Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 8, 2017

We need to implement security so that getting that data is not free and cheap to grab: we need to protect it with locks (data security) that raise the cost. When we collect data on vulnerable people about what makes them vulnerable, we owe it to them to treat their data with the respect we'd like our most sensitive data treated.

Facebook 186

Facebook Nigeria Amazon Government 186

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 6, 2013

Why You Do Want this Job: All the above. If you’re up for the challenge and want to change the world, or know someone who might fit the bill, please check out or share this job posting.

Job 238

Job Open Source Government Global 238

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

These new textbooks will be available to everybody, with or without a disability, for free, globally. I recently blogged about seeing David Wiley's talk about Flat World Knowledge, the open content textbook company (for-profit, but giving away the digital versions of their textbooks for free under CC licenses), at the BYU ESR conference.

Accessibility 150

Accessibility Open Content Copyright 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Bookshare also provides free reading technologies and apps for members to read the books they want in a variety of formats, including DAISY Text, DAISY Audio, Braille Ready Format, and MP3, on the device of their choice. The majority of our members are U.S.

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Literacy eBook Global Audio 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 31, 2011

Technology is advancing at such a pace that so many topics are possible, but to just name a few: Mobile (what might happen next!?)

Issue 198

Issue Technology Game Journal 198

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

We now offer a free, 30-day Bookshare membership trial to qualified veterans and are using our first-ever crowdfunding campaign to raise awareness of and support for Bookshare’s benefits for veterans. Here in the United States, we’re especially focusing on expanding our efforts to help more disabled veterans.

Support 179

Support United States Literacy Brain 179

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2009

For Bookshare, these are high quality textbooks that are free to everybody on the planet, that we can adapt to be highly accessible for people with disabilities. Parents, teachers, teachers-in-training, people with disabilities, people who can't read, people who just want to hear a book talk: they can all have these books for free!

Knowledge 100

Knowledge License Accessibility Demonstration 100

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 Malawi Zambia 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2013

Our library is made possible both by a domestic copyright exception that makes it possible for us to add any book requested by a blind person to our library, as well as strong cooperation with publishers who provide many of their books directly to our library for free, including the rights to serve people in certain other countries.

Library 203

Library United States Copyright Accessibility 203

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 28, 2013

Finally, I want to make an offer to each country delegation here in Marrakech: for the next year, my organization will offer free library cards to our Bookshare library to any five qualified Beneficiary Persons in your country, for direct distribution from Bookshare to them.

Library 225

Library Government United States Accessibility 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

We now have a free, open source reading app for you called Go Read. Things got even better in 2012 as we were able to work more closely with the Veterans Administration to get the word out and begin to offer free memberships to qualified veterans in their vocational rehabilitation programs. Have an Android device?

Literacy 166

Literacy Program United Arab Emirates Student 166

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 14, 2013

Gordon asked Brynjolfsson about the value of some of the innovations he mentioned in his talk, from highly intelligent machines like IBM’s Watson to free streamed music. TED curator Chris Anderson then engaged the two economists in a debate. At this point, I couldn’t help but think about my conversation with Sen.

Technology 129

Technology Pledge Music University 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 28, 2010

I just found out that our Bookshare volunteers can sign up to get a free day at a Disney park. Just put in our zip code "94306" at the foregoing link and you should see the opportunity there. Volunteers who do a chapter's worth of image descriptions for a student textbook will get their day pass.

Volunteer 100

Volunteer Chapter Student Images 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

We realized that our humanitarian free and open source software (HFOSS) partners had important roadmap projects with tremendous potential, but in many cases lacked the resources to design, prototype and develop them.

International 209

International San Francisco Open Source Global 209

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Our strong cryptography technology, Martus —a free, open source, secure information management tool-makes it easier for groups working with vulnerable populations keep the sensitive information they collect confidential.

Technology 192

Technology Open Source Data Guidelines 192

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

I learned it’s now possible to give immunizations and antibiotics with a needle-free injection system; to capture a blood smear on a small device, called a CellScope, send the image over a cell phone and get a diagnosis; to generate clean electricity for lights and gas for cooking from rice husks and that it is possible to change the world.

Award 145

Award Tech Technology Benefit 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 26, 2013

And, we frequently depend on the good will of companies and rights holders to provide us with free or inexpensive access to the assets that they control. Concepts like fair use, open source and open content make our work much easier, since they reduce the transaction costs for less lucrative uses of intellectual property.

Internet 142

Internet Copyright Law Open Source 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2010

Feel free to share this with whoever’s responsible for the awesomeness. Something called Zen Computer that gives you a meditation for every function key on the keyboard (the @ reminds you to consider your position in the universe!)).) Seriously, you guys rock. I love this new pace and all the variety. Best, Chancey Thanks, Chancey.

Library 156

Library eBook Global National 156

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 19, 2013

Please feel free to share any thoughts or comments with us. I hope you get involved personally and join us in our work to make the world a better place through technology. And I hope you like our new site! As always, your feedback is valuable to us. Please drop by again soon…and often! Kind Regards, Jim Fruchterman President & CEO.

