Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 7, 2012

But, unrestricted funding is far harder to raise, because the donor is investing in the leadership of the organization as opposed to a specific set of deliverables. But, many of the others were eager to think through the challenges of adapting this model to their organization, and how it might work well.

Fund 154

Fund Social Liberia Money 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 3, 2016

Our nonprofit organization operates Bookshare , the largest online library in the world that focuses on the needs of people with these disabilities. We know a great deal about this Treaty, which is designed to help people who are blind or have other disabilities that interfere with reading, such as dyslexia.

United States 100

United States Language Copyright Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

Last week, the National Federation of the Blind and 22 organizations serving people with disabilities filed detailed objections to a petition from a group of makers of e-reader devices led by Amazon to be exempted from accessibility requirements under the relatively new Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.

Accessibility 133

Accessibility Amazon Library eBook 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 14, 2013

Technology has redefined what’s possible for our society and each week brings news of organizations doing great things with it for the social good. It’s a powerful example of this “brave new world” we live in, where private resources are deployed to create and sustain public goods. So, yes, I do feel optimistic.

Technology 129

Technology Pledge Music University 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

This is why the making of accessible books is a classic example of market failure: if publishers could make a lot of money selling braille, large print, audio, and fully accessible textbooks, we wouldn’t need a copyright exception. For example, we run Bookshare in the U.S. The biggest challenge for access is that it’s expensive.

Copyright 158

Copyright India Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2014

And this creates serious personal threats in an era where numerous organizations around the world collect individually identifiable data that regularly leaks into other hands. Take for example a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights-focused organization with which we work.

Data 176

Data Empowerment United States Government 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2015

The international legal landscape for people with these disabilities dramatically changed on June 28, 2013, when the World Intellectual Property Organization adopted the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. delegation signing the treaty.

Copyright 100

Copyright Law Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

We don’t build a network of entrepreneurs, but rather function as a sounding board with social sector leaders on how technology could better help their organizations or communities. For example, we expect to conduct the Labs openly, so that anyone can see what’s in our pipeline. We have a pipeline of ideas, not teams.

Technology 163

Technology Profit Application Method 163

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 7, 2011

The people who are in most need of information about humanitarian disasters are the organized responders. Commenter Iraqi Bootleg might have some very helpful ideas/examples here.] Let’s call our example professional Captain Lopez.

Picture 140

Picture Data Disaster Map 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

For example, our Bookshare online library for the blind, uses several different social enterprises to do data entry and proofreading work on textbooks. Our first partner in this work was Digital Divide Data, an organization that has an outstanding training program in the area of data entry and outsourcing.

Laos 235

Laos Data Digital New York City 235

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 17, 2013

Just to give you a few examples: He is a co-founder of Teach a Man to Fish , a global network that promotes “education that pays for itself,” partnering with dozens of organizations around the world to establish self-sufficient schools in rural areas that teach independence and sustainability to young people from poor families.

Paraguay 142

Paraguay Award Africa Conservancy 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2016

For example, I extracted many insights about the international development field reading books like Easterly’s Tyranny of Experts or Maren’s Road to Hell. People who start novel organizations like Ashesi University in Ghana, Technology Access Foundation in Seattle, and Shanti Bhavan (a boarding school) in India.

Laptop 100

Laptop Hype Ghana Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 7, 2013

For example, in developing countries, we aim to help our members pursue educational and employment opportunities. We’re standing by to help support these Indian organizations with the technology and services of Bookshare in pursuing these expanded digitization efforts. The second principle is sourcing locally relevant content.

India 225

India Literacy United Kingdom United States 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 5, 2008

Miradi is a great example of how technology can be used to more fully benefit humanity: now in the field of improving the environment! I'm excited because it's another example of top-quality software created by our technical team in partnership with the conservation movement. Miradi just launched and we're busy signing up users!

Conservancy 100

Conservancy Press Software Environment 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 6, 2010

Nick Salafsky used the death of George Washington as an example of what happens when you don't use evidence in making decisions. The final half of the meeting was around organizing working groups to tackle different aspects of making this change throughout the field. are there more gorillas? This is a very action-oriented community.

Conservancy 124

Conservancy Measure Effective Washington 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 3, 2006

Many social organizations create valuable content, and can often reach greater mission success by leveraging that content. For example, if you have a great new method for tutoring kids, you might have a bigger impact by publicizing that method so that other people can use the improved approach. Of course, I also try to be realistic.

Tech 100

Tech Long Beach Build Social 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2007

Of course, Sally Osberg kept the social side of the equation by providing real examples of social entrepreneurs making impacts (while working with corporations). I followed up with examples from my journey from tech entrepreneur to social entrepreneur.

Foundation 100

Foundation Seattle Blended Google 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

The initial collection has already inspired a new partner to come on board: the Emirates Association for the Visually Impaired ( EAVI ), a nonprofit organization that serves people with print disabilities in the United Arab Emirates. EAVI will purchase Bookshare memberships for any of its members interested in subscribing to our service.

United Arab Emirates 162

United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2012

For example, new Member Annette Moore wrote: the fact that Bookshare offers their books in mp3 format is why I decided to become a Member. I started volunteering so that I can give back to an organization that has touched my life so and can only hope that my volunteer work is as excellent as some of the veterans’ work.

