Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2013

At the core of our library is the electronic book, which can be easily converted into accessible formats for the blind, on computers, tablets, smartphones, electronic braille displays and simple phones and MP3 players, through Braille embossers and presses that create physical Braille books, and through creating large print.

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Library United States Copyright Accessibility 203

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

Rather, this is a hot-off-the-presses Smithsonian Magazine article about our Human Rights Data Analysis Group’s work in Guatamala. Inside naked light bulbs reveal bare cinder-block walls, stained concrete floors, desks and filing cabinets. Above all there is the musty odor of decaying paper.

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Guatemala California Press Analysis 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 8, 2009

It was exciting to note the publication of my big article on Benetech in MIT Press' Innovations journal. I just received the PDF and was able to post it on Benetech's site. As many of you know, I'm committed to doing a book (and am holed up at Caltech's Athenaeum this week working on it).

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PDF Journal Press History 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 26, 2008

We just announced the launching of Bookshare.org in India, and the response from the Indian press was immediate. The Times of India wrote For print-disabled, reading bestsellers is just a click away. The Indian Express said Bookshare.org inks pact with three organisations in India.

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India Press Library Accessibility 100

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 had the honor of attending CGI 2013 where I announced Benetech’s latest Commitment to Action.

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Global India Mobile Impact 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 10, 2011

How do we help decision-makers and the press get a better handle on what we know and don't know, and prevent people from leaping to the wrong conclusions (and by extension, taking the wrong actions)? We're lucky at Benetech to have very smart and engaged board.

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Literacy Disaster Phone Press 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2009

It's always exciting to be covered in the press, and AARP is an organization that has long been on our list of places from which we'd love to get coverage. These kinds of devices are much more like the tape recorders and CD players with which non-PC users are familiar.

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eBook Children Press Stream 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

There's even a quote from Governor Schwarzenegger in the press release! Our new announcement about the Department granting Bookshare supplemental funding to convert open content textbooks to accessible formats went over very well. We're promising to do highly accessible versions of 80 open content textbooks.

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Accessibility Open Content Copyright 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 25, 2012

José Suasnabar, Assistant Director of the non-governmental Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG), told the Inter Press Service (IPS) that investigators have found records in the Archive that will help them identify bodies buried in unmarked graves.

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National Guatemala Texas Online 206

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 3, 2009

This is what I think about when I dream about Raising the Floor with technology: finding ways to meet society's most pressing problems with the brains and resources of the tech community. Oh, and Vittana needs financial support for its operations as it scales up to viability.

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Education Nicaragua Kiva Brain 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Launching the new version of the website has been exciting, and I was happy to see a great blog post on the new capabilities from the National Braille Press' blog. Bookshare is doing great. We're also on a roll on many other fronts.

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Kenya Florida DC Washington 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2009

The press release on the appointment has much more detail. Betsy Beaumon, formerly of BEA Systems and numerous other high tech roles (including founding her own social enterprise in the 1990s), has joined us as our new Vice President and General Manager of Literacy Programs.

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Leadership Literacy News Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 15, 2009

The Authors Guild are pressing the cause of authors' rights to make more money (in theory). President Marc Mauer of the National Federation of the Blind just had an excellent op ed published by the Baltimore Sun entitled Bias against blind book lovers. Mauer does a great job in capturing the advocacy position of the Reading Rights Coalition.

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Baltimore Authoring Articulate eBook 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 6, 2006

Wired News: Coders Bare Invasion Death Count We have gotten excellent press for our human rights program lately. Our work in human rights depends on the press to get the word out to many people, since there isn't a strong business case for doing advertising of our work!

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Timor News Africa Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 5, 2008

press release for more information. Miradi 2.0 is the first public release of this software that was created as a joint venture between Benetech and CMP, a consortium of global conservation organizations committed to improving the practice of conservation. Miradi was beta tested by over 600 users in over 80 countries prior to the 2.0

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Conservancy Press Software Environment 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2009

Disability advocates should, at minimum, press for a seat at the ACTA table. The contention that piracy of movies, music and books is a national security issue that necessitates secrecy is implausible to say the least (but it’s the current Administration excuse).

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Accessibility Adobe Copyright eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 6, 2009

The TRC’s final report has been covered extensively in the press. Much of the press coverage of the TRC Final Report -- both national and international -- has focused on the TRC's recommendation regarding President Sirleaf. In that light, I would like to clarify one misunderstanding that has been repeated in the press.

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Liberia Statistics Analysis United States 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 6, 2006

On January 4, some of the key statistical findings were disclosed in a press release that corrects some of the incorrect press reports. There have been many articles about what the report does or does not say, and Benetech human rights team has not been able to comment because of the still-confidential nature of the report.

