Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2011

The world’s problems are many, and we keep seeing opportunities for technologists to address those problems effectively. Led by Benetech’s VP of Engineering Gerardo Capiel, we will create an online space, SocialCoding4Good, where people in the tech community interested in social causes can volunteer ideas, connections, time and skills.

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Guatemala Literacy Qatar Open Source 159

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 8, 2017

Facebook has a handy way of reporting this exact problem and the fake account was suspended within minutes. We just need to make it hard enough that they don't bother almost all of the time. I quickly checked, and found that (of course) I already was Facebook friends with my old friend. That's what we owe to the people we serve.

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Facebook Nigeria Amazon Government 186

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2014

More and more of my time is spent around both raising money and raising awareness of how much more could be done with technology to increase social impact. We’re thrilled that today’s rapid changes in technology are opening up tremendous new ways to address the problems they face. To do so, we definitely need your help.

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Open Source Africa Zimbabwe Malawi 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 22, 2013

Caltech feeds an intense curiosity, a burning desire to understand, to grapple with hard problems and to own them! The thrill of solving problems, of figuring something out, and bringing that understanding into the service of humanity. People are immensely proud of their creations and would love to see them used to benefit more people.

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Syria Guatemala Open Source Lecture 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

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. Just have to find some time and money to tackle them! Our commitment was selected as an exemplary approach to addressing a global challenge.

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Global India Mobile Impact 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Ron Schultz's latest book, Creating Good Work Creating Good Work arrives at a critical time for the social entrepreneurial movement. When I first started pursuing the idea of using technology to solve challenging social problems, it was a pretty radical idea. I look forward to continuing the conversation the book has opened.

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Develop Social Library eBook 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 17, 2011

This system was extremely effective at communicating specific needs in a timely way that required very little additional infrastructure. One problem with this conclusion is that there are important areas of building damage where very few text messages were recorded, such as the neighborhood of Saint Antoine, east of the National Palace.

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Statistics Data Haiti Stream 263

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 24, 2011

The need to requalify for dyslexia services over and over again at great expense (thousands of dollars each time) to get accommodations in school and for testing came across as a huge problem. This seems to be an even bigger problem than I recognized.

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Rhode Island Learning Roles Course 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

However, there is a problem with this: market failure. I ran into this problem with my venture capitalists 25 years ago. We had invented the best character recognition available at that time, and it would have made a great reading machine for the blind possible. My favorite example is in the pharma area. Imagine two drugs.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 14, 2010

Rich Thesing, a long-time disability activist and fellow Fellow of the American Leadership Forum in Silicon Valley, has been thinking hard on how to make exercise equipment accessible. Rich's problem is that he can get his first foot onto the pedal and strapped in, but that he can't get his second foot in.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 27, 2014

Zach has Cerebral Palsy , which causes movement and coordination problems, and which keeps him from speaking and walking. Zach Bryant loves reading non-fiction. This wasn’t always the case, though. To communicate his thoughts, he uses an alternative augmentative communication device.

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Challenge eBook Social Ohio 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

As someone who travels roughly half the time, it’s important to provide some insight into what’s going on, especially since these meetings often influence where Benetech goes with our efforts. To paraphrase Mark Twain, I didn’t have time to write a short blog post, so I wrote a long one.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

Having lived in Silicon Valley for many years, I'm used to having that experience of being exposed to the future ahead of its time. They don't have a magic formula for how to do this, but do invest a great deal of time analyzing what makes people inside these games tick and how those concepts transfer to the workplace.

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Game Roles Virtual Skills 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 9, 2014

This is a hopeful time in the long arc of inclusive education. With today’s rapid technology and industry shifts, I believe that investments in innovations can open up new frontiers for tackling society’s toughest problems, including the education gap.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

The next time you set your digital device of choice to record your favorite show so you can watch it whenever you want, take a moment to be thankful that you’re protected from lawsuits from the entertainment industry. In the U.S., The Chafee Amendment has been crucial for this accomplishment.

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Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 10, 2009

in his New York Times essay Kindle Swindle? There's so much to talk about here with Amazon, so let me focus on just a few key points: The Closed Platform problem. The Textbook problem. The Textbook problem. The Closed Platform problem. The Textbook problem. Roy Blount Jr. Side note: I love this title!

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Amazon Accessibility eBook Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2016

Toyama offers up strong criticisms as well as constructive advice about how to best apply technology to social problems. At the same time, there are some flaws in his arguments that are worth pointing out. Smashing Icons Toyama’s central thesis is that we tend to overstate the benefits of technology as a magic bullet.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 9, 2009

I'm always interested in fresh approaches to social problems. What I like about her idea is that it's both simple and clever at the same time. The global climate crisis is one that is engaging a lot of creative brainpower. I've been tracking local researcher Leslie Field and her Ice911 concept for more than a year.

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Global Problem Reflection Ideas 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

They include struggling readers whose learning problems have never been fully diagnosed. public school population) who could benefit from accessible books but currently go without them or get them at great cost in both time and funds to schools and educators. There are some 7.5 million students (15% of the U.S.