Comment 124

Comment Audio Files Evaluation 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 20, 2010

Wealthy country governments (and their corporate constituents) being more open to limitations and exceptions treaties and policies at the World Intellectual Property Organization. * The great thing about my proposal is that we already have examples of companies, universities, governments and media doing these things.

Proposal 100

Proposal Government University Switzerland 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

A free, open source software application that allows users anywhere in the world to securely gather and organize information about human rights violations, Martus enables human rights defenders on the front lines of fighting abuse to stay safe and protects the identities of those who would face violence and repression for telling their stories.

Burma 168

Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2009

A great (bad) example is Adobe, one of the leading ebook technology vendors, who just introduced their Digital Editions. Why have a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)? Accessibility of digital media has been repeatedly and systematically denied because of digital measures to “protect” content. Why have a legislature?

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Adobe Copyright eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

My favorite example is in the pharma area. Let's encourage tech transfer organizations at universities (and government labs) to license their technology to both commercially valuable opportunities as well as socially valuable opportunities. However, there is a problem with this: market failure. Imagine two drugs.

License 100

License Hints University Research 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

As organizations,” Osborne said, “we must liberate spending to focus on the promotion, learning and innovation around braille,” and recognize that we ought to embrace today’s changing economics and technology so that braille can be part of an equation which delivers access to information for all, not just to those who can afford it.

Literacy 208

Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

That makes it legal in these countries for people with these disabilities, and the organizations that serve them, to make accessible versions of books without having to get permission from the author or publisher. First, it makes creating a national domestic copyright exception an obligation of countries that ratify the Treaty.

Copyright 158

Copyright Law United States Library 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

Reflections on an internship with Bookshare.org in Chennai, India Made possible through support from the Amherst College Center for Community Engagement Anna Reid, religion major, class of 2010 Anna Reid with employees of Worth Trust, a South Indian organization that provides vocational training and employment for people with disabilities.

Accessibility 100

Accessibility India United States International 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 8, 2006

conference (Patrick has been attending it this week) and Patrick mentioned a nugget he heard from Tim O'Reilly, the conference organizer. And Bookshare.org is a great example of that. Patrick Ball, our CTO, and I were discussing the Web 2.0 Tim said that a Web 2.0 application gets better with more users.

Conference 100

Conference Virtual Application Volunteer 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 13, 2008

When your organization faces a critical choice (and most organizations seem to need to make these choices), it will pick the bottom line that reflects its organizational charter. We have such an entity, and the Mozilla Foundation/Corporation is a great example. When you have two bottom lines, one of them is the deciding factor.

Profit 100

Profit Issue Nonprofit Application 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2018

The Bookshare story Bookshare is a real example of the confluence of how all of these exciting developments were able to drive an innovative new way of addressing a social problem, and demonstrating the potential of what ebooks can do.

Accessibility 135

Accessibility eBook People Copyright 135

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 12, 2009

This university run program, a very good example of valuable networks in Puerto Rico, takes the responsibility of promoting changes in public and private systems to increase access to assistive technology for people with disabilities. This organization shares many of Bookshare’s philosophies and visions.

Puerto Rico 100

Puerto Rico United States Student Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 18, 2010

A Guest Beneblog by Vijaya Tripathi As outreach coordinator for Martus , Benetech’s secure software application, I travel to many countries where human rights defenders need tools to gather, organize and back up information about human rights violations. For five days, we focused on teaching the NHRC staff to use the Martus software.

Nigeria 138

Nigeria Training Train San Francisco 138

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 17, 2007

The problem of many (most) social sector organizations is outreach (marketing, in business-speak). So, we turned to the Google Grants team and in less than a week they had redone our ads in terms of organization and text, in such a way that they all pass muster. We've been a Google Grant partner for years.

Google 100

Google Grant Yahoo Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 5, 2010

For example, the Tech Museum Awards of five $50,000 prizes each year attracts many organizations with real capacity who are seeking both prestige and funding that could be significant in getting the new projects off the ground. They don’t tend to lead to widespread adoption that benefits people with disabilities directly, though.

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Award Proposal Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 15, 2006

My primary destination in Bangladesh was to meet with BRAC , which is the world's largest NGO (nonprofit organization) with nearly 100,000 employees. BRAC is one of the social entrepreneurship field's best example of what a results-oriented team can accomplish even in the most difficult and poverty-stricken environment.

Bangladesh 100

Bangladesh NGO Library Language 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 17, 2008

My first day was hanging out at the Young Researchers seminar, which was organized by Professors Paul Blenkhorn (the UK's first professor of access tech) and the ICCHP host Klaus Miesenberger. And that's just two examples. It was fun to hear students and fresh Ph.Ds talking about their research.

Austria 100

Austria Accessibility Conference Portugal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2010

Today was an example of this. James Moody of Australia’s national research organization was talking about an idea of a humanitarian license for patents that has been floated by the YGL community. Each hour there’s something memorable.

South Africa 165

South Africa Bangladesh Norway Africa 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 24, 2006

For example, one of the issues we talked about was succession planning. How does a socially entrepreneurial organization grow and thrive when the founder moves on? It also touches on the fact that part of becoming a really successful organization means that you have to move beyond being so tied to the founder as an individual.

Press 100

Press Fun National Course 100