Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 22, 2013

Support open data, open access to research, open content and open source. open source Syria technology Richard Feynman open content intellectual property science Guatemala social entrepreneurship Caltech' But, allow the benefits of technology to reach far beyond the top of the pyramid. To the greatest extent possible, be open.

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Syria Guatemala Open Source Lecture 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2013

In addition, Bookshare regularly searches the web for illegal copies of content originating from Bookshare user downloads and suspends the account of users found to have been the source of such content, as well as issuing take-down notices to the websites hosting such content. See you there!

Accessibility 171

Accessibility eBook New York City Social 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 13, 2015

I liked this quote: In addition to enabling students with disabilities to use content and participate in activities, the concepts also apply to accommodating the individual learning needs of students, such as English language learners, students in rural communities, or students from economically disadvantaged homes.

Education 100

Education National Technology Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Content contained in square brackets in the draft is still being negotiated, and the remaining content is assumed to be agreed (at least, we certainly hope so!). This draft represents the latest state of the negotiations at WIPO. Alternative B qualifies this issue so much as to make it ineffective.

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eBook Library Alternative Authoring 193

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 9, 2013

Aiming at the revenue potential of these growth markets, the main international players in the world of digital content distribution – such as Amazon, Apple and Google – are racing to enhance their platforms with non-English content. Spanish publishing is one of the hottest digital battlegrounds.

Spain 151

Spain Language America Law 151

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

Our primary goal is to ensure that people with disabilities get equal access to the books and content they need for education, employment, leisure and social inclusion. She wants to see every piece of content that is born digital be born accessible.

Accessibility 133

Accessibility Amazon Library eBook 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 24, 2017

There is a big controversy in the technical standards area that impacts accessibility of content in web browsers. Ars Technica covered this recently in their post: Over many objections, W3C approves DRM for HTML5. Benetech is voting against the W3C decision on Encrypted Media Extensions (EME).

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Media Accessibility National Associations 114

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

In short, we trust our users to personally commit to only using Bookshare books for the purpose of creating accessible content for people with bona fide disabilities. Unlike traditional DRM that uses strong locks to lock up content to prevent copying, we allow our users to make copies. How do we know it's inadvertent?

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Copyright Social Law Student 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 7, 2013

The second principle is sourcing locally relevant content. But, we have far more to do to ensure that all Bookshare users have access to the local content they need! They also provide outreach and user support, which helps us keep our costs low as well as build local capacity to meet accessibility needs.

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India Literacy United Kingdom United States 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 30, 2014

that designs, develops, markets, and delivers interactive magazine content to consumers through the digital device of their choice. Most recently, he served two roles at Next Issue Media, a magazine service platform founded by five global publishers (Rogers, Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, and Time Inc.)

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Award Roles Leadership Profile 186

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 31, 2014

It''s always been highly ironic to me that the most natural buyers of ebooks, people with disabilities that make regular print useless, are constantly blocked in getting digital content that will talk to them, show up enlarged or in Braille!

Amazon 199

Amazon eBook Accessibility Grant 199

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

Now another important aspect of our strategy for enhancing Bookshare’s new language capabilities is developing the capacity to handle non-European scripts and languages so that the content may be presented in its original form in our members’ native languages. Digitally processing Arabic-language content is no easy task.

United Arab Emirates 162

United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 3, 2011

Through the LIT project, we’re adding many new innovations to the groundwork laid by the B4E project, with a focus on three core areas: content, tools, and utilization. With the LIT project – especially with its open-content aspects and new tools – we’re setting our sights on changing the lives of many more students. In the U.S.,

Impact 140

Impact Technology eBook Student 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 26, 2013

Here is an excerpt from my written testimony, as originally featured on Benetech''s Blog : Delivering my statement before the House Committee on the Judiciary, August 1, 2013 We build our work on strong foundations laid down by other people and companies, whether it’s the open source ecosystem of the Internet, or proprietary software or content.

Internet 142

Internet Copyright Law Open Source 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 12, 2014

It allows users to search book content that contains a match for their search terms. And other disabled patrons, whose physical impairments prevent them from turning pages or from holding books, may also be able to use assistive devices to view all of the content contained in the image files for a book. in addition to the text?only

Accessibility 205

Accessibility Copyright Law Library 205

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

In 2012, this meant a growing push to add image descriptions, especially to math and science content. This year, we launched new content, including a unit on Romeo and Juliet, to help Route 66 users stay in sync with the Common Core standards. We are committed to regularly raising the bar on the level of accessibility we can offer.

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Literacy Program United Arab Emirates Student 166

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Route 66 pairs this reading content with teaching tools and learning exercises, effectively empowering any literate person to become an early reading instructor. Internationally, Bookshare is operating in twenty-eight countries that span the globe and offering content in Hindi and Tamil, Spanish, French and German.

Guatemala 159

Guatemala Literacy Qatar Open Source 159

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 19, 2013

We’ve made things more engaging, adding more images and video along with the ability to share and comment on content. We’ve designed the site to be fully searchable, making it easy to find the information you need, and developed new content to convey the impact of our work and provide resources we hope will be useful.

