Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

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. Julie is not our only connection to Presidio: alum Kristina Pappas runs International Bookshare for Benetech.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Today through Friday, November 22nd, you can give disabled veterans the gift of reading via Bookshare by joining Benetech’s Bookshare for Veterans crowdfunding campaign. Donations of any amount make a real difference when giving the gift of reading to our veterans.

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Support United States Literacy Brain 179

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 22, 2013

Address on receiving Caltech’s Distinguished Alumni Award May 18, 2013 Caltech was founded to give back to society through science and engineering, to discover knowledge and apply that knowledge. I want to advocate for “giving the sleeves off your vest” strategy!

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Syria Guatemala Open Source Lecture 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 4, 2014

I recently had the opportunity to give an interview for Red Hat’s online magazine, Opensource.com , and discuss Benetech’s culture of “open.” Adopting an open source philosophy has proven to be quite effective for us at Benetech in our work furthering technology-for-good.

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Open Source Open Social Interview 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 29, 2011

We were introduced to Steve and Daproim through the great offices of Leila Janah and Samasource, the "Give Work" people. I was happy to thank everybody for their work on behalf of our Bookshare members, and letting them know how important that work is for giving our members an equal shot at education.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 19, 2014

Our experience working with human rights defenders, especially LGBT and Tibetan groups, give us direct insights into these challenges. My comments were based on the recent HuffPo op-ed authored by Enrique Piracés and me, entitled Human Rights and the Duty to Protect Sensitive Data.

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Open Source Government Reflection Software 137

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2012

Diane said, I just wanted to give you some feedback on the new audio downloadable files. It gives me hope that eventually everyone can have access to both illustrations and good descriptions of the illustrations in the future. I love them. I know they take a bit longer to download, but they are of a very high quality.

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Comment Audio Files Evaluation 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 5, 2015

My daughter, Kate Fruchterman , will be returning briefly to the area the evening of June 17th to give a concert. I'm very excited (and proud) about an exciting concert coming up soon in Palo Alto.

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Italy Virginia Europe Foundation 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 8, 2017

I'm ok with Amazon hosting sensitive data for us because I know that we encrypt that data so that Amazon can't be pressured into giving up anything more than encrypted (scrambled) lumps of data.

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Facebook Nigeria Amazon Government 186

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2011

I stand in front of a building and pull out the item, and push a button on it or give a verbal command or a method from my wheelchair. I can give commands (as above) for different levels of info. The unit opens out to be a hologram.

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Info Tech Method Ideas 123

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

a11y accessibility blind blindness Bookshare DAISY ebooks education giving India Lavelle Fund for the Blind philanthropy print disabilities' We are deeply grateful to the Fund for its continued support and commitment to improving the lives of people with disabilities.

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Fund India United States eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2015

If you are someone with amazing skills who is looking for a way to give back using those talents, read on. If making top dollar is a personal requirement or the chance to make social good doesn’t make your heart sing, stop reading, we’re not your next gig.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 15, 2008

No one gives them prizes, The world don't know their names, But in someone's eyes they're heroes just the same. No one gives them prizes, The world don't know their names, But in someone's eyes they're heroes just the same You sit down to read e mail. She Turns on her computer. She'll work extra hard today. She doesn't stop for breaks.

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Listserv Volunteer Celebrate Mail 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 13, 2007

I'm heading down to Malibu next week to give the keynote for the 'Revolution Through Social Enterprise' Conference at Pepperdine. The amount of enthusiasm on campuses for socially relevant learning is terrific, and gives me great confidence for the future of the movement.

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Conference Social Classes Fun 100

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.

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Award Tech Technology Benefit 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 26, 2013

Silicon Valley has gotten very good at figuring out ways to make money while giving away the core product: these approaches have exciting analogs in the social sector. […] Intellectual property laws, at their best, can encourage technological advances, reward creativity and bring benefits to society.

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Internet Copyright Law Open Source 142

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

JANUARY 9, 2013

Digitization and globalization are giving rise to growing publishing markets that promise new business opportunities. We’re very excited to announce that Random House Mondadori has recently signed our Bookshare agreement, giving us world rights to their titles.

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Spain Language America Law 151

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

Betsy Beaumon, Carrie Karnos, Rick Costa and I visited the terrific Mozilla offices in Mountain View last Monday to give the team a big picture view of what Benetech does and present a range of volunteer projects that they could dive into right away.

