Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 6, 2013

Almost anyone from the human rights field will tell you that the work can be as rewarding as it is challenging. and work often with people in miserable conditions (yes, in both places!);

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 29, 2018

Born Accessible: Working with publishers to ensure that any new ebook is accessible to people who read differently - with the goal of one day making Bookshare obsolete. And there is plenty of work to do—look for more from me in the coming months where I’ll share my plans. I can assure you that I am not retiring.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 12, 2014

HathiTrust, a unanimous three-judge panel concluded that digitizing books in order to enhance research and provide access to individuals with print disabilities is lawful on the grounds of fair use —that is, a limitation and exception to the exclusive rights granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work ( Section 107 of the U.S.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

We really love this approach, which we think of making our money work twice. For example, our Bookshare online library for the blind, uses several different social enterprises to do data entry and proofreading work on textbooks. After the visit, we headed out for a nice lunch, where Phab had me work the tables talking to the students.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

The nexus for this work is the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations agency that deals with such matters. WIPO has a mandate from its member states, and is working to address the need to change laws and get more accessible books flowing. law works: the one that made Bookshare possible.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 29, 2011

We were introduced to Steve and Daproim through the great offices of Leila Janah and Samasource, the "Give Work" people. Leila's dream has been to connect the people of East Africa with dignified digital work, and connecting Steve to our Bookshare team has been highly successful for Daproim, Samasource and Bookshare!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 1, 2014

We must also put our technology innovations into the users’ hands, see what actually works, and adapt as necessary. Having long supported human rights activists, we know the importance of confidentiality when working with victims and witnesses. Let me explain further.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

For more than a decade, Nadine has worked at the intersection of policy and media in major markets including New York, Chicago and Washington, DC. When connecting with reporters, she draws heavily on her own experience working in the newsroom for leading PBS news programs.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 24, 2018

We worked together for over 35 years, from the very beginnings of my Silicon Valley career. Gerry enabled my life’s work in so many ways! I hope that Gerry’s family knows how much his contributions were appreciated by the Benetech team, and the millions of lives our work has touched. Gervaise Davis III, Esq.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2013

Helen Keller, who worked for AFB for many years, was on the original award board for its first twenty years, starting in 1937. The World Blind Union is working right now, with support from our community, to get a global treaty to help the blind, with a hopeful date of this June for that treaty to be concluded.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2014

From people in Latin America who face severe water scarcity to at-risk human rights defenders and students with disabilities, our users and their families are the ones who best convey the impact of our work. As we look forward to 2015, we recognize that much work remains to be done, and we definitely need your continued support.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 30, 2014

Our goal is to make it far easier for groups that work with vulnerable populations keep the sensitive information they collect confidential. Having long supported human rights activists, we know the importance of confidentiality when working with victims and witnesses. Last week, the Benetech Human Rights Program released version 4.5

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Literacy Journal Open Source Digital 164

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2018

The print book doesn’t work for people who are blind, partially sighted, dyslexic, have physical limitations, people who haven’t learned to read, or people who can’t read the particular language of a specific book is written in. The next challenge we’re working on is to bring this incredible library to the rest of the world.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2014

Will such an app work? If it worked, would it lead to behavior change that would save lives? He now lives in rural Kenya working on eye care. Andrew’s challenge wasn’t an empty one: his team could measure the effectiveness of interventions we might try and see how well they work.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 3, 2014

Over time, I learned more and more about her work and background. After all of these years, I now know that Jamila has been working hard on these issues, with minimal supports, as a very dedicated social entrepreneur. We learn from each other, and try to help each other when we can. She was the first woman bookseller in Morocco.

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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. Incredibly, the high-quality work continued to flow from Daproim uninterrupted. Daproim has more than 7600 applications from Kenyan students who want to work there. No problem!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 19, 2013

With this new site, we hope to better share our story and the impact of our work in a clear and consistent way across our four program areas , which encompass a diverse set of initiatives, products and services. You’ll also find information about several meaningful ways to support our work. Look around—there’s a lot that’s new.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 4, 2014

