Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 7, 2010

The machine uses OCR (optical character recognition) technology to convert the text to a digital exact image file and to a second file format that we use for direct editing. Once we sort out who is proofreading what, Carrie transfers the books to the main server where the files are kept forevermore.

Community 129

Community Files Student Language 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

We’re incredibly grateful to these visionary publishers who worked with us closely to overcome multiple hurdles, from getting files in the right format to battling various issues with digitizing Arabic to learning about assistive technology in the Arab world.

United Arab Emirates 162

United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

DAISY Audio and MP3 formats offer Bookshare members more choices to read on the go In this case, we upgraded the Bookshare website to allow direct downloads of accessible MP3 files for a small number of Bookshare ebooks. In 2013, with the most recent (and fourth!)

Fund 100

Fund India United States eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

argued that we must shift from spending on the provision of hard copy braille to the provision of refreshable braille and the associated digital file formats to enable people to read so much more. “As

Literacy 208

Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Thousands of ebooks are pouring into the collection each month thanks to the dedication of our volunteers around the world and partnerships with more than 500 socially responsible publishers who donate their digital files. Bookshare titles range from vocational to research to teacher-recommended reading.

Literacy 129

Literacy eBook Global Audio 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2012

Data archeology: recover data from ancient files in odd formats. Please use open file formats (PDF is fine). Maintain and develop our data deduplication (entity resolution) framework written in python and Java. Write and run web crawlers and scrapers for data collection.

Analysis 150

Analysis Statistics Chart Language 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 24, 2010

And, if a copyright holder doubts that your organization meets the requirement in making an accessible copy, they are welcome to file a legal complaint of copyright infringement and make the case. that has ever been filed on this point. Just to be clear, IANAL, I am Not a Lawyer, so this is my layman's understanding.

Authoring 150

Authoring Paraguay Law Copyright 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

Inside naked light bulbs reveal bare cinder-block walls, stained concrete floors, desks and filing cabinets. Above all there is the musty odor of decaying paper. No, this is not a description of Benetech’s Palo Alto, California headquarters.

Guatemala 124

Guatemala California Press Analysis 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 5, 2009

We recently announced partnerships with The University of Chicago Press, the University of California Press and New York University Press, where they will be sending digital files of their books to Bookshare to be made available to people with print disabilities.

Press 114

Press University Chicago eBook 114

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

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

We embed the user's name in the downloaded ebook file, both explicitly ("This book was downloaded by Jim Fruchterman") as well as hiding the same information invisibly inside the main body of the book. Because the names of the users who downloaded the content are almost always still in the files in plaintext!

Copyright 158

Copyright Social Law Student 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 5, 2009

We filed the following comments to the Copyright Office's request for comments on issues about access for people with print disabilities. The irony of this was clear when I saw Microsoft file comments advocating for voluntary solutions. Background on this can be reviewed at the Knowledge Ecology International website.

Copyright 158

Copyright Comment Proposal Accessibility 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

There was also an associated effort called the Trusted Intermediary Global Accessible Resources (TIGAR) project, to ease the exchange of accessible book files between libraries for the blind and print disabled. The view of the World Blind Union was that the rightsholders (i.e.,

Accessibility 247

Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 25, 2012

These records shed light on the complicity of police and other security forces during the years of violence that killed tens of thousands of Guatemalans.

National 206

National Guatemala Texas Online 206

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2010

The files were discovered by Human Rights Watch at the abandoned headquarters of Habré’s security force, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS). A cache of prison records generated by a former state security force in Chad provided data for a 2010 HRDAG report about human rights violations in Chad.

Chad 124

Chad Guatemala Data Liberia 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Full disclosure: I was an expert witness in the district court case, and filed an amicus brief in the appeal supporting the decision of the district court. You can read more about our position in the Amicus Brief we filed jointly with our peer organization, Learning Ally , in the HathiTrust appeals case.

Copyright 196

Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 16, 2009

They will be sending the books to us in high quality XML formats that we can turn into DAISY and Braille digital files. By gaining access to these books directly from Hachette, we don't have to go through our typical time-consuming process of chopping, scanning and proofreading the books.

Group 100

Group United States New York Files 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 18, 2008

has charitable status) that will steward the new program and take care of being a nonprofit and filing the annual returns. Many folks doing starting up nonprofit work might be better off finding a fiscal sponsor. This is a qualified nonprofit (i.e., In exchange for a fee to cover their costs, donations are fully tax deductible.

Resource 123

Resource San Francisco New York Sponsor 123

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

I was an expert witness in the case, and we’ve filed an amicus brief in the appeal. The new WIPO Marrakesh Treaty for the Blind: we were an integral part of the team advocating for it, and how do we make it real as the leading library for the blind with global ambitions? Authors Guild vs. HathiTrust. What’s next?

United States 134

United States Library Copyright License 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

Today the majority of Bookshare’s ebooks come straight in the form of digital files from our socially minded publisher partners, but each year we expand the library by scanning and proofreading thousands of titles not made digitally available to us, as well as books of personal interest requested by our members.

