Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 14, 2006

I enjoy sharing (when I get permission to) the stories of new social tech ventures that visit Benetech. Because we're not a funder, we usually can't help new social entrepreneurs with their number one need, money. But, we can be a sounding board for new projects and help them on their path to using technology to make the world a better place.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 27, 2006

It's the biggest disability tech conference of the year in the U.S., I enjoyed the Bookshare.org community meeting, where we had users, assistive tech vendors, staff and volunteers. Last week's CSUN conference was great. and there was lots of exciting things happening. The biggest highlight was talking to Jim Barbour of Google.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 28, 2014

Gerardo’s contributions related to the Benetech Global Literacy Program include: Overseeing the building of the tech infrastructure that has taken Bookshare from serving tens of thousands of members to over 300,000 members, with a rapidly growing collection of 280,000+ accessible ebooks.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Our books will play on whatever tech the reader has in hand, even a $10 MP3 player. Read my recent posts that provide guidance and ideas for successful tech philanthropists: You Can Help Us Strengthen the Social Safety Net Tech Entrepreneurs Can Change the World through Philanthropy. We have the technology. We have the ebooks.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 24, 2018

When I explained that our board just didn’t see manufacturing reading machines for the blind making financial sense for a for-profit company, Gerry said “How about you set up a deliberately nonprofit tech company?”

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

We just got terrific coverage from CBS Evening News of our Bookshare.org project. It is really exciting when a news team takes the time to dig in and understand the story. Our team is thrilled about the piece, and we're getting lots of phone calls and email as a result.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2015

Technology is playing an ever larger role in increasing respect for human rights and delivering better services, and we have two rare opportunities to lead world-class tech-for-good programs. Our Benetech Labs is busy looking for the next tech social enterprises that could make similar global impact.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 22, 2013

Now, as a successful tech entrepreneur, I’ve benefited from California’s incredible venture machine, which creates immense value for individuals and for society. The thrill of solving problems, of figuring something out, and bringing that understanding into the service of humanity.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2012

The tech community has immense power in the global battle for human rights. Tech companies supply the tools to help repressive governments suppress human rights and access to information. His oped, When It Comes to Human Rights, There Are No Online Security Shortcuts , was just published on Wired.com.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2013

From my college dorm room, where I thought that pattern recognition could do more than target missiles, to my first successful high tech company where we built technology that could read just about any font without training, to Benetech’s founding with the Arkenstone reading machine for the blind. That was over 24 years ago!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 13, 2010

I was impressed when I heard Tim O'Reilly recommending to all tech folks last year that they Work on Stuff that Matters. Tim's point wasn't that all tech developers should go to work for nonprofits, it was that people should step back and think about what matters to them.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 27, 2014

We build our tech-for-good products and reach dollar-by-dollar, and therefore every gift makes a difference for the people we serve. Hosted on the Crowdrise platform, the Challenge launched today, October 27, and runs through December 5th. Now, with the Skoll Foundation’s matching support, your gift will have far more impact!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

We may be a nonprofit, but we’re also a tech company: in ten years, we shouldn’t be doing what we’re doing today! We're looking for someone with great human rights experience with tech cred, or someone with great tech experience with human rights/social justice cred!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 19, 2013

For example, a recent project of hers is Startup Box: South Bronx, or [SB] 2 —a nonprofit startup incubator and tech education center that aims to connect the creativity of the South Bronx with the power of the tech industry by bringing together students, startups and community members. [SB]

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2013

For many years, people frequently suggested that Benetech , the nonprofit tech company I founded and lead, get more involved in Washington, DC policy and legislative action. Benetech was founded to be a different kind of Silicon Valley tech company—a nonprofit dedicated to creating social change at scale.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 25, 2014

Bottom-Up Innovation Joi’s new motto underscores the need for more than just tech demos to change the world. We build software applications focused exclusively on addressing unmet social needs and see hundreds of ideas for tech applications for good for each one that we can create. This post originally appeared on CSRwire TalkBack.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 30, 2014

can now be configured in less than 10 minutes by anyone with basic digital literacy skills, so that even less tech-savvy users can easily and quickly implement Martus’ secure documentation capabilities with distributed backup. The biggest highlight of this release is that Martus 4.5