Adopting an open source philosophy has proven to be quite effective for us at Benetech in our work furthering technology-for-good. Being transparent leads to the best possible outcomes from our work and helps us further our mission goals. The open source methodology also helps stimulate innovation.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Whatever works for the reader who needs to read differently. If it works, libraries like Bookshare would mainly be put out of business. About the dozens of tributes we read at Bookshare from students, from teachers, from leaders, from publishers, all appreciating Robin’s work. Make it bigger. Make it talk.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Such action, the Court decided, didn’t constitute copyright infringement because it was fair use , that is, a limitation and exception to the exclusive rights granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. This ruling by the Supreme Court in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.,

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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. For years, we have been working to end the worldwide book famine. This Treaty provides a tremendous tool to accelerate that work.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Dr. Patrick Ball, who has led our Human Rights Program since 2003, now heads HRDAG as its Executive Director and Dr. The process took us longer than we anticipated, but that is due in large part to the great things we’ve been able to achieve from the collaboration between the technology and the analytical sides of our work.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 28, 2014

He also championed an open source ethos so that our work can be broadly shared (you can view all our open source projects on GitHub ). Inspiring hacker-led efforts to collaboratively experiment to advance the field of accessibly in education through initiative such as an accessibility sprint with OERPub , or work on MathML protocol handler.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2013

Our focus is on carefully vetting each person as having a qualified print disability through working with trustworthy institutions in our own and other countries, and then letting qualified users loose in a library without limits! The digital nature of our work makes it cost effective to serve many people without spending a royal treasury.

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Library United States Copyright Accessibility 203

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 15, 2014

First, WIPO, with a mandate from its member nations, is working to address the need to change national laws and get more accessible books flowing—a process that will take a long time. Furthermore, the accessibility community can work together to prepare the ground for providing accessible books for people around the world. HathiTrust.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2015

It’s hard for most organizations to accommodate nonstandard approaches to work. Rights-focused: Advancing the human rights of disadvantaged people is central to our work. Flexibility: We expect the work to get done, and provide our professional staff a high degree of flexibility on how to get it done. What’s the catch?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

These are exciting times for everyone who’s been working to meet the accessibility imperative, as we are witnessing global movements that will increase accessible publishing and create new and better opportunities for people with disabilities. We’re therefore working with the publishing industry to bridge the gap.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2012

We prefer to work mainly behind the scenes, helping the activists pursue their mission of improving respect for human rights, advocating for policy change that advance rights and sometimes even obtaining justice against the perpetrators. At Benetech, we're thinking about human rights activists everyday.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 5, 2013

It will also be possible for Bookshare to deliver our entire library—instead of only the titles we have permissions from publishers to share—directly to people with print disabilities living in other countries using our individual membership system (it works just like your own library card). I’m excited to report: they did just that.

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Morocco United States Copyright Library 127

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 10, 2014

Every month, our staff receives letters from individuals whose lives have been touched by our work. We’re witnessing how data-driven insights are becoming a prerequisite in decision-making and in the practical work of policy and social service organizations. Listen to their needs and adjust course accordingly.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 22, 2013

Caltech’s small size makes its faculty and students incredibly agile when it comes to understanding a broad array of fields: there is a need here to be able to explain your work, and to understand the work of others. That’s the Caltech advantage! Richard Feynman once tried to reduce an advanced physics concept to a freshman lecture.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

As we have explained in other Beneblog and Bookshare blog posts, these are exciting times for everyone who has been working to meet the imperative to provide people with print disabilities equal access to published information. This allows a much broader group of experts to keep working on the problem.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2014

In his January 17, 2014 speech on NSA reforms , President Obama stated: "As the nation that developed the Internet, the world expects us to ensure that the digital revolution works as a tool for individual empowerment, not government control."

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

have been asking about the Treaty of Marrakesh (formal name: The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities. Second, the Treaty allows for easier import and export of accessible versions of books and other copyrighted works. Works Covered.

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Copyright Law United States Library 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2012

Like going to hackathons and wish you could get paid to work on a good cause full time? 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. If hired, ability to provide proof of eligibility to work in the United States.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 17, 2013

It was a daring venture: Paraguay was then still under a military dictatorship and it was extremely difficult to advance social work. Martín has worked tirelessly to disseminate the social innovations he has created in Paraguay throughout the world. and Africa. Congratulations, Martín!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 29, 2016

Unfortunately, the economic model that works so well for creating wealth, falls short when it comes to helping the poor. That’s why Benetech is organized as a nonprofit: we can afford to work on exciting problems. Silicon Valley is an incredible force for change. We just have to find a way to break- even!

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