Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 8, 2017

The fact that a government still may be able to get that data with enough expenditure of money in terms of people, technology and legal effort (warrants) is simply a fact of modern life. We just need to make it hard enough that they don't bother almost all of the time.

Facebook 186

Facebook Nigeria Amazon Government 186

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 13, 2010

There are a new wave of leaders who want business to both make money and do right by society and the planet. We need to do more with less money, and grapple with the big issues facing humanity. Business as usual hasn't been working out so well. Government as usual is changing fast, because it needs to.

Work 162

Work Hunger Amazon Government 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

So, if you’re searching for great data entry services for outsourcing, make your money work twice as hard like we do. We get great services from Daproim, and we know that our money is also supporting the development of the new Africa through its smart yet disadvantaged students!

Kenya 100

Kenya Social Student India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

How can we solve a centuries-old problem for so little money? Very few philanthropic opportunities come with the chance to solve a global problem with modest risk. This one does. We just need the resources to scale. Why is a global solution to the book famine possible now? We have the technology.

Global 109

Global eBook Library United States 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 15, 2009

The Authors Guild are pressing the cause of authors' rights to make more money (in theory). My take: Authors Guild: we want to insist that publishers turn off text-to-speech so our authors can make more money over how much they make from the standard text ebook. This is a case of dueling moral high grounds. Which would you choose?

Baltimore 124

Baltimore Authoring eBook Articulate 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

As a dog owner, I know that they can sometimes chew through money, but this was ridiculous! The funniest thing was her description of her prior dog's love of eating paper: the dog actually ate her Benetech paycheck. Our CFO, Teresa Throckmorton, explained that she switched Liz to being paid by wire transfers.

Guide 133

Guide Training Train Audience 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

His projection was that students were going to save more money on textbooks after three semesters of Flat World operations than investors had put into it. This practice was especially awarded at the ESR conference. David Wiley's keynote was on the social returns from a new venture he helped create, Flat World Knowledge.

Conference 100

Conference Social Utah Open Source 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 26, 2009

Carlos was realistic: you probably aren't going to get Social Innovation Fund money was his aside. The goal of the social innovation effort is not simply to be a source of money. Carlos then listed some of the different money available through the ARRA (stimulus bill). He mentioned Serve.gov as a part of this.

Policy 104

Policy Track Social National 104

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 28, 2013

Our goal is not to make money for private interests, but instead to use technology to maximize social good. We are a high tech organization that is not organized as a for-profit company, but instead as a nonprofit charitable corporation working to ensure technology serves all of humanity.

Library 225

Library Government United States Accessibility 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 3, 2009

My kids are borrowing money; I'm borrowing money. As someone with three kids in college, I'm used to the idea of educational loans. It's the American way of higher education! Outside the U.S., educational loans are not so common. And, education is the way out of poverty.

Education 100

Education Nicaragua Kiva Amazon 100

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.

SWF 140

SWF Group Asia Europe 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 28, 2009

Mint strike and sell these Louis Braille Silver Dollars , and some of the money goes to supporting Braille literacy. They have an image of Louis Braille (this is his bicentennial year) and actual raised dots (for the letters BRL which is the code for Braille) on the back of the coin.

Literacy 124

Literacy Game Government Images 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

This is why the making of accessible books is a classic example of market failure: if publishers could make a lot of money selling braille, large print, audio, and fully accessible textbooks, we wouldn’t need a copyright exception. It’s expensive to make braille books. It’s expensive to adapt textbooks to be accessible.

Copyright 158

Copyright India Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 15, 2010

What’s the tradeoff between saving time and saving money? When money goes from being unobtainium to merely tight, what travel restrictions do you loosen? So, how do you stretch your travel dollars? As a social entrepreneur who is typically on the road more than half the time, I find myself thinking about this a lot.

Tips 124

Tips Social New York City New York 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 25, 2008

You load up your phone with minutes with money. Why not trade your minutes for money back (for a small fee) or trade minutes with other people as payment for goods and services? And, Kenya is not the only country to discover this opportunity. The Philippines has had cell phone banking for years.

Kenya 100

Kenya Philippines Phone Consultant 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

But the reality is that people don’t even need to buy the scientific case for climate change to take actions that address the issue: wouldn’t everybody like to save money on energy efficiency if it was painless or easy? And, it’s not clear that making the scientific case is sufficient for people to change.

Classroom 162

Classroom Demonstration Student Contest 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

We really love this approach, which we think of making our money work twice. When we do something that creates entry level jobs in quantity, we reach out to social enterprise partners who specialize in job creation and training. We call this our social enterprise supply chain.

Laos 235

Laos Data Digital New York City 235

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2009

Bookaccess is where people with disabilities get their electronic books at reasonable prices, and the publisher makes some money. But, if the publisher is making money, and we're able to deliver an electronic book, why not deliver medical education content via the cellphone to nondisabled, but economically disadvantaged people?

