Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Benetech’s Bookshare library continues to expand its international service providing accessible books and publications to members in more than 30 countries. These partners include the Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille (NLB), the Hoerbuecherei des OSBV Talking Book Library in Austria, and the Dorina Nowill Foundation in Brazil.?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

Thus far, more than 75 countries have signed the Treaty, and in June India became the first country to ratify it. We hope that many other countries will follow India’s ratification. Furthermore, the accessibility community can work together to prepare the ground for providing accessible books for people around the world.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

For example, one proposed change to the Treaty draft would make it the responsibility of an exporting library to need to know details about the publishing status of a book in another country before we could fill a request from a bona fide person with a print disability from that country. For what am I advocating?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Libraries for people who are blind or dyslexic are the primary source of accessible books in audio, large print or braille. But, some companies want to empty the library shelves and insist that only books that can’t be purchased are allowed to be stocked in such libraries. Bookshare was created under the Section 121 U.S.

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Get Fully Funded

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

For the purposes of our exercise, let’s say our story takes place in India. In a small village in India, 9 year-old Fatima lives in a tiny hut with her parents Priya and Amit. Please give so that we can end childhood hunger in India and help these children realize their full potential. Setting: This is where your story happens.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2015

We’re doing a ton of work with partners in India , the first country to ratify it, to allow people in India to take full advantage of India’s now-favorable copyright environment. Additionally, we have over 200,000 copyrighted accessible book titles already available in most countries in the world.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 16, 2011

Canada, Europe and India. Bookshare has successfully piloted an international library for the blind, but we’ve barely begun to remedy the global book famine. These include 6 of the top 10 publishers in the U.S.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2010

with print disabilities, with more than 70,000 copyrighted works in our library, the majority of which have been created under the US copyright exception by volunteers, mainly people with disabilities themselves, helping each other. • We now have global permissions for around 8,000 copyrighted books out of our 70,000. •

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Global Giving

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Raising money for personal causes, and medical fundraising, in particular, is having a moment in places like India with crowdfunding websites like GlobalGiving’s partner, Impact Guru. Just last month, Google launched Tez , an “audio QR” payment solution for mobile phone users in India. 1,171,000,000.

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India Kenya Indonesia Bangladesh 52

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

Our Bookshare online library is continuing to multiply its impact. The Oak Foundation just awarded us a grant to provide accessible content to people with qualifying learning differences (like dyslexia) in Brazil, India, and the United Kingdom.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Thanks to the support of the EB team, we now have direct access to digital versions of many important reference series, along with the ability to provide these books to people with qualifying print disabilities in Canada, the UK, India and all over the world! We're working very hard on textbooks.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

But, I expect that 75% of the job will be about analyzing the legal issues from our programs, especially in our Global Literacy Program, which includes Bookshare, the largest digital library for the blind and dyslexic in the U.S., as well as our Human Rights Program, which supports activists fighting injustice around the world. What’s next?

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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. My biggest argument was the “library with holes” problem. The view of the World Blind Union was that the rightsholders (i.e.,

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

In the first installment of this series, I described the Bookshare International library and where we hope to take it next. We’ve already built a collection of titles in Hindi and Tamil, two of the most-spoken languages in India, and last summer we released our first accessible collection in Arabic.

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United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

However, as the founder of the Bookshare online library, we have a great deal at stake in how the Treaty gets implemented. Plus, it will especially help countries with less-developed libraries and services for people with disabilities by making it easier to tap large collections (like Bookshare) in other countries. Articles 5 and 6.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 3, 2010

Note from Beth: During my trip to India in February, I was introduced to a nonprofit children's book publisher in India, Pratham Books. “It was set up to fill a gap in the market for good quality, reasonably priced children’s books in a variety of Indian languages. India has a reading problem and the problem is two fold.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 18, 2008

The main reason for my visit to South India was the National Seminar on Print Access For All, which was organized by the dynamic Mr. Krishnaswamy. He's really helped us move forward with our India projects, thanks to our India project manager, Viji Dilip, who joined me there and who has made all of these great Chennai connections for us.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 14, 2012

Much of the “good” done throughout history has been financed by what one could call “repentant sinners,” such as Carnegie with his libraries, funded by the exploitation of labor in the days of the robber barons. Is the work in Africa worth the lives of those in India? Komen for the Cure is a perfect example of this conundrum.

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Tech Soup

JULY 18, 2017

TechSoup Global's new Local Impact Map is a trove of information on what nonprofits, NGOs, and libraries around the world are doing with their TechSoup-procured IT to further their missions. Orphans Getting an Elite Education in India. By far, the biggest set of stories are the ones from organizations that serve youth and children.

