Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Daproim worked with TechnoServe and developed soft skills training modules for students who stuck with the work after an initial period. They focused even more on students, and built online resources that allowed them to recruit from across Kenya, including economic and social screening for the neediest students.

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Kenya Social Student India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 30, 2012

CASE offers a tremendous program for MBA students and alumni interested in applying their business skills for social purposes. I hope that in my lecture, I convince my listeners, especially students, that they don’t need technology degrees to succeed in high tech.

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Award Lecture Social Student 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

It would be exciting to explore the opportunity to bring SocialCoding4Good’s partners from corporate social responsibility (CSR) teams to lend their skills to improving food security and sustainability models. As it turns out, these models were originally developed decades ago and many are written in Fortran !

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Open Source Open Illinois Model 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2010

Maria was raised by the sisters of the local Chennai Church, given a basic education and was sent off to Worth Trust to learn life skills. The partner we chose, Worth Trust employs people with disabilities, in addition they conduct life skills classes and provide training.

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Skype India California Chart 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 27, 2014

Here are some examples of what we can accomplish with your contribution: Empower more individuals with disabilities to have equal opportunity to succeed in school, employment, and society; Embolden defenders of human rights in their fight against injustice and abuse; Match highly skilled tech volunteers with humanitarian organizations to deliver better (..)

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Challenge eBook Social Ohio 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 29, 2011

He notes that students with these backgrounds have already overcome great obstacles, and he sees that they have the skills and the motivation to do high quality data entry work. He wants to provide these students with a part-time job that provides for their school fees, the purchase of a PC and enough money to send some home.

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Kenya Student Africa University 228

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2015

You are someone who dreams about using your management and leadership skills and love of technology for social impact, exceeding the bounds of what a regular for-profit business can do. You’ve come to the right place: Benetech. We are Silicon Valley’s deliberately nonprofit software company.

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Technology Literacy Social Uganda 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 14, 2011

To create these breakthrough solutions, our team uses its skills to build upon the incredible talents and productivity of the larger tech community. We use technology to create products and projects that serve humanity where the market will fail to go because they offer modest financial returns.

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Technology Change Social Literacy 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

They punch a bunch of psychological tickets for humans: the game designers know what they're doing.

Game 150

Game Roles Virtual Skills 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 23, 2007

Ann's extensive experience as a journalist brings improved story telling to Benetech: combining our technical skills with the social impact that drives us. Bringing Ann on board has been a key part of improving our communications as an organization.

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Guatemala Photo National Skills 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

Although our social enterprise skills are strong, our specialty has been social applications of information technology. We just have to marshal some capital and know-how to lower the barriers to creating and distributing these products. I am not yet convinced that this is something Benetech should do, though.

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Global Technology Marketing Kenya 178

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 26, 2011

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! I no longer do any of the scientific work I was trained to do. The most exciting thread of the day concerned sustainability.

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Student DC University Washington 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2014

This fellow had relearned to walk and talk, but was frustrated by the loss of a specific cognitive skill: the ability to listen to numbers (like a phone number) and transcribe them. Last month, a good friend of mine connected me to someone who was recovering from a stroke.

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Ideas Kenya Brain Software 223

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2011

Children's reading skill is strongly correlated with their shoe size -- because older kids have bigger feet and tend to read better. Thus the correlation between the SMS feed and the building damage is an artifact or spurious correlation. Here are two other examples of confounding effects.

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Issue Data Haiti Stream 160

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 17, 2013

Martín has worked tirelessly to disseminate the social innovations he has created in Paraguay throughout the world.

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Paraguay Award Africa Conservancy 142

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 7, 2008

Many of Hadley China students are massage therapists trying to upgrade their skills by speaking English. There is still a feeling that blind people should become massage therapists. I actually got my first massage ever in Fuzhou at a blind massage place. English-speaking masseurs command higher wages because they can work with foreigners.

China 100

China Seattle University Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 25, 2007

It's an early prototype, but I could see the potential of this approach to teaching social skills for job readiness. It has broader applications, but we were definitely talking about using this for people with disabilities that affect their interpersonal behavior. The second project is from Australia.

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Social Australia Second Life Game 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 18, 2007

People with disabilities, seniors, the poor and those without strong reading skills are facing ever-increasing obstacles to technology use. Although many of us may feel like we're falling behind technologically, large groups of Californians face barriers that block their access to the online world.

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Sacramento Raise California Sound 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 11, 2006

They are very focused on education linked to vocational outcomes: the goal is to help these children move up the economic ladder with real job skills. The school has almost a dozen different social enterprises that provide access to these job skills. One of those areas is of course computers, and that's where AIF comes in.