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Student Accessibility Copyright Library 173

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 14, 2009

I had a blast in New Orleans revving up the crowd about this exciting time for the Social Enterprise Alliance and the movement. We’ve got a lot of problems. I want to talk to you today about this moment in time, this great opportunity for us. There are so many times when human beings are in need, and they need our charity.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 15, 2010

Here's how I kicked off the conversation: We spend a lot of time talking about the big picture issues around social change. As a social entrepreneur who is typically on the road more than half the time, I find myself thinking about this a lot. What’s the tradeoff between saving time and saving money?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 26, 2011

When I can find the time, I jump at the opportunity to visit universities. But, Caltech taught me how to size up a problem and model how a system works: skills that have been indispensable in both my entrepreneurial and social entrepreneurial pursuits! It stimulates the same pleasure center that brainstorming does for me! It’s so cool!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 14, 2011

The world has big problems. We invest time in sharing how Benetech and other technology social enterprises work, and write essays and articles on how to start and run social enterprises. (To [Note: this is part one of seven posts on the Benetech Truths.] We need fresh, original solutions that are better than the status quo.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

They have 250 part-time staff right now, and they want to grow to 800 staff by the end of 2016. No problem! Last week I was able to visit Nairobi, and I sat down with Carol to find out how we could help her. Her answer was simple: she simply needs more business. As she put it, “Steve’s dream was to see Daproim grow!”

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 30, 2012

I am also hopeful that the Benetech story inspires students to harness their unique skills, incredible creativity, and all the new technology at their disposal in order to create groundbreaking solutions that solve intractable social problems and serve all of humanity, not just the top 10 percent of the population.

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Award Lecture Social Student 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 19, 2013

Majora Carter is on a quest to save the world one community at a time. Of course, we talked about data entry and QA testing, but also less obvious and exciting alternatives that have great potential both to revitalize the South Bronx and address the problem of the loss of American manufacturing jobs.

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Local New York Culture Open Source 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

I really like Unreasonable’s approach to unlocking entrepreneurial potential to overcome our world’s greatest problems, and hope to find the time to participate as a mentor there. One very cool thing I learned was that the Unreasonable Institute will be hosted at Naropa for the next couple of years.

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Impact Colorado Social San Francisco 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

My biggest takeaway from the summit: the time could not be more urgent, and more hopeful, for the future of braille and the prospects of those who need it. This allows a much broader group of experts to keep working on the problem. The road toward full access for braille readers has a number of other hurdles that must be overcome.

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Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

I was amazed to learn about the ways in which AI has transformed itself over the first half century of its existence, as one of the preeminent human rights group of our time. I stuck around for the main closing meeting, where the history and future of AI was presented.

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International Asia Global University 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 17, 2007

The problem of many (most) social sector organizations is outreach (marketing, in business-speak). We have recently added advertising for our Miradi environmental biodiversity software, but for the first time we ran into problems at the outset. We've been a Google Grant partner for years.

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Google Grant Yahoo Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 7, 2008

Last year, the National Federation of the Blind took on Amazon.com about the accessibility of their website, which NFB felt at one time had been quite accessible, but which had declined in accessibility. And, Amazon hasn't made any indication I'm aware of to address this problem. I saw a man with low vision using a Kindle at NFB.

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Accessibility Dallas Amazon Advocacy 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2018

Today, we are poised at a moment in time where we can transcend the limitations of past book technologies and bring the power of books to all humans. At the time, my nonprofit social enterprise was the leading maker of reading machines for people who were blind or dyslexic, giving them the power to scan their own books and printed material.

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Accessibility eBook People Copyright 135

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 25, 2007

food aid played a big role in the destruction of Somalia couple of decades ago (helping lead to the continuing problems of today). The article shows how we manage to damage agricultural economies and the sustainability of countries with food aid, this time in Malawi.

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Africa Malawi America Children 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 18, 2010

We told the NHRC staff and the MacArthur Foundation, a long-time supporter of the Benetech Human Rights Program, that we would be happy to return for more training when the NHRC was ready. We addressed the problem of power outages in a much quieter way: by simply recognizing them in the information management process.

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Nigeria Training Train San Francisco 138

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 27, 2006

I've been working on Google's accessibility opportunities (and problems) for some time, and their CAPTCHA (the distorted letters you need to type in to get access) has been a huge problem for access for blind people.

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Conference Tech Google Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 14, 2013

Wofford and the conversation I witnessed between these two economists at TED reminded me of how this is such an exciting time for social enterprises—and especially for us at Benetech. We need that kind of change—for the good of all humanity! Both my conversation with Sen.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 10, 2005

The Mercury News ran a great story and quoted Peggy Gibbs, one of our execs: Old problems, new solutions : The Tech Museum Awards also provide a venue for many local foundations and non-profits to seek out new ideas and partners. And, as Peggy mentioned, we spent most of our time cooking up ways to collaborate with other Laureates!

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China Award Museum Tech 100