Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

You probably know that Robin was a pioneer in the ebook industry, but you probably don't know how she applied those experiences and her extensive network to the cause of advancing global literacy. And Robin is why we've been able to deliver over 10 million accessible books to readers with disabilities.

eBook 100

eBook United States Literacy Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 10, 2011

Our human rights program has many important moving parts: Improving the science of human rights statistics Doing major projects to help a country figure out what happened in the last ten or twenty years of civil wars Helping both academics and prosecutors get data usable for their needs Building technology tools like Martus for capturing human rights (..)

Literacy 150

Literacy Disaster Phone Press 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 15, 2008

This is always a cause for celebration by our team, recognizing the incredible amount of work involved in bringing each book to our Bookshare.org members by our volunteers and collection development staff. There is no doubt about it, Cause you've got all it takes. They're reading your book avidly Excusing your mistakes.

Listserv 100

Listserv Volunteer Celebrate Mail 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 15, 2009

The Authors Guild are pressing the cause of authors' rights to make more money (in theory). President Marc Mauer of the National Federation of the Blind just had an excellent op ed published by the Baltimore Sun entitled Bias against blind book lovers. Mauer does a great job in capturing the advocacy position of the Reading Rights Coalition.

Baltimore 124

Baltimore Authoring eBook Articulate 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2013

Migel, whose experiences with blindness caused during World War I, led to him helping start the Foundation. The Migel Medal, often called the highest honor in the blindness field, is awarded annually to one or two individuals whose careers exemplify exceptional accomplishments in the field. It was named for the first board chair of AFB, M.C.

eBook 221

eBook Award Copyright Syria 221

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

We continue to believe that the stories of individuals suffering abuse, secured with Martus and combined with analysis of the patterns and scale of abuse, can make a powerful contribution to the cause of justice. That's one of the many reasons why Benetech is looking forward to partnering with HRDAG whenever possible.

Analysis 174

Analysis Project Open Source Analytics 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2009

Far better would be the open accessible public policy process we’re used to, not secret negotiations that are likely to cause substantial collateral damage to people with disabilities. Disability advocates should, at minimum, press for a seat at the ACTA table.

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Adobe Copyright eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

Guest blog by Pavi Mehta, Volunteer Coordinator Open source champion Mozilla.org kicked off seven days of service earlier this month: September 14-21st thousands of people donated over 6000 hours of their time to good causes in their communities as part of Mozilla Service Week.

Volunteer 100

Volunteer Tutorial Open Source Info 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 14, 2007

One of our employees suddenly passed away from natural causes, and we are all very sad here. I sent the following note to the Bookshare.org members and volunteers and received many, many emails expressing condolences and dismay.

Authoring 100

Authoring Foundation Team Accessibility 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 8, 2006

C·A·R is a nonprofit organization for children and adults with developmental disabilities (mental retardation, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, autism, and other neurodevelopmental conditions causing developmental delays) and other disabilities who live the Silicon Valley area.

Literacy 100

Literacy California Press Children 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 15, 2005

I am proud to be affiliated with the Social Enterprise Alliance, a group that works to advance the cause of people who run enterprises with a social mission. Early bird registration has just started for the Seventh Gathering, the annual meeting of the Alliance. It will be held in Atlanta in early March, and I will definitely be there!

Atlanta 100

Atlanta Social Registration Causes 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 15, 2009

If a few dozen dead trees could cause so much grief, imagine living in a place where whole forests are being clearcut, coral reefs bleached, or entire species threatened. Rather, the incident demonstrated just how affected we are by something as simple as a chopped down tree (some citizens were so angry they threatened city officials).

Bahamas 100

Bahamas Mongolia Thailand Conservancy 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 18, 2007

caused quite a stir. Lisa go to Washington Lisa Friendly and I just spent a fascinating week in Washington. Apparently, winning a competition for the largest award made by OSEP in memory (ever?)

Guam 100

Guam Washington eBook DC 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

If giving disabled vets the gift of accessible reading resonates with you, I would definitely appreciate anything you can do to support our cause. Human Rights Enrique Piracés Major milestones are the norm this year for our Human Rights team.

India 142

India Literacy Global Accessibility 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

This causes range anxiety , which is the fear of being stranded on the side of the road because of exceeding the range of the battery charge. I now breeze by gas stations with $4 per gallon prices and think how I'll never pull into one of these places and spend dozens of dollars to fill up. The Leaf range display is somewhat twitchy.

San Francisco 157

San Francisco Virginia San Jose Test 157

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2005

A newspaper story had come out in the Washington Post about how the Valley had become more friendly to social issues and causes. Here is the video and text from our CBS-Channel Five: Silicon Valley Ten Years After Netscape's IPO.

Washington 100

Washington Foundation Channel Local 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Led by Benetech’s VP of Engineering Gerardo Capiel, we will create an online space, SocialCoding4Good, where people in the tech community interested in social causes can volunteer ideas, connections, time and skills. Knight Foundation, our SocialCoding4Good initiative will kick off later this year.

Guatemala 159

Guatemala Literacy Qatar Open Source 159

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 22, 2010

She was told that a brain tumor was pressing on her optic nerve and may cause her to become blind. After receiving an MBA and CPA from San Jose State in 1995, and working for Hewlett-Packard and several tech startups, Viji received an unexpected diagnosis from her doctor. I said to myself what if?” Viji told the magazine.