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India Foundation Student Children 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 9, 2013

Developing and implementing growth opportunities with new digital partners require skill, expertise, and collaboration. Benetech is very fortunate to have Robin Seaman, our accomplished Director of Content Acquisition, as the driving force behind our expanding partnerships with the publishing community.

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Spain Language America Law 151

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2011

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

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

With more and more people participating in human rights documentation, it’s critical to get the tools and skills in their hands to do it safely, ethically and effectively. As our panelists pointed out, technology offers great opportunities for the human rights movement but also creates enormous challenges.

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Burma Analysis Guatemala Law 168

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 18, 2010

During this visit, I assessed the NHRC’s resources, conducted an initial Martus training, and made recommendations for how the organization could further strengthen the technology skills of their staff members. On my second trip to Abuja last October, we conducted a two week intensive training for the NHRC’s own instructors.

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Nigeria Training Train San Francisco 138

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 25, 2004

I'd love to find someone with both relevant business skills and a passion for serving humanity's needs! Alison Lingane, who did a great job of designing, launching and operating Bookshare.org for the last three years, has stepped down to take a job (outside Benetech) that involves less travel to better match her family priorities.

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Instruction Instructional Job Skills 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 6, 2006

Leaning almost entirely on India's technology skill base, the work needed to make the other 22 official Indian languages accessible starts. We believe that there is tremendous value in accessing content from India.

India 100

India Tunisia Language Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 22, 2007

Hadley-China students gain more self-confidence as their English skills improve. Therefore, the English chats play a large role in helping Chinese who are blind or visually impaired to become more competitive in the job market. They share stories about being blind with the English tutors, some of whom are blind themselves.

China 100

China Skype Student Empowerment 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 28, 2005

A Bookshare text is a book without barriers in more than one way. It can be read in large print, with synthesized speech, or in refreshable or embossed Braille. Bookshare partners with Braille Institute to provide, at cost, Braille hard copies of books for subscribers who need them).

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Bookmarking Student Demographics Alternative 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

Often there's a mismatch between the skills of a volunteer and the skills required by our projects. It turns out that leading tech companies are eager to have skills-based volunteer opportunities for their employees, especially those that advance social and humanitarian goals.

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Los Angeles Mobile Impact Technology 205

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 23, 2007

Toronto business school, talked about the need to drive new skills into the business school community, especially improving the teaching of entrepreneurship and trying to teach empathy. He also forecast an evolution in capital markets and a rise of intermediaries in the SE field. Roger Martin, dean of the U.

Social 100

Social South Africa India Global 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2006

Many don't yet have the skills to sell themselves, and that was something I thought that 90% of them could have improved upon. I had the privilege of attending all the social entrepreneur sessions, and learned a number of things. Everybody there is smart, passionate, and doing wonderful things for the world, but they're still human.

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Liechtenstein Switzerland China Austria 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

This is a complex biological task that’s difficult to self-teach: it requires the eyes and the brain to learn a new method of seeing, which means acquiring new habits and skills. The rod cells in the intact peripheral visual field can then take over for the cone cells in the damaged central visual field.

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People Help Tech Colorado 113

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 11, 2013

Our most recent initiative, SocialCoding4Good , and last week’s launch of its Corporate Partner Program , which offers companies a new, skills-based volunteering channel for employee engagement and their pro bono initiatives, is an example of this.

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Open Source Lesson Tech Project 118

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

One of their programs is to have restaurants that provide employment opportunities and skills development for street kids on their way out of poverty. Moreover, they were produced with techniques and skills that led to products unlike the millions of examples of mass produced products we saw in the tourist markets.

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Laos Asia Thailand Virginia 202

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 22, 2013

They face intense surveillance and state-sponsored harassment by skilled and well-resourced attackers who want access to their sensitive information and their network of contacts. Here’s why this grant is so important to us: Gathering the stories of victims and witnesses puts human rights fieldworkers and their sources at grave risk.

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Tools Program Fund News 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 16, 2018

And it will demand a new class of talent, skilled in helping strategize the software and data ecosystem for entire fields – not just a single organization. That people, and animals, and the planet are facing. I believe it will create a new opportunity for software and data geeks to give back collectively for massive impact.

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Software Data Change eBook 118

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 13, 2006

Rather than focusing exclusively on the top 10 percent of humanity who are the target market for most tech products, we could be bringing these same skills, connections, technology, experience and resources to everyone in the world. Perhaps, but when you use your heart, you don't have to check your brain at the door.

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San Jose Build Companies Help 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 11, 2014

They desperately need to use data better and multiply its impact, but they rarely have the skills or infrastructure to do so effectively. Yet, social enterprises arent typically made up of data geeks. A significant, but neglected, issue is the ethics of data collection and storage.

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Data Impact Open Source Mobile 187