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Volunteer Tutorial Open Source Info 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2010

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!)).) I’m finding whole herds of books I thought would be too frivolous ever to scan but that I secretly wanted to read but that that *I* would never scan because I would look silly.

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Library eBook Global National 156

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2008

Below is a story from the New York times that gives us a glimpse of what that world might be like - where two high school children, albeit with some good connections, can demonstrate that some NY sushi is not "kosher" - offering farmed tilapia at tuna prices.

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Costa Rica Taxonomy Sample New York 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 26, 2009

I'm going to be heading to Washington DC this week to give a talk at the National Press Club on Bookshare and our new partnerships with universities and publishers. We've just been able to confirm Allan Adler of the Association of American Publishers as one of the participants. Should be very interesting.

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Student DC Washington Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 8, 2009

This agreement gives us access to the last major frontier of equal access: reference works. Our dream at Bookshare has been that every student with a print disability has accessible versions of every book that would be available to their peers without disabilities. We have already gotten close on trade books: juvenile and teen literature.

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Support Teen India Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

It's a well established fact that reading with your kids helps give them a lifelong love of books, for instance. Sunday, really, is just another reminder that every day can be literacy day. And, we want to make sure every kid has equal access to the joys of reading!

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Literacy National Sponsor Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 17, 2012

So why not give Go Read some space in social networks? Therefore, the application will be extended to allow users to download newspapers and magazines as well as books. Integrate Social Network sharing Social Networks have become one of the very popular trends in the modern society. Users can share interesting books on social networks.

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Sri Lanka Google API Mentoring 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

This last November, I had the honor of giving a plenary talk at the Eighth General Assembly of the World Blind Union ( WBU ), in which I addressed these opportunities and the challenges ahead. WBU is the global organization representing the estimated 285 million people worldwide with vision impairments.

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Accessibility Global eBook Copyright 155

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

So, I thought I'd share what's coming up to give a flavor of where in the world Jim will be in the next two months (the other four talks are scheduled for next year already). I asked Joan Mellea, who keeps track of these and many other things at Benetech, about my upcoming speaking commitments: she quickly came up with fifteen!

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Public Change Connecticut Cleveland 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Yet, we are still far from where we need to be in order to give them equal opportunity to succeed in school and beyond. We have the technological innovations to help these children and their families and educators, who are looking for strategies to aid their success. In September 2007, the U.S.

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Student Accessibility Copyright Library 173

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 24, 2007

Amazon.com: Kindle This is the first ebook product that gives me a vision of where the book is going to go. And, while not perfect, it gives a vision of where this technology will go. I am imagining students with complete libraries without having to carry twenty pounds in their backpacks!

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Ipod eBook Flash New York 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

When I attend conferences to give a keynote, I usually try to stick around for more of the conference and listen in to the other presenters. I just got back form the Economic Self-Reliance Conference at Brigham Young University in Utah. This practice was especially awarded at the ESR conference.

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Conference Social Utah Open Source 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

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.

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Accessibility Content Open Copyright 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 21, 2009

When speaking about her, I forgot to give her this book, which earlier that day she'd agreed to proof next. [I And a very special thanks to one of our new Volunteers: Laurie Bechtler For those who missed Pavi's Volunteer Appreciation Event on Tuesday, Laurie attended as one of the volunteers.

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Volunteer Examples Work Authoring 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2014

The keys to unlock the encrypted data should be kept securely by the user, and not shared with third parties who can be hacked or forced to give up the keys to repressive governments. Take for example a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights-focused organization with which we work.

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Data Empowerment United States Government 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 22, 2010

But rather than making this an extensive essay on the glories of social media, I just want to give some examples from my UK trip, just from Twitter. Via Twitter, we set the time and he gives me the Tube stop (White City). I spend less than 15 minutes a day on social media, but the payoffs are huge! BBC tracks me down!

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Twitter SWF Social Media Literacy 118

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

With this three-part blog series on our expansion of the proven Bookshare model internationally, we’d like to give you a glimpse into the ways in which Benetech provides people with disabilities around the world equal access to knowledge.

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United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Carol explained that these smart students lacked the connections and people skills to get jobs after graduation, and that Daproim wanted to give them a leg up in going on to tech careers once they graduated from school and from working for Daproim. Unfortunately, early last year, Steve got sick.

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Kenya Social Student India 100

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.

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