Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 28, 2013

Today, I want to call on national governments, the international development organizations funded by governments and donor foundations, to invest in the capacity of authorized entities in each country. That is the miracle of a robust website: it doesn’t cost much more for it to serve twice, or even ten times, as many people.

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Library Government United States Accessibility 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

They were holding an international meeting of blindness groups around the campaign to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty in London during the days before the Geneva meeting. My experience with the international publishers was such that I expected there would be a way to work through this issue. I decided to follow through and attend.

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Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 22, 2010

Among the people I’m privileged to call a colleague here at Benetech is Viji Dilip, the International Program Coordinator for our Bookshare International service. When we received a grant from the Bernard Newcomb Foundation in 2007 to take Bookshare international, I asked Viji to become Bookshare’s International Program Coordinator.

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San Jose Profile India United Kingdom 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2015

The international legal landscape for people with these disabilities dramatically changed on June 28, 2013, when the World Intellectual Property Organization adopted the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. delegation signing the treaty.

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Copyright Law Library eBook 100

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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Spain Language America Law 151

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

Our Commitment is to increase service and expand the number of accessible books for blind people in India via our Bookshare International initiative. We expect to significantly improve access to books that blind people in India need for their education, employment and inclusion in society.

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Global India Mobile Impact 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

An expert on agricultural economics and spatial analysis, Jerry most recently served as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC, where he led major projects on food security and climate change issues.

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Open Source Open Illinois Model 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

Julie is not our only connection to Presidio: alum Kristina Pappas runs International Bookshare for Benetech. Current Presidio MBA student and Benetech team member Julie Noblitt wrote a generous blog post about the master class last week. Should be exciting to interact with more Presidio students!

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Classes Tech San Francisco Social 191

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

But with Benetech’s expanding involvement in major domestic and international intellectual property policy , we recognized that it was time to increase our capacity. She spent more than 15 years at major international law firms, including Jones Day and Dechert LLP.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2012

This technology and analysis is used by truth commissions, international criminal tribunals, and non-governmental human rights organizations around the world. Maintain and develop our team's internal groupware websites: a MoinMoin wiki, a rietveld code review deployment, and several small custom sites built on Django.

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Analysis Statistics Chart Language 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 5, 2013

I’ve been actively advocating for an international copyright exception model that would greatly benefit people with disabilities, as anyone who has read my blog over the years can attest! We could serve many more with a comparable international model. We help more than 250,000 people with print disabilities thanks to our U.S.

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Morocco United States Copyright Library 127

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 12, 2011

In Ghana, I greatly enjoyed meeting Peter Ackland, CEO of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. There are also significant challenges ahead and much more to do: reaching the 2020 milestone will depend on country leadership, international coordination, logistical and planning support, and adequate financing.

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Ghana Tanzania Kenya Africa 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 1, 2011

This portion was an internally focused effort based on conversations with our team. 4 We prefer open to proprietary (internal and external). Benetech seeks to be open internally and externally. 5 We think we can do more together (internally and externally). We came up with the following truths as part of that process.

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Literacy Articulate Open Source International 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

One year ago, on June 28, 2013, at a diplomatic conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO ) agreed on a historic international copyright exception for people with print disabilities.

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Accessibility Celebrate United States Copyright 194

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

students, we also serve adults, seniors, veterans, and international subscribers in over 40 countries. We’re going to demonstrate what this could look like by piloting Bookshare International at scale in India. While the majority of our members are U.S.

India 142

India Literacy Global Accessibility 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2014

Unfortunately, there is no HIPAA equivalent for international human rights and humanitarian information. Or think of sexual violence in an Internally Displaced Population camp. If you are identified as a rape survivor in many parts of the world, you are likely to experience extreme social stigma.

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Data Empowerment United States Government 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 29, 2016

From executives to summer interns, from engineers and product managers, to communications and outreach professionals, we have a wide range of opportunities. If you’ve been burning to use your considerable talents to make a difference, rather than make a lot of money, it’s time you considered joining our growing team.

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Money Children Problem Model 100

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. The second blog post looked at our growing Bookshare Spanish-language program.

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United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

It wasn’t until 1993, when a reconstruction of these events by American journalist Mark Danner first appeared in The New Yorker , that the full story of the El Mozote massacre was brought to light and sent shock waves through the international community. Dave suggested we rename our idea Martus, the Greek word for “witness.”

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Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

students with visual impairments, physical disabilities, and severe learning disabilities like dyslexia, but we also serve international members in nearly 50 countries and are working to extend Bookshare’s reach to veterans who need access to books and information. The majority of our members are U.S.

