Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 15, 2012

As we celebrate Bookshare’s 10th Anniversary this year, we are grateful to all the individuals and groups who have joined us over the past decade and made these tremendous accomplishments possible. Our lower cost model allowed us to invert the power structure.

Library 164

Library Student eBook Accessibility 164

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

We celebrated the tenth anniversary of Bookshare—both online and with in real life—with gatherings of users, volunteers, partners, employees, and friends throughout the year. As we get older, some of us like to increase the length and number of celebrations for our own birthdays, so why not apply this to Bookshare too?

Literacy 166

Literacy Program United Arab Emirates Student 166

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2015

The hope is to be able to celebrate the milestone globally on December 10, 2015, Human Rights Day. The score: Have ratified = 8 Will or Probably Will = 14 Possible = 17 The Treaty goes into effect three months after 20 ratifications have been formally deposited with WIPO, so it’s looking great!

Germany 100

Germany Mexico North America India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 22, 2010

We're so excited about all this action that we announced today that we're celebrating the ADA by making Bookshare available free for three months to all Americans with qualifying disabilities (not just students). I think it's an example of the convening power the administration has to bring people together around addressing challenges.

DC 168

DC Demonstration Accessibility Policy 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Today, January 17, the 30th anniversary of the Betamax decision, we’re proud to mark Benetech’s participation in Copyright Week —a week of action that aims to engage communities in the ongoing conversation about changes to copyright law and celebrate six principles for a balanced copyright system.

Copyright 196

Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 6, 2008

After celebrating the big Hadley birthday, we got down to visiting several nonprofit organizations that assist the blind. Our first stop was the Fuzhou School for the Blind. When we arrived the students were gathered to greet us. We started with musical numbers. We arrived in China just at the end of the Paralympics.

China 100

China Music Student Celebrate 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 10, 2011

On International Human Rights Day, we pay tribute to all human rights defenders, celebrate the recent victories of the human rights community, and recognize the challenges that still lie ahead in the global struggle to advance justice, accountability and an end to impunity. 2011 has been an amazing year for human rights defenders.

International 150

International Guatemala Colombia Analysis 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 24, 2007

One of the most important gifts I'm celebrating this holiday season are the things I didn't get: many, many pounds of junk mail catalogs, many of them duplicates. And, it's accomplished through a great social venture: GreenDimes , whose motto is Stop Junk Mail.

Mail 100

Mail Environment Celebrate Application 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

From a Project to an Organization: Benetech Successfully Spins Off the Human Rights Data Analysis Group Benetech is celebrating a major milestone: On February 1, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG)—which focuses on the statistical and analytical side of Benetech’s human rights work—spun out from being a project within our organization to become (..)

Analysis 174

Analysis Project Open Source Analytics 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2007

So, as we celebrate this great award, we're also busy thinking about how we will dramatically improve the availability of quality textbooks and education materials to students with print disabilities. 99,999 more books to go!

San Jose 100

San Jose Award Student Proposal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 25, 2006

As the Palo Alto Weekly put it (and put the picture on the cover of the paper): "Andy Fruchterman jumped up on a friend's shoulders to celebrate among the throngs of graduating seniors and their loved ones at Paly." This one is noteworthy, as my son Andy just graduated from high school. Photo from the Palo Alto Weekly

Picture 100

Picture Celebrate Photo 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 4, 2010

As we get started on this new year, and this new decade, I want to celebrate you, the Benetech team. I want to encourage more of the team to write guest blogs or host brown-bags or find other ways to share your work and its impact.

Team 100

Team Impact Celebrate Place 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 1, 2011

Benetech seeks to nurture and celebrate staff and organizational accomplishments. These include formal and informal activities such as individual training by other staff members, workshops, staff brown bags and visiting speakers. Benetech assists employees with courses, degree programs and other relevant learning experiences.

Literacy 145

Literacy Articulate Open Source International 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 8, 2008

We visited the Meenakshi temple during its main festival, which celebrates the marriage of Shiva and Parvati. The most popular god seems to be Ganesha, the elephant-headed god who by legend is the son of Shiva and Parvati. He seems to have universal appeal, and most temples I saw had a shrine to him near the entrance.

India 100

India Virginia Europe Celebrate 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

In fact, some of these new directions are already being implemented: as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, AI is running throughout 2011 global actions with a focus on reproductive rights, international justice and stopping corporate abuse. I especially heard strong interest in building the Amnesty movement in Latin America and Asia.

