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. As a lifelong geek, I can’t imagine a more thrilling time to make this happen. My personal goal is to channel the aspirations of the technology community to do more social good.

Open Source 183

Open Source Africa Zimbabwe Malawi 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 30, 2013

Whether you''ve volunteered your time, made a financial contribution, attended one of our events, or helped to spread the word about the work we’re doing – thank you! Dear Friends of Benetech, As we wrap up another busy year, full of milestones and exciting accomplishments , we’d like to take a moment to simply say thank you.

Volunteer 138

Volunteer Ideas Business Support 138

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 28, 2012

Over the last 17 years, Kar and I crossed paths in Haiti, Guatemala, Colombia, and many times at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS. Every time we met, she had a story that taught me a little more about scientific ingenuity, integrity, and persistence.

Colombia 133

Colombia Guatemala Haiti Mentoring 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2014

Beyond debating the stimulating topics of major talks—such as Edward Snowden’s appearance by telepresence robot and t he response to it by Rick Ledgett , the Deputy Director of the NSA—I spent much of my time speaking about my favorite topic: technology for social good. This time, I jumped up!

Ideas 223

Ideas Kenya Brain Software 223

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Most recently, he served two roles at Next Issue Media, a magazine service platform founded by five global publishers (Rogers, Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, and Time Inc.) that designs, develops, markets, and delivers interactive magazine content to consumers through the digital device of their choice.

Award 186

Award Roles Leadership Profile 186

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 17, 2012

As for this project, with the limited time frame, I have limited the social network integration to Facebook and Twitter. I’ve collected experience on various aspects such as: communication, delivering code on time, managing a project on GitHub, setting up milestones and issues, and completing them on time.

Sri Lanka 124

Sri Lanka Google API Mentoring 124

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.

Accessibility 135

Accessibility eBook People Copyright 135

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.

Accessibility 247

Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

By the time she was hired as a proofreader and scanner in December 2008, Mayrie had played a key role in contributing more than 1,000 accessible books to the collection. She said her primary motivation when starting out with Bookshare was to help provide timely books for young adult and teen readers.

Teen 129

Teen Cancer Volunteer Accessibility 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 6, 2013

But how ingenious it is to apply this insight to reduce congestion-related costs (fuel, pollution, time) and, ultimately, congestion itself in urban areas with some of the world’s worst daily traffic jams! INSINC poster at Singapore''s train stations'

Singapore 129

Singapore Game Training Train 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

Bookshare, Benetech’s pioneering digital library for people with print disabilities, celebrated its 10th birthday last night with a terrific party that was attended by many of our long-time friends and supporters. Raman of Google Research, a long-time Bookshare member and advisor, was on hand to help us celebrate last night.

Celebrate 145

Celebrate Google Literacy Library 145

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. With the goal of promoting braille literacy, this landmark meeting brought together braille experts from around the world to Perkins’ campus in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Literacy 208

Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 19, 2013

At any given time we’ve got dozens of new ideas in our pipeline, coming from our extensive network of social innovators, social sector leaders and technology visionaries. This is a thrilling time for Benetech—we’ve got great momentum and are poised to have more impact than ever over the next few years.

Site 158

Site Accessibility Press Ideas 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

As a long-time advocate for a global copyright exception and the founder of Benetech—which I started twenty-five years ago in order to make technology tools to address the needs of people with print disabilities—I was thrilled to become an active player in global diplomacy and witness the adoption and signing of this landmark Treaty.

Accessibility 194

Accessibility Celebrate United States Copyright 194

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?

Tips 124

Tips Social New York City New York 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

I wrote a post at the time with the detailed suggestions from the expert group about the text of the draft. If you make it expensive and time consuming to help people with disabilities in other countries, with greater barriers to access than we have in our home countries, most libraries from rich countries won’t bother.

Copyright 158

Copyright India Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 29, 2016

If you’ve been burning to use your considerable talents to make a difference, rather than make a lot of money, it’s time you considered joining our growing team. Combining those three potent ingredients is how we change the world. We are looking for more than a dozen motivated individuals to make the leap to positive social impact.

Money 100

Money Children Problem Model 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 8, 2017

We just need to make it hard enough that they don't bother almost all of the time. 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. That's what we owe to the people we serve.

Facebook 186

Facebook Nigeria Amazon Government 186

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

By Patrick Ball On 14 February 2012, the New York Times reported that a Swiss team had found a weakness in a key algorithm used to make secure connections online. A key with an n with 232 digits (768 bits) was factored in 2009 using many years of computing time and dozens of computers spread around the world. What's the big picture?

Public 150

Public Generation Problem Analysis 150

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. During that time, we’ve grown from offering one product to offering many products and services, in four program areas: education, human rights, the environment, and, now, tech volunteerism.

