Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2013

Delivering my statement before the House Committee on the Judiciary, August 2013 We’ve since learned many lessons about the multiplier effect of advocacy. Instead, our biggest challenge was convincing them that our approach was the best approach for meeting those needs. Fast-forward six years.

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Advocacy Change Literacy DC 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 22, 2013

This has created the ironic situation where blind people, who because of their disability require access to digital copies, have been effectively locked out of purchasing ebooks for the last decade. Authorized entities need access to digital content in order to cost-effectively deliver access.

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Measure Technology Audio eBook 181

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

It’s a great definition that includes just about any disability that interferes with the effective reading of printed material. It includes people who are blind, visually impaired, reading disabled (example: dyslexia) or have a physical disability that gets in the way of effectively holding a book, turning pages or focusing on the page.

Copyright 158

Copyright Law United States Library 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

The base draft accomplishes that, and mirrors the effective exception in the U.S. An effective Treaty would be the most appropriate memorial I could imagine for Rahul Cherian. Several key points under the avoidance of bureaucracy banner: The goal of the Treaty is to make it easy to make books accessible.

Copyright 158

Copyright India Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 1, 2011

We are a nonprofit technology company serving the unserved, tackling important challenges that the private sector cannot by developing content, products and services to effect social change. We seek to establish workplace flexibility that enables greater effectiveness without sacrificing teamwork and spirit.

Literacy 145

Literacy Articulate Open Source International 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2015

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! The hope is to be able to celebrate the milestone globally on December 10, 2015, Human Rights Day.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 20, 2011

Given the time pressure, Elaina uses Miradi to develop strategies that can be monitored for effectiveness. We don’t focus on threats where the solutions are not effective and we make the best use of time, resources and energy.” According to Elaina, halting fires and sedimentation on the reefs is especially critical because the U.S.

Guam 124

Guam Conservancy Software Help 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Together with these enlightened publisher partners, our nonprofit has been able to effectively end the book famine in the United States for people with disabilities that affect the reading of print. The Moral Case The Marrakesh Treaty is a human rights treaty in an intellectual property framework.

Copyright 100

Copyright United States Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2011

Misunderstanding relationships in data is a problem because it can lead to choosing less effective, more expensive data instead of choosing obvious, more accurate starting points. Here are two other examples of confounding effects. And, that the correlation they found was useful. Why is this something worth arguing about?

Issue 160

Issue Data Haiti Stream 160

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 17, 2011

This system was extremely effective at communicating specific needs in a timely way that required very little additional infrastructure. We think that this is important and valuable. However, we worry that crowdsourced data are not a good data source for doing statistics or finding patterns.

Statistics 263

Statistics Data Haiti Stream 263

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2016

His “Law of Amplification” was particularly insightful: “technology’s primary effect is to amplify human forces.” But, when you go to scale, you reach many partners (such as schools) who lack the human capacity to use the technology effectively. Wishful thinking makes many people dream of quick fixes.

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Laptop Hype Ghana Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2009

With all the energy around effectiveness and transparency, PWX is a great example of how to operate a network of hundreds of projects in different communities, with the detailed project information available to donors and partners. And of course, under the hood of PWX is technology that makes this kind of network run and hum.

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India Map Proposal Project 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 15, 2010

One of those practices is how to travel as cost effectively as possible. How can we make travel more effective and less wearing? I'm fascinated not only with the big questions in the social entrepreneurship field, but also the practical practices of doing the job of social entrepreneur better.

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Tips Social New York City New York 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 14, 2009

Of course, the secret to Bookshare is that it's not Benetech making it so successful, it's our volunteers, our community, the schools, colleges, universities, authors and publishers that make it work so well for people with print disabilities so severe that they cannot read a standard printed book effectively.

Press 100

Press National University Washington 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

We realized that the most effective tool to fight human rights abuse was the truth. With more and more people participating in human rights documentation, it’s critical to get the tools and skills in their hands to do it safely, ethically and effectively. Being geeks, we thought of ways to address this challenge with technology.

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Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

If the Treaty passed with these three fixes, we think that it would be an effective treaty that would meet the social goals of the WBU to greatly improve access to reading for people with print disabilities. 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

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

Read and Reeves are convinced that at least some smart workplaces of the future are going to adapt some of the ways of the games to more fully engage their employees and become more effective as economic organizations.

Game 150

Game Roles Virtual Skills 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2015

There is still much to do, however, before the treaty takes full effect. This historic international copyright exception treaty paves the way for a future in which people who cannot read regular printed materials can have equal access to books, regardless of where they live.

Copyright 100

Copyright Law Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2012

We're not human rights advocates: we're a group of technologists and scientists dedicated to helping the human rights movement be safer and more effective. At Benetech, we're thinking about human rights activists everyday.