Education 100

Education Africa Student Journal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2013

money than existing approaches. For example, we recognized that Congressional staffers, elected officials, and political appointees across the spectrum with few exceptions are excited about innovative approaches that better solve a social challenge with the same (or less!)

Advocacy 176

Advocacy Change Literacy DC 176

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 13, 2008

I frequently get asked by folks I know in the for-profit tech sector (where I come from), why we don't focus on making money. The team at Benetech seems very strong, and it seems clear we could go off and find a way to make big money. But, that's not Benetech.

Profit 100

Profit Issue Nonprofit Application 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 5, 2010

It’s not clear that money awards would be an important driver of this Phase: the gift of attention to the issue would be the main payoff. Some awards programs are around encouraging students and individual inventors: with the incentive being prestige or a minor amount of money ($5-10,000).

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Award Proposal Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 13, 2009

Most authors get very little money from their work and every new thing that pops up seems like one more thing chipped away from them. There have been occasions where new technology was introduced and the publishers made the money and the authors did not get a share. There are very few authors making the big bucks. The ship has sailed.

Accessibility 100

Accessibility eBook Amazon Audio 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

WIPO has allocated some money to this effort, and is expecting to start approaching donors to raise money for the ABC, now that it’s clear what the structure and activities will be.

Accessibility 247

Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

Just have to find some time and money to tackle them! Three of my peers had really great ideas for software for solving significant problems in their work, and I’m still excited about these possibilities for collaboration. Our commitment was selected as an exemplary approach to addressing a global challenge.

Global 134

Global India Mobile Impact 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2015

Our goal is not to make gobs of money, it’s to make maximum social impact while breaking even. You’ve come to the right place: Benetech. We are Silicon Valley’s deliberately nonprofit software company. Benetech is organized as a nonprofit, but run like a business.

Technology 100

Technology Literacy Social Uganda 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 18, 2011

Krista and I had a wide-ranging conversation, the kind that social entrepreneurs tend to have when they get together (like, how to get projects to have impact at scale and where to find the money to launch new projects and scale them).

Uganda 124

Uganda Africa Proposal Survey 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 27, 2010

I use examples like Victoria Hale’s nonprofit pharma companies, that take drug ideas that don’t make enough money for traditional pharma, but could save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Bangladesh 100

Bangladesh Proposal Switzerland Adopt 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 14, 2006

Because we're not a funder, we usually can't help new social entrepreneurs with their number one need, money. Most other health insurance-type groups would not be inclined to spend more money now to avoid a major negative health event years in the future. One of these projects is the Care Product Institute.

Application 100

Application Tech Test Measure 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 5, 2008

Unclaimed money in bank accounts -> social investment. He's a real pistol: challenging the Lloyd Bank folks to kick money in with him. London as a global social finance capital. Social investment wholesaler. Govt as a champion of SE. Another noteworthy speaker was Nigel Kershaw of the Big Issue Invest's Social Enterprise Venture Fund.

Social 100

Social United States Government Homeless 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

Ones that should make money in the long run, but may need a jump start. Or, they don't have as successful medical outcomes that translate into poor health or disability. I am convinced that there are many exciting social enterprises here.

Global 178

Global Technology Marketing Kenya 178

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

There is a new wave of leaders who want business to both make money and do right by society and the planet. And, the opportunities to do so have never been better. Business as usual, done without regard to the big picture for society, hasn't worked out so well.

Work 113

Work Social Hunger Government 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2018

At the end, I would have paid any amount of money for this new product. We’re convinced that not only do most people with disabilities prefer the dignity of being able to purchase their own ebooks, but that these features will make the publishers more money, because they make their product better for everybody. It was a magical hour.

Accessibility 135

Accessibility eBook People Copyright 135

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 18, 2008

You'll save money and aggravation. So, if you're getting started with something, and want to see if it has the option of really getting off the ground as a nonprofit, but you don't have millions of dollars (yet!), consider starting with a fiscal sponsor.

Resource 123

Resource San Francisco New York Sponsor 123

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 10, 2013

I urge social entrepreneurs and mission-driven businesses who have developed a solution that involves digital information to think about what Big Data will mean to their efforts: How can it make your services or products better, solve more of the problem, or do more with the same or less money?

Profit 171

Profit Data SWF Syria 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2006

We've already heard about a commitment from Microsoft that will help us meet this commitment, and we're busy working with other funders to help raise the money to make this happen. Benetech at CGI.

Global 100

Global Photo Authoring Tech 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 20, 2010

If you effectively stop all uses of knowledge that don't make lots of money, people will suffer needlessly. She focuses her efforts on taking drugs that can save thousands of lives and prevent untold suffering, but won't make enough money for a modern pharma company to pursue. Neither extreme will achieve a reasonable balance.

Proposal 100

Proposal Government University Switzerland 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 25, 2005

She just published an article, The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money , which zeroes in on many of the problems of the sector. It's a great argument for social enterprise, because earned income can be used in the ways that for-profits would invest money for growth and infrastructure.

Fund 100

Fund Profit Money Problem 100