Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

It became a burden to his family and caregivers to constantly drop what they were doing to turn a page, so he began seeking out ebooks. This reality changed when Frank found out about Benetech’s Bookshare accessible digital library for people with print disabilities. To continue this work, we depend on the support of generous donors.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

At Benetech, we always ask ourselves how our existing successful programs can reach more people who need our services and how we can apply technology in new ways to enrich and improve more lives. a11y accessibility Bookshare Braille DAISY ebooks Global Literacy print disabilities Reading' The majority of our members are U.S.

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Literacy eBook Global Audio 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

The world has finally moved beyond just electronically creating books that are then distributed as ordinary print books to actually delivering digital ebooks. In technical terms, this means that the next version of the DAISY format, version 4, will be the same as EPUB3, the main format used by commercial publishers of ebooks.

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Accessibility Global eBook Copyright 155

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 7, 2013

Bookshare International Library We’re always thinking about new ways in which Benetech could go deeper and help many more people. Bookshare , our flagship literacy program, is the world’s largest accessible library and currently serves more than 230,000 members with visual and learning disabilities.

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India Literacy United Kingdom United States 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

Creating the World’s Largest Collection of Accessible Arabic eBooks Access to knowledge is the critical first step on the path to economic, educational, and social development. In the first installment of this series, I described the Bookshare International library and where we hope to take it next.

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United Arab Emirates Qatar eBook Language 162

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Libraries for people who are blind or dyslexic are the primary source of accessible books in audio, large print or braille. But, some companies want to empty the library shelves and insist that only books that can’t be purchased are allowed to be stocked in such libraries. Bookshare was created under the Section 121 U.S.

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Copyright United States Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

How can we use technology in a new way to improve people’s lives that is an order of magnitude better? Can we help stimulate the creation of far more technology-for-good ventures? Technology currently serves privileged groups through tools that provide access to education, literacy, health, and justice.

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Literacy eBook United Kingdom Accessibility 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

Twelve years ago, the Fund made its first grant to Benetech, in support of the then newly launched Bookshare , our accessible online library for people with disabilities that get in the way of reading print, including visual impairments and dyslexia. government and states like Texas. In 2013, with the most recent (and fourth!)

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Fund India United States eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

Betsy Beaumon I recently had the honor to speak at the first-ever Braille Summit , hosted on June 19-21, 2013 by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) and Perkins School for the Blind. Guest Beneblog by Betsy Beaumon, VP and General Manager, Benetech’s Global Literacy Program.

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Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 15, 2012

With technology, you can do incredible things, but with a galvanized community of supporters who work together toward a greater good, we can do anything. Benetech’s Bookshare library is living proof that real, transformative change happens through partnerships and by helping people unleash their talents and energies. copyright law.

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Library Student eBook Accessibility 164

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

We believe that this means that circumvention needs to be addressed in the Treaty to ensure that access does not become a dead letter in an increasingly digital world, where people with disabilities get locked out of ebook content by contractual and technical means. We don’t think the commerciality issue belongs in the treaty.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

While our activities often creates jobs beyond the core high technology jobs around software development and user support, we don't see it as our core competency. For example, our Bookshare online library for the blind, uses several different social enterprises to do data entry and proofreading work on textbooks.

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Laos Data Digital New York City 235

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 15, 2012

Benetech has long been a pioneer in providing innovative services to people with print disabilities. Poet supports image descriptions for electronic books created in the international DAISY standard for digital talking books and will be compatible with descriptions for ebooks in the EPUB3 format.

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Images Student Accessibility Content 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

In my contribution to Ron’s book, I discuss the framework that guides us at Benetech, the technology nonprofit I lead. When I first started pursuing the idea of using technology to solve challenging social problems, it was a pretty radical idea. We are always exploring new projects with the hope of launching a new product each year.

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Develop Social Library eBook 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2010

Footnote: NLS stands for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, part of the U.S. Library of Congress and the nation's number one provider of books for blind people. They also operate Web Braille, an online Braille ebook service with roughly ten thousand titles.

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Library eBook Global National 156

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

There was also an associated effort called the Trusted Intermediary Global Accessible Resources (TIGAR) project, to ease the exchange of accessible book files between libraries for the blind and print disabled. My biggest argument was the “library with holes” problem. The view of the World Blind Union was that the rightsholders (i.e.,

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Accessibility License Copyright Library 247

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. In addition, we acknowledged the critical support of Bernie Newcomb who helped fund our International Bookshare service.

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Celebrate Google Literacy Library 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

The Year That Was and the New Year Ahead Guest Beneblog by Betsy Beaumon, Benetech's VP and General Manager of the Literacy Program 2012 was a year of titanic shifts in the fields of consumer technology, education, and publishing, along with the requisite challenges brought about by such rapid change. Thanks again!

