Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Its mission is strongly aligned with our own at our SocialCoding4Good project: build awareness of technology serving humanity, engage technical volunteers to contribute their time and talents to design and develop it, and foster cross-sector collaboration to amplify its impact.

International 209

International San Francisco Open Source Global 209

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 28, 2014

He oversaw the development of numerous products and services that allow us to drive social empowerment through technology across all our programs. Overseeing the Accessibility Metadata Project , with which we led a collaborative effort to develop standards for accessibility metadata.

Open Source 184

Open Source Literacy eBook Empowerment 184

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 9, 2014

Governments in developing countries are thinking seriously about how to provide quality secondary education, noted Gallucci and Roy, yet less known are which interventions are economical and will increase demand, access, and retention. Educating girls especially makes for long-term positive impact.

Education 164

Education Philanthropy Africa Foundation 164

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 4, 2014

I describe the open source tools Benetech builds; clarify why it is important that cybersecurity tools in particular are open; explain how Benetech’s culture of “open” shapes its product development as well as broadly serves its social mission; and reflect on the reasons why the open source ethos is well suited for creating social impact.

Open Source 165

Open Source Open Social Interview 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2014

Yet, when humanitarian and social justice workers venture into the developing world to gather sensitive information, elementary privacy protections are often neglected. But it is clear that privacy protections have not kept pace with technological development.

Data 176

Data Empowerment United States Government 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Access to information and knowledge is a basic human right and a necessary first step towards personal, economic, and social development. It supports the Sustainable Development Goals, which mention inclusiveness repeatedly, especially in the context of education. · It is politically popular. . · It is politically popular.

Copyright 100

Copyright Law Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2013

In the developing world, we charge roughly US$10 per year, subsidizing this cost in solidarity. That’s one dollar per book in the developing world. We don’t want procedures that make providing a book in a developing country to be more expensive than in our home country!

Library 203

Library United States Copyright Accessibility 203

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2014

SocialCoding4Good brings together individual software professionals as well as corporate social responsibility teams from companies such as Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard, LinkedIn, and VMware to volunteer their technical skills to nonprofit partners that develop and maintain free and open source software addressing critical social problems.

Open Source 183

Open Source Africa Zimbabwe Malawi 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 19, 2014

As software developers entrusted with sensitive information, we have a duty to protect the people we serve. And, this responsibility extends to far more software developers today than we thought. Our experience working with human rights defenders, especially LGBT and Tibetan groups, give us direct insights into these challenges.

Open Source 137

Open Source Government Reflection Software 137

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 17, 2013

In 1985, he started Fundación Paraguaya in order to develop social innovations that could help create jobs and increase family income among the country’s poor. Fundación Paraguaya was the country’s first microfinance program and first development NGO.

Paraguay 142

Paraguay Award Africa Conservancy 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 19, 2013

From then on she’s been on a roll, developing initiatives that leverage the direct link between environmental restoration, economic revitalization and social progress. During our meeting, she spoke about her wish to see manufacturing moving to developing urban areas and about her plans to bring to the South Bronx new types of jobs.

Local 129

Local New York Culture Open Source 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 14, 2012

Since we began developing Martus 10 years ago, we’ve been able to enhance it only incrementally as project specific funding allowed. The more people working to develop Martus, the faster and more sustainably we’ll be able to make these changes a reality. And, support from the Open Society Foundation made this event possible!

Global 157

Global Group Thailand Burma 157

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

Julie and Aaron Firestone, our Director of Business Development, will be helping take attendees through key questions about a new tech social enterprise. My goal is to give attendees (in addition to Presidio students and alums, this class is also open to the public) an inside look at how Benetech analyzes new tech social enterprises.

Classes 191

Classes Tech San Francisco Social 191

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Daproim worked with TechnoServe and developed soft skills training modules for students who stuck with the work after an initial period. 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! No problem!

Kenya 100

Kenya Social Student India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

Access to written materials and education is not a privilege, but a basic human right—fundamental to personal, economic, and social development. Thus far, more than 75 countries have signed the Treaty, and in June India became the first country to ratify it.

Accessibility 194

Accessibility Celebrate United States Copyright 194

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 19, 2013

Telling our story is an important way we’re able to accomplish that goal—it allows us to generate the interest and support necessary to develop technology that helps countless people around the world. Based on their report, we worked with our web developers to both remove any barriers to accessibility and to make many usability enhancements.

Site 158

Site Accessibility Press Ideas 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 21, 2016

The first was the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. I want to share just two insights from Mary that made a big impression on me. First, she saw 2015 as having two watershed events.

Hunger 100

Hunger Headline California Global 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

It gave us the opportunity to conduct for the first time a sizeable outreach campaign in education, provided us with informative user feedback and case studies, and supported the development of Bookshare’s initial K-12 collection. The Lavelle Fund also supports programs benefiting the developing world. government and states like Texas.

Fund 100

Fund India United States eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 4, 2009

FreshBrain has fostered some impressive partnerships with companies like Sun Microsystems and T-Mobile, and relationships with groups such as Boys & Girls Club, Governors Office of Economic Development (Utah Schools) and the Girl Scouts. Tags: T-Mobile OER Boys n Girls freshbrain Ferrario youth development.