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Literacy eBook Global Audio 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

The Three Step Test This arcane bit of international copyright law caused a lot of concern among advocates that it might be a Trojan horse for more extensive commerciality requirements. Once the Treaty is in effect, we expect that existing Bookshare users will qualify under the Treaty’s terms for international accessibility.

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Copyright Law United States Library 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 7, 2011

Many of the police documents contained in the archive were created during the country’s internal armed conflict from 1960 to 1996, during which an estimated tens of thousands of Guatemalans disappeared. Benetech’s Human Rights Program was asked to help analyze the documents in this vast archive.

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Guatemala Statistics Analysis Sample 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 15, 2010

DC this week and Geneva next week (international copyright). I'm now on the road for more than 5 weeks on combo business trips and family vacation. As I headed out the door, I ran into Scott Rains and we had a picture taken of Scott in his Brazil jersey (after the U.S., I'm a big Brazil fan too).

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Brazil DC Copyright Picture 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2010

Most publishers don’t say yes or no. That is why we have exceptions: to lower transaction costs and secure the civil rights of people with disabilities to have equal opportunity • That is why we need a binding instrument that makes copyright exceptions a global norm, and allows for import and export of these materials. •

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South Africa Copyright Ghana India 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Bookshare International Yup, Bookshare now has Arabic books. Other new international partners in 2012 include the National Library of Korea, Royal New Zealand Institute for the Blind, Studiebogservice (Denmark), South African Library for the Blind, and Celia Library (Finland). Not just a couple, but 100 of them.

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Literacy Program United Arab Emirates Student 166

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

In addition, we acknowledged the critical support of Bernie Newcomb who helped fund our International Bookshare service. Bernie was represented last night by Marie Young of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The first publisher to donate books to Bookshare, years ahead of their peers, was O’Reilly Media.

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Celebrate Google Literacy Library 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

This is a guest blog from Anna Reid, an Amherst student who interned with Bookshare.org International this past summer. This summer I interned with an organization called Benetech , a U.S.-based I received a copy of her reflections and asked if I could share it with more people.

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Accessibility India United States International 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 21, 2010

This is the international forum for discussing copyright issues, and it is the body considering the Treaty for the Visually Impaired (TVI). I'm here in Geneva for the 20th Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights meeting.

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Copyright Paraguay Ecuador Brazil 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2011

After decades of human rights work to achieve justice for the victims and families who suffered forced disappearances, this recent ruling opens an opportunity for the Guatemalan court system to address the massive human rights crimes of the armed internal conflict.

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Guatemala Literacy Qatar Open Source 159

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

With this new capability for making audio files available, we have returned to the international field with many more books available to many more people on the device they actually have in their pocket or in their bag. We first extended Bookshare services internationally in 2008 with the launch of Bookshare in India.

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Fund India United States eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2013

Like many philanthropists and social entrepreneurs who are eager to make large-scale change, we found that redirecting government policy and funding to more effective approaches offers tremendous leverage for realizing national (and international) impact. Fast-forward six years.

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Advocacy Change Literacy DC 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 26, 2008

It's exciting to see these results from the dedication of Viji Dilip, our Bookshare International Program Manager, and our Indian partners. The Indian Express said Bookshare.org inks pact with three organisations in India. And, the Hindustan Times also talked about our Online Library for the Blind.

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India Press Library Accessibility 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

The next 10X opportunity is to go global, by ramping up Bookshare International to serve the millions of people with print disabilities worldwide. And we do this at a per-book cost less than one-tenth of the traditional approaches!

Literacy 158

Literacy eBook United Kingdom Accessibility 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 5, 2007

It seems clear from public statements that even the Google leadership feels internally conflicted at times regarding some of their own policy issues -- torn between fiduciary considerations and the real world complexities of operations in a politically-charged international arena.

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Google Attitude Policy Analysis 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

Speed Geeking at the Gates Foundation Global Library Program about Bookshare International 9/22 Stanford Social Innovation Review online webinar "Nonprofit, For-profit, or Something in Between?" Of course, I have other trips planned for just meetings as well. 9/19 (tomorrow!)

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Public Change Connecticut Cleveland 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2009

With President Obama expected to launch a new White House Office of Social Innovation, this seems like an opportune moment to get together with leaders from the social enterprise movement to help influence the national and international agenda! If this gets you interested, I hope to see you in New Orleans!

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Social Policy Advocacy Influence 104

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 6, 2006

Bookshare.org is going international, and India is one of our focus countries for this expansion. Benetech makes the engineering changes we have planned to make Bookshare.org adapted for the needs of international users, mainly around easy display of those titles available to international users.

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