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Timor Statistics Press History 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2007

We issued our first official press release about the award and immediately had a great article in the San Jose Mercury News. I think we've signed up more schools and students for Bookshare.org in the last three weeks than in the last three years! We're hiring like crazy: we have more than ten job openings posted. 99,999 more books to go!

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San Jose Award Student Proposal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2012

Check out recent press coverage of our work, featuring the head of our human rights team, Dr. Patrick Ball, in Foreign Policy magazine and NPR's On The Media. This technology and analysis is used by truth commissions, international criminal tribunals, and non-governmental human rights organizations around the world.

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Analysis Statistics Chart Language 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 8, 2006

We were delighted by the feedback from the users and the C·A·R staff about the results, and we're planning to press ahead to raise money to take this project to the next stage.

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Literacy California Press Children 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 12, 2014

The imperative to make images accessible to individuals with disabilities is becoming increasingly pressing as digital content is quickly shifting to include richer, more visual components, and is especially critical for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education.

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Accessibility Copyright Law Library 205

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We want to address pressing social challenges by prototyping new tools in areas outside our established programs as well as better serving and empowering our current user communities. Lastly, we want to go beyond what we can do on our own by igniting the larger tech community to engage in deploying technology for good.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2010

Last night I had the privilege of attending the Breakthrough Philanthropy event put on by Peter Thiel's foundation, covered in the local press with articles like "Silicon Valley billionaire backs futuristic philanthropy" from the San Jose Mercury News. The foundation spotlighted eight unusual nonprofit groups.

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Philanthropy Foundation San Jose Studies 206

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 14, 2006

Here's the press release from Skoll announcing all of this year's Skoll Award winners: Skoll Foundation Awards $16 Million to Nonprofits Around the World in Support of Social Entrepreneurship. The Benetech team is very excited about what this means for us and the communities we serve.

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Support Award Press Reflection 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 11, 2006

For more information, check these links: Benetech's press release. This is core Benetech work: using science and technology to measure human rights abuse and provide careful analysis of the scale of such violations. Benetech Report. The data.

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Timor Hunger Statistics Analysis 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

Bookshare also works with large trade publishers such as HarperCollins, Random House, Scholastic, international publishers like the IMF, World Bank and Brookings, twenty-two university presses, and more than one hundred and fifty other publishers.

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Celebrate Google Literacy Library 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

We established Benetech Labs because we needed the space and flexibility to explore new software-for-good ideas with the potential to successfully meet pressing social needs. Oftentimes, that person is a potential customer for the solution requested. The typical for-profit incubator has a funnel of startup teams.

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Technology Profit Application Method 163

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 22, 2010

She was told that a brain tumor was pressing on her optic nerve and may cause her to become blind. After receiving an MBA and CPA from San Jose State in 1995, and working for Hewlett-Packard and several tech startups, Viji received an unexpected diagnosis from her doctor. I said to myself what if?”

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San Jose Profile India United Kingdom 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 18, 2006

To date, the history of state violence in Guatemala has been understood primarily through accounts by victims, witnesses, and the press, because these were the main sources of available data. The knowledge gained in the pilot will to guide the overall design and implementation of a large-scale scientific study.

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Guatemala Statistics National Sample 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 21, 2005

Here's an article from the Milwaukee press on the event: When non-profits cash in. He encouraged us to found a new sector that isn't nonprofit and isn't for profit, but is somewhere in the middle. I've heard other people advocate for a "for-benefit" sector before.

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Milwaukee Press Profit Conference 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 20, 2007

This recent setback underscores the pressing need for the human rights movement not overstate the scale of atrocities. In other cases, however, these attacks come from apologists and defenders of individuals who are indeed guilty of humanity's most heinous crimes.

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Darfur New York Analysis Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

As the one American person at the meeting, I also noted the subtitle of the World Blind Union's press release on the latest negotiations: “Talks in the balance: EU backs treaty leaving USA isolated."

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eBook Library Alternative Authoring 193

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 24, 2006

Many were picked through national efforts co-managed by the Schwab Foundation and major press outlets in each country. That's easy for him to do because he founded the Forum! Forty Schwab SEs are here, and a bunch of them are new. For example, one of the issues we talked about was succession planning.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

Image by the National Braille Press, a DIAGRAM subcontract. Through this R&D Center, we are working to revolutionize the availability of accessible images and tactile graphics by targeting standards and developing open source tools that help close the gap between what technology can do automatically and what requires expert human work.

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Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 30, 2006

The Global Social Venture Competition is a great event: bringing the talents of business school students from around the world to bear on society's pressing problems. I have been a judge twice in the last five years, and the quality of the business plans being judged has simply soared over that time period.

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Global San Francisco Social Student 100