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Online Government Tech Design 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

We call it Bookaccess: a cost effective “fulfillment engine” that will deliver digital accessible books to commercial partners (like publishers) who would sell them to customers. They deserve an equal shot at learning and realizing their potential.

Student 173

Student Accessibility Copyright Library 173

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

But, a system that cost-effectively identifies any students at risk of failure is a great tool for all students, and might also serve as a flag for some of the disability services interventions that might be needed.

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Student France Blended University 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2013

As a result, strong DRM has the unintended effect of preventing people with disabilities from reading the text that they are entitled to. We at Benetech are therefore a proponent of “social” DRM formats that allow interoperability with assistive technology (AT) devices and software.

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Accessibility eBook New York City Social 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 22, 2008

Even in tough financial times like these, solutions like ours that are highly cost-effective seem likely to attract continued and even expanded support, as long as we can demonstrate our cost-effectiveness with real numbers.

Guatemala 100

Guatemala Demonstration United States Washington 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 1, 2016

And, without encryption of this information, the makers of smartphones had effectively handed those secrets to governments. What drugs (legal or illegal) they consume. What content they read or watch. What laws they violate. Every secret. Not just the U.S. government. Just about every government.

Develop 100

Develop Government United States Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

The Treaty will take effect only after 20 ratifications are presented to WIPO. We hope that many other countries will follow India’s ratification. Its signature period has now ended. Going forward, new countries that want to abide by the Treaty provisions would need to directly ratify it.

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Accessibility Celebrate United States Copyright 194

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2014

At Benetech —a nonprofit technology company that develops innovative and effective applications for unmet social needs—we embrace the notion of individual empowerment every day in our work.

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Data Empowerment United States Government 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 12, 2011

The good news is that trachoma can effectively be eliminated. Kenya and Tanzania, among others, are considered “high burden countries,” defined as having more than 5 million people living in trachoma-confirmed and suspected areas.

Ghana 165

Ghana Tanzania Kenya Africa 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 30, 2012

Social entrepreneurship is a new field whose actors will all benefit from a systematic search for best practices for developing, sustaining, and scaling innovative and effective responses to social needs.

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Award Lecture Social Student 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 16, 2010

The software also helps conservation teams prioritize environmental threats, develop objectives and actions, and select monitoring indicators to assess the effectiveness of their strategies. Miradi is the first software program designed especially by and for conservation planners based on a common set of environmental metrics.

Norway 133

Norway Conservancy Sweden Software 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 25, 2008

we get to hear the story of a cell phone banking service that gives the poor effective banking services in Kenya when the country's banks have declined to serve them. Vital Wave Consulting covers the opportunities in serving developing markets and one of their blog posts really grabbed me. In M-Pesa is our hippo!

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Kenya Philippines Phone Consultant 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 10, 2011

Among their recommendations is that NGOs be trained to collect, analyze and use data effectively, since the impact of their advocacy depends on establishing credibility through good data. In another section they add: “[Benetech’s work in] human rights data collection and analysis … should grow at least tenfold.”

International 150

International Guatemala Colombia Analysis 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 5, 2008

Here's more information: Benetech and the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) have released Miradi, a user-friendly software program that allows nature conservation practitioners to design, manage, monitor, and learn from their projects to more effectively meet their conservation goals. Miradi 2.0

Conservancy 100

Conservancy Press Software Environment 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 20, 2010

If you effectively stop all uses of knowledge that don't make lots of money, people will suffer needlessly. One of my favorite social entrepreneurs who effectively recycles intellectual property for the benefit of humanity is Dr. Victoria Hale, who has started two nonprofit pharmaceutical companies as social enterprises.

Proposal 100

Proposal Government University Switzerland 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

I just read a great article by David Altschuler entitled the Scrooge Effect, and he used the example of Wal-Mart. Companies that take advantage of this kind of technology are going to be more competitive in recruiting and retention of employees, and fare better with customers.

Platform 100

Platform Singapore Asia Social 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2014

Andrew’s challenge wasn’t an empty one: his team could measure the effectiveness of interventions we might try and see how well they work. Of course, we’d have to focus on local language content. While English might be very useful in Nairobi, Swahili would be the language needed in rural Kenya.

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Ideas Kenya Brain Software 223

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

Imagine if 5-10% of that were spent more effectively: that would change the course of billions of dollars. But, it's also clear that they have a really clear grasp of many of the issues facing innovation in the federal government, tempered with a healthy dose of reality.

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San Francisco Virginia Government DC 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 10, 2006

In the book, JP explains why traditional marketing and sales have limited effectiveness in the social sector, and why trust is the most critical asset in effective technology implementations. The best example of these insights is the "Trusted Source Relationship" concept.

Technology 100

Technology Social Analytics Project 100