Develop 144

Develop Social Library eBook 144

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.

Game 150

Game Roles Virtual Skills 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2015

Moreover, the UK, which is generally pro-Treaty, has political reasons to not bow to EU authority at this time. We also hope to lend our Bookshare online library infrastructure to developing world countries not currently able to build their own online library at this time. I joke that I’m the geek advisor to the activists.

Germany 100

Germany Mexico North America India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Our Bookshare library has over 550,000 books that have been delivered digitally over 10 million times. I have good news: For $5 million a year, we can build a global library that provides tens of millions of people around the world who are blind, low vision, or dyslexic free access to books that will work for them.

Global 109

Global eBook Library United States 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

At Benetech, we’re fortunate to have had long-time support from funders who have been willing to bet on us. That’s what a lot of foundations would love to see happen: in this case, it’s happened multiple times! What is it like for a nonprofit to have a successful, lasting partnership with a private philanthropic foundation?

Fund 100

Fund India United States eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Guest Beneblog by Megan Price New York City has many attractions – people often visit Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, among many other sights. On what days and at what time of day do the most pedestrian stops occur? I go to New York City to spend the weekend staring at my computer screen.

New York City 133

New York City New York San Francisco Analysis 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

During that time, HRDAG has also grown to a place where it can be self-sustaining. Our goal is to empower human rights and social justice groups to leverage their information assets for maximum impact: For current and near-term advocacy and for larger scale truth telling when the time is right.

Analysis 174

Analysis Project Open Source Analytics 174

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

First, Bookshare’s collection has surpassed a quarter of a million titles and, in fact, is growing so rapidly that at the time of writing this post it is almost at 300,000 titles! Recently Bookshare has reached two major milestones in its efforts to bring reading equality to disadvantaged populations around the world.

Literacy 129

Literacy eBook Global Audio 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

That’s why a group of Benetech supporters recently came together to give the gift of reading in honor of our long-time board member Jim Kleckner. It also demonstrates how each ebook that is added to the Bookshare collection is a brick in our members’ foundation of independence and inclusion.

Life 147

Life Gift eBook France 147

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2009

For me, this means I can invest more of my time in imagining the future of Benetech. Over the last year, I've spent half my time just on Bookshare, but Betsy Beaumon's arrival will allow me to worry less about the day-to-day operations, while gaining a partner for strategizing the future of our Literacy programs.

Leadership 100

Leadership Literacy News Press 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

However, the time has come when we need a really smart attorney to join Benetech and help us navigate the intersection of technology and social good. We are now looking for a half-time general counsel to join our team and manage the host of legal issues we are always investigating.

United States 134

United States Library Copyright License 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

New ideas for Benetech projects come to us from interesting people all the time. But, Rebecca passionately explained that this means that people die in the developing world all of the time from lack of medical gear (and medicine) that we take for granted in the rich world.

Global 178

Global Technology Marketing Kenya 178

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 6, 2010

By the time they'd removed more than six pints of blood in one day, he died. At the same time, we should be able to gather enough data to find out whether certain practices contribute to better outcomes. Nick Salafsky used the death of George Washington as an example of what happens when you don't use evidence in making decisions.

Conservancy 124

Conservancy Measure Effective Washington 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 21, 2016

I look forward to the next time I have a Skoll moment (maybe with the Dalai Lama in Oxford this spring?)! Children being born today should have every expectation of living on average at least 84 years! This is where the voices of Elders like Mary Robinson are especially powerful: awakening insights and inspiring action from all of us.

Hunger 100

Hunger Headline California Global 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 25, 2014

Now is the time to apply an agile approach to innovation—Joi Ito’s “Deploy or Die” at scale, if you will—to social sector problems. What’s new and timely is the opportunity to apply them globally with philanthropic support by making technology suitable and relevant to the lives of the world’s most underprivileged communities.

Paraguay 144

Paraguay Problem Application Global 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 26, 2011

When I can find the time, I jump at the opportunity to visit universities. Although he’s a few weeks away from graduating, he’s spending a huge amount of time on the SCI-Arc/Caltech joint entry in the international Social Decathlon competition. It stimulates the same pleasure center that brainstorming does for me! It’s so cool!

Student 133

Student DC University Washington 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2010

I spend time desperately trying to capture some of these insights myself, or give someone an action item (send me an email on that and I’ll do it). The goal of these devices is to provide educational and informational content to villages with limited resources: the player is loud enough to play for 20-40 people at one time.

South Africa 165

South Africa Bangladesh Norway Africa 165

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 26, 2008

The Times of India wrote For print-disabled, reading bestsellers is just a click away. And, the Hindustan Times also talked about our Online Library for the Blind. We just announced the launching of Bookshare.org in India, and the response from the Indian press was immediate.

India 100

India Press Library Accessibility 100