Life 147

Life Gift eBook France 147

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2008

Our international Bookshare.org manager, Viji Dilip, recently wrote about making a change in what kind of capital equipment to get Worth Trust to help carry out their work: Strange as it may sound I grew up with hearing this often, "Everyone please save all your files now as the current will be going off in the next five minutes."

India 100

India Generation Files Sound 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 15, 2012

The descriptions are inserted into the book’s digital files and are read aloud by accessible book-reading applications such as Benetech’s Go Read (Android) or Read2Go (iOS/iPad/iPhone) apps. Benetech's digital Bookshare library is currently using Poet to add image descriptions for its accessible ebooks used by people with print disabilities.

Images 133

Images Student Accessibility Content 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

They send Bookshare the same digital book files that they provide to Amazon, Apple or Barnes and Noble. These publishers eliminate the laborious steps of scanning and proofreading digital text by giving us permission to share the text with readers with disabilities.

Celebrate 145

Celebrate Google Literacy Library 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

You can read more about Martus and about our theory of change , but here’s the gist: with Martus, there’s no more reason to collect, transmit or store sensitive information about violations in vulnerable forms such as paper files and unencrypted hard drives.

Burma 168

Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 14, 2012

What if you could quickly and easily import data from other formats, like a Word document, PDF file or photograph? What if we made it easier to send data to Martus directly from a wide range of other tools, like your mobile device? What if you could just as easily get data out of Martus in a similarly wide range of formats?

Global 157

Global Group Thailand Burma 157

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

We developed strong relationships with publishers who share our values and voluntarily submit high quality digital files directly to Bookshare. By partnering with the Bookshare community, we reinvented the traditional library for people with print disabilities and brought modern ebook technology to this underserved community.

Develop 144

Develop Social Library eBook 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 21, 2006

There are a few extra steps involved: scan the book (take a digital picture of every page), OCR it (use software to convert the picture of letters back into letters stored in a digital file), clean up the text to get rid of scannos (that's when the OCR software guesses incorrectly and mistakes things like "S" for "5"), and then finally take that digital (..)

Library 100

Library Phoenix Accessibility Files 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 13, 2009

And in exchange, the SFWA encourages their members to voluntarily give Bookshare their content (high quality files remove/greatly reduce the danger of errors creeping in).

Accessibility 100

Accessibility eBook Amazon Audio 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2018

We can use the same ebook file to deliver the content ten different ways. It’s of course this last capability, flexibility, that is so powerful for people with disabilities.

Accessibility 135

Accessibility eBook People Copyright 135

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 17, 2006

Nonprofits with unrelated business income have to file Form 990-T instead of the "regular" 990. Within the nonprofit: If the business is "related," you won't have to pay unrelated business income tax (UBIT) on the profits from the business. Otherwise you may have to pay a tax on profits equal to the normal corporate tax rate.

Profit 100

Profit Nonprofit Listserv FAQ 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

This agreement would allow our Bookshare.org volunteers to do what they do best: turn these electronic files into accessible books for students with print disabilities. At what we all believe is the last meeting for this project, a lawyer for the largest educational publishing house in the U.S.

Washington 100

Washington Accessibility Student Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2013

When digital files of those books aren’t available, we have to convert the physical print books into an accessible form, like braille, large print or synthetic speech output. Unfortunately, since even the best scanner and best OCR software make mistakes, proofreading is essential for quality assurance.

Student 191

Student Volunteer Impact Classroom 191

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Or file a DMCA notice. Now, apparently, we can file a counter-notice. No need to send us a letter. Or do any real research. Just send out a bunch of notices and get all those pirates! Except, we’re not pirates. Sounds kind of un-American, doesn’t it?

eBook 277

eBook China Copyright Library 277

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 29, 2011

If the specific textbook is in the NIMAC, but not yet in the Bookshare library, an authorized user of the NIMAC must request for that textbook be assigned to Bookshare to be converted into a student-ready file. More than half of U.S.

Student 145

Student Accessibility New Jersey Learning 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2016

Fundamentally, the Arkenstone Reader allowed blind people to create their own personal ebook as a text file that could be read in something like Microsoft Word. The Bookshare breakthrough depended on three innovations. The first was the ebook. These formats now underpin the ebook industry of today.

Change 100

Change eBook United States Conservancy 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

A Guest Beneblog by Anita Gohdes, Jeff Klingner, Megan Price and Patrick Ball The recent release of almost 400,000 secret US military files on the war in Iraq through Wikileaks has attracted wide media coverage.

Iraq 134

Iraq Data Timor Press 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 25, 2010

But, the images are slightly different in many of these cases: they are the same image, but not the exact same image file. This involves a kind of pattern recognition technology that Microsoft calls PhotoDNA , which recognizes that this new file is a highly similar to a known image of child porn.

Cisco 118

Cisco Images Files Children 118