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Site Accessibility Press Ideas 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2009

We got great feedback about our announcement a couple of weeks ago about doing open content textbooks for K-12, thanks for funding from the US Department of Education. By announcing we're doing open content college textbooks with Flat World Knowledge, a cool for-profit startup. Because open content scores on so many counts.

Knowledge 100

Knowledge License Accessibility Demonstration 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

Thus far, more than 75 countries have signed the Treaty, and in June India became the first country to ratify it. Furthermore, the accessibility community can work together to prepare the ground for providing accessible books for people around the world.

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Accessibility Celebrate United States Copyright 194

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2015

The Vice President of Global Literacy leads Benetech’s biggest program, standing at the confluence of some of the most active and rapidly evolving fields: digital content, EdTech, domestic and international education, and user-centered design. We must help ensure that every report of abuse is a tool for justice.

Technology 100

Technology Literacy Social Uganda 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Nor can they buy accessible content from the commercial sector. Everyday, we have to turn down students who are disadvantaged and need reading accommodations, but are not “disadvantaged enough” to be considered qualified for Bookshare services.

Student 173

Student Accessibility Copyright Library 173

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 25, 2012

The Guatemalan government human rights ombudsman invited the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) to analyze the contents of the estimated 80 million documents in the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive or the Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional (AHPN).

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National Guatemala Texas Online 206

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 29, 2010

This analysis has resulted in a clearer understanding of contents of the archive and generated quantitative results that can answer questions about which police units or commanders may have been responsible for disappearances.

Guatemala 145

Guatemala Statistics National Analysis 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Making content accessible for the blind has been a traditional example of fair use. To address this need, we’ve been operating the DIAGRAM Center , a research and development hub working to set standards, generate best practices, and design tools to ensure that images found in digital content are accessible to everyone.

Copyright 196

Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2015

One attendee pointed out that the cross-border sharing of content wouldn’t be of much use unless you had the USA or Europe on board: that’s where a lot of content will come from for people with print disabilities in the rest of the world. Let’s hope the USA does ratify this year (I'm certainly part of that effort)!

Germany 100

Germany Mexico North America India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

The majority of donations stay local, sourcing content in local languages and creating jobs. We have a new business model. Free service with a “pay what you can” request (like Wikipedia’s) is a sustainable nonprofit model. We have hundreds of thousands of ebooks in a dozen languages already available globally.

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Global eBook Library United States 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 18, 2012

Make no mistake, we are for the Internet, we are for jobs, we are for legal access to content, and we are for human rights and freedom of speech. But, badly crafted bills like SOPA and PIPA do far more collateral damage to freedom and economic wellbeing than they do good for the putative beneficiaries.

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Site Copyright Wikipedia Law 185

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

I’m thrilled to share with you some of the recent amazing impact of Bookshare , a Benetech Global Literacy initiative and the largest accessible online library of copyrighted content for people with print disabilities.

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Literacy eBook Global Audio 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

We’re deep believers in the benefits of openness, which means we publish open source software and create open content under Creative Commons licenses. We rely on free licenses to proprietary content and software, and typically get a “Yes!” We serve human rights activists in more than 100 countries.

United States 134

United States Library Copyright License 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 31, 2008

The team I met were working on multimedia literacy content as part of Bookbox, and were busy using Adobe products to deliver cool ways to learn to read. They first created original visual story content, and then added different languages. Another example of scale, South Asian style!

Literacy 104

Literacy Adobe India Language 104

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 28, 2013

We have the technology, we have the content, and now we have the legal framework to make it possible for every person with a print disability on the planet to get access to the books they need for education, employment and social inclusion! The Benetech team is delighted by its adoption today.

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Library Government United States Accessibility 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

The goal of the Treaty is to make a copyright exception for the blind and other people with disabilities that stop them from reading print, and to make import and export of accessible content legal. So, in the U.S., we don’t have these kinds of barriers, and we’re doing a great job of getting people the books they need.

Copyright 158

Copyright India Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2009

Accessibility of digital media has been repeatedly and systematically denied because of digital measures to “protect” content. The contention that piracy of movies, music and books is a national security issue that necessitates secrecy is implausible to say the least (but it’s the current Administration excuse).

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Adobe Copyright eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2009

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. But, all the students had cell phones. And, Joy supplied my TED insight for the day.

Education 100

Education Africa Student Journal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 6, 2009

Looking at the 17 volumes of Helen's Braille Bible, I remember why Bookshare members love having a thousand times more content on a two pound Braille electronic display! One of the great things about working for Benetech is being able to see all the cool things going on around the world.

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Museum Photo Life Foundation 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 11, 2015

The goal of a safe is to keep unauthorized people from gaining access to its content. Do I choose Safe Number One that’s advertised to have half-inch steel walls, an inch thick door, six locking bolts, and is tested by an independent agency to confirm that the contents will survive for two hours in a fire?

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Open Source Open Software License 100