International 133

International Asia Global University 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Highlights of this Update: Global Literacy Human Rights Benetech Labs Communications Global Literacy Bookshare celebrated a double milestone this summer, reaching over 200,000 available titles in our collection and serving over 250,000 members with disabilities! While the majority of our members are U.S.

India 142

India Literacy Global Accessibility 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 10, 2008

They then sweep through the plane checking the seats for bad stuff left behind (other than trashy magazines about celebrities). I watched one guy on that side of the plane hope over to the right hand side so he didn't have to leave. When we landed on Kwajelein, the big U.S. military base, only authorized people could get off and on.

Micronesia 100

Micronesia Guam Honolulu Hawaii 100

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. Bookshare.org just hit a milestone by reaching 40,000 accessible books in our collection.

Listserv 100

Listserv Volunteer Celebrate Mail 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 13, 2007

We recently had a meeting in Silicon Valley to celebrate the progress we're making with the Route 66 Literacy program. Gerry Davis, who is one of our board members was there and took some pictures, and I thought I'd blog them and share the moments. The main reason for the meeting was that Professor Karen Erickson was in town.

North Carolina 100

North Carolina Literacy Foundation Demonstration 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

My biggest concern about OERs has been that few people developing them have been measuring the impact: they celebrate the creation of the open content textbook or coursework, but don't collect the information on whether anybody is using them. OERs are the open source equivalent of open source software.

Conference 100

Conference Social Utah Open Source 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 23, 2008

Because of Hadley's reputation, their twentieth anniversary was the nexus for many of the top blindness folks from China to come help them celebrate. I've always wanted to have a reason to go to China, but there never was a strong enough reason to go for Benetech.

China 100

China Sound Picture Copyright 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

The Global Literacy team, led by VP & General Manager Betsy Beaumon, just celebrated our latest major milestones: serving 300,000 members, the majority of whom are American students with disabilities, and offering 250,000 accessible books on the virtual shelves of our library.

Literacy 158

Literacy eBook United Kingdom Accessibility 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 21, 2005

Skoll is really investing in celebrating social entrepreneurship. Each one of these entrepreneurs does incredible things, and I could go on and on. But, it would be better if you TIVO'd these shows and watched them for yourselves.

San Jose 100

San Jose Green Children Celebrate 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 30, 2009

The Celebration Hymnal 35. The One Year Devotionals For Teens 29. Hunger's Brides: A Novel of the Baroque 30. 1,000 Indian Recipes 31. The Everything Guide to Writing a Romance Novel 32. The Dangerous Book for Boys 33. IMPULSE 34. Songs and Hymns for Worship 36. By Heresies Distressed (Safehold) 37. Who Knew II 38. The Skylark 39.

Gift 100

Gift Accessibility Giving Volunteer 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2006

I learned that celebrity fever afflicts all types. The one that I had planned on attending was unbeknownst to me also being attended by Angelina Jolie, whose name I felt like I heard a minimum of three times a day. I was able to witness some protesters, and some odd behaviors amongst them.

Liechtenstein 100

Liechtenstein Switzerland China Austria 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 14, 2009

And we’ll celebrate the successes of the leaders in our community who are working on creating hybrid forms, actually corporate forms that help meld this hybrid nature of the social enterprise. We’re going to hear from those people.

Business 100

Business Government North Carolina Chapter 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 21, 2011

We celebrate the notion that nothing is as powerful as a great idea when put in the hands of a bold entrepreneur, and the lionization of entrepreneurs is a trend. Social entrepreneurship has its own conferences, publications, academic programs and awards.

Mentoring 174

Mentoring Indiana Press Profit 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 8, 2010

This update spotlights our new Benetech report celebrating twenty (!) My latest President's Update is up on the Benetech website. years of technology serving humanity. When I first started Benetech, I never dreamed that we would actually be where we are today.

Report 100

Report Press Knowledge Profit 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 13, 2011

It’s worth celebrating but even more important, worth recognizing the incredible opportunities that we now have to make a difference on an even broader scale. Last summer I talked about our great summer interns and fellows and early this year, I sent a copy of our 20th Anniversary Report that talked about our entire history.

Conservancy 140

Conservancy Norway Congo Sweden 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Not sure whether to celebrate or mourn this milestone. Like many other leaders of nonprofit organizations, I travel an unreasonable fraction of the time. I recently hit three million lifetime miles on American Airlines. Why do I do it? Why do my peers do it?

New York 100

New York Boston Washington Africa 100