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2016

As a geek who is trying to apply tech for good, it is instructive to hear the critiques. And that tech innovations are not done to people, but intimately depend on people for any impact they successfully make. Of course, from my long experience in the field, I didn’t find Toyama’s choice of targets all that surprising.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

We believe that there’s no better way to engage brilliant leaders from tech, business, and finance than in a brainstorm about early stage tech venture ideas. Conclusion Benetech continues to live up to its founding promise to be a different kind of tech company—a nonprofit with a pure focus on developing technology for the social good.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2011

But it's tech-time sci fi. It would be immediately updated when turned on, via some sort of satellite or other new tech for indoors. You have blogged about various funders looking for those "great leaps of imagination", that if created, could make a huge benefit to people. My idea has likely been floated already, I have no idea.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 1, 2016

Forcing tech companies to weaken their products through compelling the creation of backdoors would be a massive step backwards. And Silicon Valley understands it as such a moment for the tech industry generally. It is now incumbent on Silicon Valley to remedy this situation. and globally.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 29, 2016

If you have read this far because this is what you are truly wishing for in your career directions, or because you know of someone great who has been dreaming our shared dream of tech for good, check out our list of openings. We would love to hear from you!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 13, 2015

It is full of examples of interesting ed tech from for-profits and nonprofits, as well as local, state and federal government agencies. I just finished reading the National Education Technology Plan , and I can recommend it to anyone interested in the future of technology in American education.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 31, 2011

JVIB is the peer-reviewed journal of record in the field of vision loss, and a past tech issue in 2003 featured my article, In the Palm of Your Hand, a vision of what mobile devices would mean for blind people in the future (a future that has already happened, of course!).

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 4, 2015

We have incredibly generous matching grants from two of our dedicated tech entrepreneur supporters, Bernie Newcomb and Lata Krishnan. Tomorrow is an exciting day for our Bookshare online library for students with dyslexia or visual impairments.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 10, 2013

Unfortunately, most companies won’t pursue projects without the promise of big profits and the people who need tech tools the most often can’t afford them. Technology has the potential to improve the lives of millions across the world.

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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. Knight Foundation, our SocialCoding4Good initiative will kick off later this year.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

I was happy to offer Jerry some advice on that front and to discover that Benetech may be able to help with his efforts through our SocialCoding4Good initiative, which bridges the open source software, corporate tech, and nonprofit communities for social change.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

Chuck had been suggesting for quite a while that I come to Boulder both to speak to Naropa students and connect with the vibrant local tech scene. So, we go way back in our shared commitment to growing the social enterprise movement. I have half a dozen great connections as a result.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 26, 2011

I was able to meet those Tech students who really want to make a difference in the world, more than just figuring out the latest science or tech breakthrough (wonderful as that is). If you know a trucking company with a sustainability urge, send them towards Cole and his team!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

Here's my kick-off post for the thread: I was impressed when I heard Tim O'Reilly, one of the main thought leaders in information technology, recommending to all tech folks last year that they Work on Stuff that Matters. Life is too short to throw your professional life away on stuff you don't care about.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 28, 2013

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. At Benetech , we like to think of ourselves as part of Silicon Valley’s heart.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2015

How many tech companies can say that! However, Benetech is not a standard place! Consider what makes Benetech unique: Women Majority: The majority of Benetech’s executives, managers, professional staff and overall team are women. Rights-focused: Advancing the human rights of disadvantaged people is central to our work.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 3, 2011

Longtime Beneblog readers may remember my visit five years ago to Bangladesh, where I was able to visit and write about a cool tech social enterprise, bracNet. They were going to bring Bangladesh better wireless internet than exists in California, and they’ve done it.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

Benetech''s approach to developing social good tech enterprises. A project that is 20-30% better than the status quo won’t get our attention any more than it would get for-profit tech investor attention. Click on image to enlarge. There are more ways in which Benetech Labs differs from typical incubators.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

They are all coming out to the San Francisco Bay Area, a hotbed of tech and innovation, primarily to listen. In the tech area, Vivek Kundra noted that the annual IT budget of the federal government is $76 billion.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 18, 2008

Many folks ask us to be a fiscal sponsor for their social tech projects, but we've decided it would be a distraction from our core work, plus we're not experts in supporting other projects. I also know a tech project that has used the FJC Fiscal Sponsorship Program , based in New York. This is a qualified nonprofit (i.e.,

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