Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 25, 2014

As I previously described in a Huffington Post op-ed , it was then that the idea struck me. Why is this idea exciting? These ideas aren’t mine: they are the ideas that come to our team at Benetech , a Silicon Valley nonprofit technology company that I founded. Technology for Good The list could go on and on.

Paraguay 144

Paraguay Problem Application Global 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2010

Three of the groups were loosely affiliated with Ray Kurzweil and his ideas around human uploading and the Singularity. I've not been a huge fan of Ray's somewhat dystopian ideas of the future of mankind. The groups each had four minutes to pitch their ideas. Only one didn't work at all for me: Singularity Institute.

Philanthropy 206

Philanthropy Foundation San Jose Studies 206

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 30, 2013

We hope you’ll join us as we continue to explore the next big ideas and make 2014 an even more successful year! Whether you''ve volunteered your time, made a financial contribution, attended one of our events, or helped to spread the word about the work we’re doing – thank you! We couldn’t do it without your support. Benetech'

Volunteer 138

Volunteer Ideas Business Support 138

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

At CGI Annual Meetings, leaders from across sectors do more than just developing new ideas or getting inspired: they come together to take real action to address pressing global challenges. I’ve just had the chance to reflect on how cool CGI 2013 and some of the ideas I’m still processing!

Global 134

Global India Mobile Impact 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2013

And when the idea of a peer-to-peer ebook library came to me, it was George who I went to with the idea. Isn’t that where good ideas go to die?” Even back then, we included information about his service in the box of each Arkenstone Reader because we knew people would rather not have to scan a book before reading it! Washington?

eBook 221

eBook Award Copyright Syria 221

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2010

Every table conversation brings a new perspective and a new idea: whether it’s new knowledge, a great contact or a new extension to the idea under discussion. 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.

South Africa 165

South Africa Bangladesh Norway Africa 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Our wonderful volunteers kicking off the Team-Up for Textbooks initiative Here’s the idea: through targeted outreach to parents, schools, and community partners, our staff members are recruiting volunteer teams to proofread student requested textbooks.

Student 171

Student Volunteer Team Help 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2011

She shoots me me very interesting ideas frequently, and I thought I'd share this one with my blog readers. My idea has likely been floated already, I have no idea. Maybe you can pass this idea off to someone who likes the headgame and might even pitch it to one of those funders…. Hi Jim, Busy, busy man. But why not????

Info 123

Info Tech Method Ideas 123

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2011

Our discussion of these projects and new ideas was exciting: the barriers to implementing new ideas with technology keep getting smaller. Given the election violence of a few years ago, this is a major area of work in Kenya to help prevent a re-occurrence. They've also done a similar project in Tanzania and Uganda.

Africa 151

Africa Tanzania Kenya Ghana 151

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 14, 2012

We’ve started chewing on the idea of secure user forums and other virtual watering holes to support the global network of users. From a technical perspective, the most exciting theme of the event was the idea of creating a Martus “ecosystem” of tools. In the meantime, we’re going to continue the conversations begun at the meeting.

Global 157

Global Group Thailand Burma 157

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 22, 2013

So, the student might be able to read only 60% of the relevant content, and have no idea about what the equations say. Textbooks in IDEA, the United States K-12 special education law The issue of TPMs is the biggest future-proofing question in the Treaty. In some markets, printed books are receding into the past.

Measure 181

Measure Technology Audio eBook 181

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2013

Isn’t that where good ideas go to die?” We’ve learned that there’s immense power in showing up in Washington with new ideas based on actual performance in the field—and that Washington is no less technical than Silicon Valley; the difference lies in what the famous scholar and activist Larry Lessig describes as “East Coast code” (laws) vs.

Advocacy 176

Advocacy Change Literacy Washington 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 6, 2010

His idea is straightforward: he believe the Middle East/North Africa region is ripe for values-centered for-profit social enterprises that can both make plenty of money and deliver social benefits. I know I'll be watching to see if Raja's bold idea takes root: seems like a promising approach to sustainable social good.

SWF 140

SWF Group Asia Europe 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

What I liked most was the idea to create a body of knowledge that’s truly helpful to prospective and emerging social entrepreneurs. When I first started pursuing the idea of using technology to solve challenging social problems, it was a pretty radical idea.

Develop 144

Develop Social Library eBook 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 1, 2012

Gather a group of social entrepreneurs to brainstorm ideas to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and you will harvest an array of innovative solutions. As example, one strong idea that came up was having staffing services and temp agencies establish benchmarks for hiring workers with disabilities.

Hosting 140

Hosting San Francisco Law Education 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 15, 2010

The conversation ranged over how to use Priceline, choosing socially responsible travel products and an idea for staying with other social entrepreneurs. I’m looking forward to getting new ideas from other people that can help us all do more with less. Do you have an example of penny-wise, pound foolish travel ideas that backfired? *

Tips 124

Tips Social New York City New York 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 24, 2011

Although the topic was on learning disabilities, one of the funders present had a strong interest in environmental ideas. I received a handful of people we should be talking to, and strong feedback on different aspect of our ideas.

Rhode Island 145

Rhode Island Learning Roles Course 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 13, 2015

Born accessible is a play on the term born digital and is used to convey the idea that materials that are born digital also can and should be born accessible. If producers adopt current industry standards for producing educational materials, materials will be accessible out of the box.

Education 100

Education National Technology Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 7, 2013

Our team is brimming with ideas for making that vision a reality. Of course, we have many more exciting ideas for transforming the lives of millions of people who could benefit from our services. We would love to be the technology back-end, enabling every country to have its local equivalent of what Bookshare is in the U.S.

