making a real impact on disability employment numbers.

Hosting 140

Hosting San Francisco Law Education 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 20, 2011

The entire focus of our social message is to know your audience,” Elaina told us. She says this information helped her target her campaign to 50,000 people in the South region of Guam instead of the 175,000 people on the entire island.

Guam 124

Guam Conservancy Software Help 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Our audience at the panel on the future of human rights technology celebrating Martus'' 10th Anniversary From the outset, we were determined to make strong security Martus’ signature feature. Martus, we decided, would be that tool.

Burma 168

Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 3, 2004

This is based on a talk I gave in Sri Lanka last year at the University of Peradeniya, but with a heavier technology component given the engineering audience. I covered our Human Rights program, including the Martus Project and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (which joined Benetech last year).

Sri Lanka 100

Sri Lanka Classes Analysis University 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

Expanding to meet global need brings a number of new challenges, including collection development for new audiences, gaining author and publisher permissions for worldwide distribution of materials, and forming partnerships with organizations that can spread the word about Bookshare and manage membership and customer support outside of the U.S.

Accessibility 100

Accessibility India United States International 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 5, 2008

The voice synthesizer in the Victor Reader software did a good job on the English sentences, but drew many grins and smiles from the audience when it tried to speak the Chamorro. I picked one children's book, Grandma's Love , which is in both English and Chamorro. Not quite ready for students, yet!

Guam 100

Guam Micronesia South Korea Marshall Islands 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 10, 2011

We advanced human rights advocacy and the community more broadly by placing human rights at the forefront of academic research and by educating wide audiences about statistical best practices in the analysis of violence.

International 150

International Guatemala Colombia Analysis 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 27, 2008

I felt like we had a very receptive audience, and feel like our commitment to the mission of serving students leads to the hearing we receive. Congressional staff really want to dig into the policy issues, and the common thread from all of them is the key outcomes: are kids getting books?

Washington 100

Washington San Francisco Student Iowa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 18, 2004

Usually, I'm giving the general Benetech social entrepreneurship story, talking about how technology can be benefiting humanity even more, to audiences as varied as the Palo Alto Rotary Club, a Stanford Business School class, and a cocktail party for one of our funders.

Kansas City 100

Kansas City Kansas Classes Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 8, 2004

The audience asked Gates a good number of questions, and he was able to answer them specifically and with detail, discussing both Microsoft corporate positions with Gates Foundation programs. We have a need to cover these issues in more detail with him.

Brazil 100

Brazil Library Sound Global 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 10, 2009

Electronic books have gone ten years generally ignoring the audience that most desperately needs their product: people with print disabilities. Most of this community would happily pay for their books. I know that K-12 schools would far rather buy an accessible $60 textbook than spend $300-600 paying a teacher to scan and proofread it!

Amazon 100

Amazon Accessibility eBook Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 21, 2006

Bookshare.org Turns 4 One Book at a Time On February 21, 2002, we publicly launched our first Benetech initiative, Bookshare.org, www.bookshare.org, an accessible online digital library with just over 6,000 titles for print-disabled individuals, persons who are either blind or otherwise visually-impaired, have learning disabilities such as dyslexia, (..)

Library 100

Library Phoenix Accessibility Files 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

MagnaFlyer was developed with a large and specific audience in mind—individuals suffering from Macular Degeneration. So for me, it was incredibly cool to be introduced to a new piece of technology that has a clever and (as far as I know) new approach to making information accessible to people with vision impairments. It’s called MagnaFlyer.

People 113

People Help Tech Colorado 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Our HumanRights team, including Benetech Research Fellow Amelia Hoover and fieldconsultants Tamy Guberek and Daniel Guzmán, presented our initial findings on violations in Colombia to an enthusiastic audience of ICC investigators and analysts.

Darfur 100

Darfur Sri Lanka Liberia Colombia 100