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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.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2008

The Times of India covered the story during my visit, Disabled in city help blind in US. Plus, as we get more permissions from India publishers, we'll be able to source English language books locally. I assume that this is like what Google Books uses to scan library books. for proofreading in the future.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Bookshare is our large digital library for students with disabilities such as blindness or dyslexia. Steve went to India for more tests. In 2008, we were the first customer of Samasource as they were getting started. Samasource connected us with Daproim in Nairobi to proofread books for our Bookshare project.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 9, 2013

In this second installment of the three-part blog series (the first one is here ) on Bookshare International, I’m excited to share some of the ways in which our Bookshare library is part of the latest trends in the digital publishing world and is thus going deeper and serving many more people.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 6, 2006

I asked the folks there if they knew of less expensive accommodations, since the Taj Palace Hotel where the India Economic Summit was held was fabulous but also more than I'd ever paid per night in the U.S.! The meeting was held at what used to be the Viceroy of India's lodge in New Delhi, and steeped with history.

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Tech Soup

APRIL 30, 2012

TechSoup Global's new Local Impact Map is a trove of information on what lots of nonprofits, NGOs, and libraries around the world are doing with their TechSoup-procured-IT to further their missions. Orphans Getting an Elite Education in India. Here is just a sampling of what we have collected so far.

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Map Local Program Impact 65

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2014

I explained Benetech’s efforts to grow the impact of our Bookshare library globally, specifically discussing partnerships with groups in India and Kenya. As someone who has been writing software for blind people for 25 years, we were in my element!

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Tech Soup

APRIL 23, 2013

In 2005, Shannon Keith visited India and was confronted by the harsh realities of brothels and prostitution. Library book sales or "friends of the library" donations. However, setting up an online store hasn't necessarily been a simple or inexpensive thing to do for many nonprofits or public libraries.

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Tech Soup

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Check back throughout the month for blog posts, webinars, and dispatches from around the world on cloud computing for nonprofits, NGOs, and public libraries. Sign up for TechSoup's email newsletters and discover great resources, ideas, and donated technology for nonprofits and public libraries. Mark your calendar!

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Tech Soup

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

When we surveyed NGOs and libraries around the world this year about where they are in regard to using and needing cloud based IT services, we didn’t know how far things have gone toward cloud adoption. What Didn't Surprise Me.

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Tech Soup

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Check back throughout the month for blog posts, webinars, and dispatches from around the world on cloud computing for nonprofits, NGOs, and public libraries. Sign up for TechSoup's email newsletters and discover great resources, ideas, and donated technology for nonprofits and public libraries. Mark your calendar!

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United Kingdom San Francisco India Poland 44

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2010

I would class this as TVI (nearly identical) plus additional provisions creating a similar exception for schools, libraries and archives. Right now, it’s not in great shape: • No global exception norm, but voluntary agreement by rightsholders (that’s today’s status quo), with model agreements that are terrible from the nonprofit/library side.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 29, 2010

That shortchanges Larry’s background: he was the key leader in the campaign to eliminate smallpox in India, cofounded the Seva Foundation and a couple of high tech companies, and was most recently running Google.org. 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.

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Tech Soup

AUGUST 22, 2014

It is a moving one and a half minute video about the struggle of untouchable caste Dalit children in India to grow up and be as successful as more advantaged children. The Storymakers Campaign 2014 empowers nonprofits, libraries, and charities with the tools and training to tell their stories, get noticed, and make an impact.

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Tech Soup

JUNE 4, 2012

demonstrates what nonprofits, NGOs, and libraries around the world are doing with their TechSoup Global software donations to further their missions. It helps endangered Asian children get off the streets in Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, East Timor, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Our Local Impact Map.

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Global Giving

MARCH 7, 2019

dollars and British pounds, and donors in India and East Africa can contribute in their local currencies via our partnerships with ImpactGuru and M-Changa. Subscribe to get the best content from the Learn Library once a month. The Big Question. GlobalGiving accepts donations in U.S. Want more tips like this?

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Tech Soup

APRIL 19, 2012

TechSoup’s Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) has provided warrantied refurbished computers and other IT devices to nonprofits and libraries for seven years now. It made us think about ways we could bring good dependable low-cost computers to nonprofits and libraries. Refurbished Computers in the TechSoup Global Network.

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Tech Soup

APRIL 25, 2013

Each tweet chat covered a different facet of digital storytelling and featured storytelling experts and nonprofit and library participants. Participants advised understanding your audience and sharing the stories behind your program stats to make an impact.

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