India 225

India Literacy United Kingdom United States 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

We were all there thanks to the efforts of Drew Conway, Jake Porway, and Craig Barowsky (Data without Borders’s founders) who had the crazy idea of bringing together well-intentioned data analysts and non-profits with data in need of analysis. and some good ideas for next steps.

New York City 133

New York City New York San Francisco Analysis 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Read my recent posts that provide guidance and ideas for successful tech philanthropists: You Can Help Us Strengthen the Social Safety Net Tech Entrepreneurs Can Change the World through Philanthropy. We are now on the brink of solving this problem for tens of millions of people around the world. Let’s seize the opportunity!

Global 109

Global eBook Library United States 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

We called this idea Witness and, geeks that we were, immediately grabbed the Witness.org domain name. Dave suggested we rename our idea Martus, the Greek word for “witness.” We realized that the most effective tool to fight human rights abuse was the truth. We did just that and handed the Witness.org domain over to what is now WITNESS.

Burma 168

Burma Analysis Law Guatemala 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 30, 2012

What I like most about events like the lecture at CASE is the opportunity to meet with brilliant students, who will be developing amazing, cool ventures just a few years from now and who are already brimming with exciting ideas and plans.

Award 154

Award Lecture Social Student 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 19, 2013

One such idea I brought up is reshoring—that is, bringing well-paid factory jobs back home from overseas, and particularly to the South Bronx as a hub of local sourcing and production. Majora told me about her ideas of responding to the growing demand for semi-custom products and of small lot manufacturing for the fashion industry.

Local 129

Local New York Culture Open Source 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 5, 2010

There was special energy around the concept of climate adaptation: the idea that no matter what happens on controlling greenhouse gases (see, failure of Copenhagen), that climate change is already affecting the world and we will be having huge challenges adapting to that change.

Japan 113

Japan Technology Conservancy Proposal 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 6, 2010

I'm coming away with ideas and actions to work on with Jeremy Yoches, our Miradi product manager (who also noted a wealth of ideas and actions!). The final half of the meeting was around organizing working groups to tackle different aspects of making this change throughout the field.

Conservancy 124

Conservancy Measure Effective Washington 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 9, 2009

What I like about her idea is that it's both simple and clever at the same time. The idea is to cover portions of the Arctic Ocean with removable, reflective covers: sort of an artificial icecap. As a space nut, I've been interested in ideas to put up mirrors in orbit to reduce solar radiation hitting the earth by 1 or 2 percent.

Global 100

Global Problem Reflection Local 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2016

I often run into this thinking, where ideas which would not be taken seriously in business are suddenly sensible in social good. He notes: “the right people can work around a bad technology, but the wrong people will mess up even a good one.” Wishful thinking makes many people dream of quick fixes.

Laptop 100

Laptop Hype Ghana Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Previously she was an independent consultant working with The Chicago Council on Global Affairs on the 2012 NATO Summit, Chicago Ideas Week, news platform Syria Deeply and FEM Inc., Most recently, Nadine comes to Benetech from Water.org, where she developed and executed the organization’s public affairs strategy.

Team 167

Team Los Angeles San Francisco Chicago 167

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 7, 2012

This kind of funding is essential for innovation, for responding to time-critical opportunities, prototyping new ideas and getting them to the point where they are a saleable product to customers and/or issue-focused donors. Water.org pioneers new ways to bring capital to sanitation and clean water for people around the world.

Fund 154

Fund Social Liberia Money 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 3, 2011

In our conversation, George and his team outlined ways to use this hybrid approach for expanding social impact in Africa as well as new ideas for enterprises for following up on natural disasters in Asia for sustaining positive change after the immediate humanitarian response.

Public 140

Public Bangladesh San Francisco Asia 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 2, 2009

Last week I was in New York City and had the opportunity to meet with many interesting people (and got lots of ideas). One key connection was with Jed Emerson. Ten years ago, Jed was the head of REDF, the famous social enterprise foundation in San Francisco.

New York City 124

New York City San Francisco Impact Blended 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Bookshare: Solving the “Accessible Book Famine” Twelve years ago, we had an idea for recreating the traditional library for people with print disabilities—such as those who are blind, cannot physically turn the pages of a book, or have learning disabilities, like dyslexia—using the then-emerging technologies of digital books and crowdsourcing.

Copyright 196

Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 29, 2010

I had no idea when I agreed to the mentor gig that there would be something like this I actually know something (a lot) about. It’s great to see someone who is not yet 20 with many creative ideas about how to help, and the drive to make it happen. A veritable intellectual and social smorgasbord!

Conversation 100

Conversation Bangladesh Iraq Mentoring 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

We believe that there’s no better way to engage brilliant leaders from tech, business, and finance than in a brainstorm about early stage tech venture ideas. We already have many exciting ideas flow into the Labs. Not only does it raise risk capital for Benetech, but we also actually want the advice!

India 142

India Literacy Global Accessibility 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 1, 2014

If we can keep these principles in mind, we can turn good ideas into proven solutions with lasting impact. While the context and the users may vary in each case, the principles of human-centered design and treating others as we would like to be treated remain the same.

Technology 192

Technology Open Source Guidelines Data 192

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

We have some new ideas for software Benetech could be developing. We’ve been exploring the area of sustainability a great deal lately. But, one of our core values is to see what’s already out there and to not duplicate great work already being done. That means we frequently run into cool projects (and mentally check the box: taken care of!).

Classroom 162

Classroom Demonstration Student Contest 162