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Site Press Accessibility Websites 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 17, 2012

Go Read is a free e-book reader that people with print disabilities can use to read Bookshare titles. I feel fortunate to work with a set of employees who are technically competent yet very friendly and helpful. My project is associated with the ‘Go Read’ Android application. Go Read searches for books based on title, author, etc.,

Sri Lanka 124

Sri Lanka Google API Mentoring 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Unfortunately, these technical protection mechanisms can’t tell the difference between making an illegal copy to sell or give away for free on the Internet, on the one hand, and making a copy for using text-to-speech to speak the content aloud or creating large print or braille versions of the content, on the other hand. Funders like the U.S.

Accessibility 155

Accessibility Global eBook Copyright 155

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

As a result, the Treaty closely follows the Chafee Amendment , which is the copyright exception that has made Bookshare possible in the United States. During the diplomatic conference, Bookshare was the most-cited model of what other countries could hope to achieve with the Treaty.

Accessibility 194

Accessibility Celebrate United States Copyright 194

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 16, 2011

For example, all residents with the qualifying disabilities in Australia, Denmark and Qatar, to pick just three examples, now have free access to Bookshare thanks to our joint efforts with local and national disability groups in these countries.

Qatar 154

Qatar Accessibility People Copyright 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 22, 2010

We're so excited about all this action that we announced today that we're celebrating the ADA by making Bookshare available free for three months to all Americans with qualifying disabilities (not just students). I think it's an example of the convening power the administration has to bring people together around addressing challenges.

DC 168

DC Demonstration Accessibility Policy 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2014

To make strong security accessible to the community involved in human rights documentation, we developed Martus —a free, open source, secure tool for collecting and managing sensitive information.

Data 176

Data Empowerment United States Government 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

To increase utilization of our Arabic collection, Mada offers free Bookshare memberships to qualified individuals in Qatar as well as training and advice on the use of assistive technology. We’d also like to thank the Mada Center team for its great support throughout this process.

United Arab Emirates 162

United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 10, 2011

Our Martus team trained two new partners focused on rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people : Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays , or J-FLAG and AIDS-Free World. Second, we strengthened the public debate about the free trade agreements that Colombia negotiates with the U.S.

International 150

International Guatemala Colombia Analysis 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 31, 2007

Four million items traded for free each month around the globe. The top group won a prize of $25,000, and that was Maplight, a group that connects political donations to legislative votes. Freecycle and Miro were the runners up. I love Freecycle! I think they could use more funding, too.

Netsquared 100

Netsquared Flickr Picture Fun 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

That work includes updates and upgrades to Martus , our free, open source software that enables human rights fieldworkers to securely document abuse that is occurring in dangerous environments. Benetech will of course continue the software and technology development that is the primary focus of our Human Rights Program.

Analysis 174

Analysis Project Open Source Analytics 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 5, 2007

So, feel free to visit and check it out. Miradi (the new name of what we used to call the e-Adaptive Management software) has been in beta test for a while and we've gotten great feedback from all over the world from environmental practitioners. We've just put Google Analytics on the site, and are playing with it.

Adwords 100

Adwords Conservancy Google Software 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

Feel free to join in the conversation and share your views on the topic. I'm having a conversation over at Social Edge on What Matters.

Work 113

Work Social Hunger Government 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2012

We use free and open source software whenever possible, but we're pragmatic and work with what our human rights monitoring and advocacy partners need, so our environment is a pretty eclectic mix. Maintain and develop our data deduplication (entity resolution) framework written in python and Java.

Analysis 150

Analysis Statistics Chart Language 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

We rely on free licenses to proprietary content and software, and typically get a “Yes!” We get a huge amount of pro bono assistance from the legal profession, both because of our social impact as a nonprofit, and because of the challenging and interesting issues we tackle. from the majority of IP owners we approach.

United States 134

United States Library Copyright License 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 2, 2006

It has information about the Route 66 concept and includes a pointer to a public demo site with free sample content. We just launched the Route 66 Literacy web site. I really appreciate the funding we have had for Route 66 from the Severns and Special Hope Foundations: it's made it possible for us to go this far.

Public 100

Public Literacy Sample Fund 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 15, 2010

I’ll be putting a few of my tactics into the mix as the conversation unfolds, such as: * How I learned to love Priceline for getting cheap four-star hotels $85 for four star hotels in DC and London! *

Tips 124

Tips Social New York City New York 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 22, 2013

Authorized entities are not advocates for the making of illegal copies, or the outlawing of TPMs, or wishing that all information were free. Use of TPMs by Authorized Entities The use of TPMs by authorized entities has been presented as somehow invalidating their concerns about TPMs, but this conclusion is logically flawed.

Measure 181

Measure Technology Audio eBook 181

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2007

Because Martus is free and open source software that does not require users to register with Benetech, these educated estimates of users are almost certainly underreported.

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Guatemala Burma Philippines Iraq 100