Utah 133

Utah Teen Skills Mobile 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 9, 2013

The investments that Amazon, Apple and Google, among others, are making in aggregating Spanish-language digital content signal their priority on developing the Spanish-language markets in Latin America. Developing and implementing growth opportunities with new digital partners require skill, expertise, and collaboration.

Spain 151

Spain Language America Law 151

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 1, 2011

Benetech is a Silicon Valley nonprofit organization developing innovative technology solutions with a primary goal of positive social change rather than profit. Our users are the primary drivers of our technology development. We rely on open source tools for information exchange and development tools, as appropriate.

Literacy 145

Literacy Articulate Open Source International 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Developing a strong culture of communications is critical for expanding Benetech’s impact. Most recently, Nadine comes to Benetech from Water.org, where she developed and executed the organization’s public affairs strategy. We’re delighted Nadine has joined Benetech’s senior team to direct our communications program.

Team 167

Team Los Angeles Chicago San Francisco 167

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

One major step to improving security of sensitive information was the recent development and release of Mobile Martus. Moreover, we recently held a two-day workshop in New York City, bringing together a wide range of activists and funders, developing a model we plan to replicate around the world.

Literacy 158

Literacy eBook United Kingdom Accessibility 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

With Benetech Labs, by contrast, our focus is on developing ideas for social enterprise technology applications into financially sustainable products. Benetech''s approach to developing social good tech enterprises. Click on image to enlarge.

Technology 163

Technology Profit Application Method 163

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 18, 2014

You’ll be responsible for the overall development, testing, and deployment of new technology in all of our multi-issue initiatives, but you’ll need to transcend the technology requirements alone. Do you like taking on big challenges? We’ve got plenty of them for you to tackle.

Challenge 180

Challenge Open Source Work Time 180

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2012

What we do: Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) develops database software, data collection strategies, and statistical techniques to measure human rights atrocities. Maintain and develop our data deduplication (entity resolution) framework written in python and Java. Run data standardization and de-duplication.

Analysis 150

Analysis Statistics Chart Language 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

While our activities often creates jobs beyond the core high technology jobs around software development and user support, we don't see it as our core competency. Benetech is a tech social enterprise. This field has acquired the name of "impact sourcing" in recent years. I met founder, Jeremy Hockenstein, when he was just getting DDD going.

Laos 235

Laos Data Digital New York City 235

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

Creating the World’s Largest Collection of Accessible Arabic eBooks Access to knowledge is the critical first step on the path to economic, educational, and social development. I would like to especially thank Noa Ronkin, Kristina Pappas and Robin Seaman for their extensive work in developing this three-part blog series.

United Arab Emirates 162

United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 3, 2011

The theme of IDPD 2011 is “Together for a better world for all: Including persons with disabilities in development.” This year, for the first time, IDPD is commemorated with supporting sub-themes (see the full list here ), to draw attention to key issues that come into play in the intersection of disability and development processes.

Impact 140

Impact Technology eBook Student 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 10, 2013

Now, as a pragmatic idealist I’ve always believed that technology could be an immense force for good in the world, but I’ve also recognized that great technology wouldn’t get developed—no matter how beneficial—if it was missing one important factor: big profits.

Profit 171

Profit Data SWF Syria 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 16, 2010

Benetech is committed to developing technology for underserved communities that can reap big benefits from improved access to information. The new Miradi 3 release offers a powerful work planning interface that lets users forecast expenses, develop budgets, and export project data to donor reports.

Norway 133

Norway Conservancy Sweden Software 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2011

The Read2Go application was developed by Bookshare’s parent nonprofit Benetech in partnership with Shinano Kenshi Co., Our Bookshare members will also get access to additional features such as study tools, images and multiple languages as the application develops.

Audio 145

Audio Boston Student Music 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

There’s a huge interest at WIPO in helping developing countries get the assistance they need to help bring books to their people with disabilities. One particularly tall order from WIPO was the desire to have a successful pilot effort in several of the world’s Least Developed Countries, which are the toughest places to work.

Accessibility 247

Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 25, 2014

What if we applied Joi’s agile, bottom-up innovation approach to the global development challenge posed by Chris? Empower Medical Paraprofessionals : Ensure that a simple tool providing step-by-step medical emergency instructions was in the hands of every medical paraprofessional on the planet, saving untold lives in developing countries.

Paraguay 144

Paraguay Problem Application Global 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2011

An exciting development is the recent offering of hosting services (through the help of PKP's main partner university, Simon Fraser U. A major set of OJS's users are from the developing world: the tools really put the power of expanding knowledge in the hands of scholars!

Accessibility 133

Accessibility Project Open Journal 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 3, 2016

We often add image descriptions to illustrations, as well as supporting partners developing tactile versions of illustrations today, to further improve accessibility. People who are low vision can usually magnify pictures to see them better, and our dyslexic users often get much more out of illustrations than they get out of text.

United States 100

United States Language Copyright Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

The big vendors of medical gear that sell into the developed world have no practical interest in deploying products at a third, a fifth or a tenth of their current price points. The opportunity to transfer this kind of technology to enterprises in the developing world is also exciting, and one that I expect to see more and more.

Global 178

Global Technology Marketing Kenya 178