San Jose 109

San Jose Profile India United Kingdom 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008

This caused some consternation among the airline staff. Rami had been assigned a window seat even though he wanted to sit on the aisle like your typical frequent flier. So, he asked to switch seats with Jimmy Young (son of Hadley School's CEO, Chuck Young).

China 104

China Local Course Children 104

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 29, 2005

Working for Benetech is a rare opportunity for people in the Silicon Valley to apply their technical, managerial, professional and administrative talents to directly advancing the causes of literacy, human rights, the environment and the prevention of suffering (i.e., our landmine detector project).

Literacy 100

Literacy Environment Track Project 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 5, 2005

I hadn't seen a city so focused on Fair Trade and social causes, but the Oxfam offices may have been a giveaway. Oxford last week for the Skoll Summit was really great. I came away from the Forum with a bunch of ideas, which I have to reduce to something written: hope to link to some of those concepts here soon.

Milwaukee 100

Milwaukee California University Conference 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 14, 2005

This is a great example of the power of information technology to advance the cause of victims of gross human rights abuses. Our team has contributed critical information that has helped Human Rights Watch with its campaign to bring the former dictator of Chad to justice.

Chad 100

Chad Help International Team 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

In many cases, Martus also helped users turn those first-hand accounts into evidence of abuse in order to advance their causes. Our Martus Field Team has trained hundreds of human rights groups and individuals, in over 40 countries, on Martus use and human rights documentation best practices.

Burma 168

Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 3, 2008

The preference for rice has led to deficiencies like the girl with vision problems caused by a lack of Vitamin A. Kathy would stop and chat with different people as we walked around the island's circumference, checking in before taking our party further. People eat a combination of imported and local food.

Children 109

Children Phone Green Local 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 24, 2006

Dr. Klaus Schwab has made social entrepreneurship his cause, and over the past five year has brought social entrepreneurs into the World Economic Forum. Putting the Social Into Davos I arrived in Davos Sunday night for the Schwab Social Entrepreneur Summit. That's easy for him to do because he founded the Forum!

Press 100

Press Fun National Course 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

The Three Step Test This arcane bit of international copyright law caused a lot of concern among advocates that it might be a Trojan horse for more extensive commerciality requirements. It shows up a bunch in the treaty, but we don’t think it is likely to get in the way of helping blind people except in rare situations.

Copyright 158

Copyright Law United States Library 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 23, 2005

My goals are to talk to people about the causes I am passionate about: literacy, access and human rights. It's been a sunny warm day in California, and it takes a bit of thought to get ready for the snow. I will be attending for my third Forum as a social entrepreneur.

Literacy 100

Literacy California Blogger Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 6, 2006

A couple of days later I had breakfast with my host, Professor Sena, and we talked in depth about the need for copyright changes in India, a cause he had been championing for years. I quite enjoyed our discussions, which ranged from Bookshare to the need for open source screen readers.

University 100

University India Spain Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 27, 2006

The other thing is that I'm almost exclusively talking to people with an active interest in social entrepreneurship or a particular social cause. There are so many cool people here, and in many cases this is my main opportunity to say hi to them in a year. Serving society actively engages the great majority of people who are attending Davos.

India 100

India Open Source Advice Issue 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 1, 2004

The proximate cause for being here was delivering my oldest child to college (Jimmy is now a freshman at Brandeis U.). I've been in Boston this week, and had the opportunity to visit WGBH/NCAM (nation's leading captioning group for the disabled), National Braille Press, as well as folks at BU, MIT and Harvard.

Boston 100

Boston Africa Law Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 10, 2011

Here’s a sample of our accomplishments: Martus , our secure, open-source information management software for human rights defenders continued to empower many human rights groups worldwide to secure thousands of stories of human rights violations and to use this information strategically to advance their causes.

International 150

International Guatemala Colombia Analysis 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 6, 2005

This caused me a bit of concern, since I thought that was something important. This is my one chance a year to get Pamela one on one, since the events are so busy for her. We covered a lot of ground, but the one point I wanted to mention was Pamela's problem with the concept of "building the field."

Switzerland 100

Switzerland Law Global Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 5, 2010

Although the Clearinghouse and Awards programs could be helpful to the cause of greater access for people with disabilities, I don’t think they truly take on the biggest opportunity for change. Comments on the FCC's Accessibility Plans (June 2010) My main recommendation to the FCC is to be more ambitious about accessibility.

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Award Proposal Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 8, 2008

Mike Terlaje had tried it and hadn't gotten too much effect from it, but the water used seemed to be the likely cause of a couple of unhappy days following. I was tempted, but Donna let me know she expected me to be functional for all the meetings that had been planned.

Micronesia 100

Micronesia Reflection Guam Marshall Islands 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 14, 2009

She recalled the weekend that Dad spent calling International Harvester (IH) dealers when it became clear that one of their machines had a defect that could cause it to tip over. Liz pointed out that none of us could remember Dad taking a sick day from work.

South Carolina 100

South Carolina Michigan Music Awareness 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

If we can do that together, we will advance the cause of ending the book famine, and providing far better opportunities for people who need accessible books the most, and are least able to afford them.

Copyright 100

Copyright United States Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 28, 2005

For most students, the freshman year of college is a time for discovering intellectual strength, getting behind a cause or two, and exchanging rapid-fire theories on life, the universe and everything at 3 AM when you should be writing the paper that's due at 9.

Bookmarking 100

Bookmarking Student Demographics Alternative 100