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Literacy Program United Arab Emirates Student 166

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

However, as the founder of the Bookshare online library, we have a great deal at stake in how the Treaty gets implemented. Plus, it will especially help countries with less-developed libraries and services for people with disabilities by making it easier to tap large collections (like Bookshare) in other countries.

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Copyright Law United States Library 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

It also underscores just how critical a balanced copyright law is for technology innovation. As a different kind of Silicon Valley tech company—a nonprofit with a pure focus on social good—our goal is to see that the best of technology gets applied to social needs left unaddressed by for-profit businesses. In the U.S.,

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Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 10, 2014

This reality changed when both Kevin and Sophia learned about the accessible online library Bookshare , an initiative of Silicon Valley technology nonprofit Benetech. With its rapidly growing collection of over 225,000 (and counting) accessible ebooks, Bookshare is the world’s largest library of its kind.

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Data Classroom Measure Accessibility 168

Tech Soup

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

As we hurtle toward the end of 2013, it’s time for an update of nonprofit technology trends and news! If you’re a nonprofit news junkie, have a look at all our Nonprofit Technology News pieces from this past year. TechSoup Technologies for Good. Hacker Helper is all about not reinventing the technology wheel.

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News Technology Cancer Map 52

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2014

My personal goal is to channel the aspirations of the technology community to do more social good. 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. Are you excited about technology benefiting the world?

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Open Source Africa Zimbabwe Malawi 183

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

She runs a for-profit social enterprise named Daproim that provides data entry services using disadvantaged students as their primary workforce. Bookshare is our large digital library for students with disabilities such as blindness or dyslexia. We go way back with her firm. and we needed more help.

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Kenya Social Student India 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

For example, one proposed change to the Treaty draft would make it the responsibility of an exporting library to need to know details about the publishing status of a book in another country before we could fill a request from a bona fide person with a print disability from that country. For what am I advocating?

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Copyright India Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 26, 2014

In 2004, the United States passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act , requiring schools to provide special education services to eligible students. Accessible ebooks and Bookshare have helped sixth grader Kevin Leong overcome his reading challenges.

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eBook Accessibility United States Student 203

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

Benetech's largest social enterprise is the Bookshare online library for people who are blind or otherwise disabled when it comes to reading print. Someone who has no disability, or someone who has a disability but is able to pick up a print book and read it, doesn't qualify for these services. copyright law.

Copyright 158

Copyright Social Law Student 158

Tech Soup

DECEMBER 13, 2013

Most charities and many libraries have part time or accidental techies taking care of their technology. Is it any wonder that proper technology planning is something we have a hard time getting to? Conducting a technology assessment and inventory of current software and hardware assets. How to Conduct a Quick Tech Plan.

Tech 59

Tech Disaster Library Sample 59

Tech Soup

MAY 30, 2014

Here's what you should know about HelpBridge: If you don’t want the app to reveal your location, you can turn off the GPS location service in the app. In addition, TechSoup offers a free disaster planning and recovery guide ebook, The Resilient Organization. Technology's Impact on Disaster Relief.

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Disaster Hurricane Paypal eBook 58

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 14, 2009

It’s what makes our Bookshare service legally possible. The Author’s Guild asserts that they control the audio rights and that delivering a text ebook to a device which could speak it aloud with synthetic text-to-speech and that their commercial market for audio books will someday be significantly affected by TTS. national experience.

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Copyright Proposal Audio eBook 104

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 16, 2018

Society is a buzz about new technology: artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, autonomous cars, the surveillance state, and more. This is data in service to communities. Even in the tech industry, with its intense turf battle, companies have come to rely on open standards for data, for APIs, for technological plumbing.

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Software Data Change eBook 118

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Stopping fund raising and subscription revenue for Bookshare, the largest online library for people who have print disabilities. Bookshare is an online library for people who can’t read standard print books. We provide accessible ebooks that can be spoken aloud, turned into Braille or large print. government or even (heavens!)

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eBook China Copyright Library 277

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2016

They put most nonprofits in the direct action without systems change box: groups that do a good (or even excellent) job of delivering services under the existing system. The common link among our projects is information technology, which can be applied to just about every aspect of the social sector. The first was the ebook.

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Change eBook United States Conservancy 100

Qgiv

MARCH 26, 2024

Whether you’re just starting on your fundraising journey or a seasoned fundraising professional, these free resources will help you fill up your team’s digital library! Use this blog for updates on how to use technology for fundraising. Check out Bloomerang’s resource library for different guides and templates.

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Resource Raise Free Help 122

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Stopping fund raising and subscription revenue for Bookshare, the largest online library for people who have print disabilities. Bookshare is an online library for people who can’t read standard print books. We provide accessible ebooks that can be spoken aloud, turned into Braille or large print. government or even (heavens!)

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eBook Copyright China Law 107

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 11, 2013

And there are extended engagements that will add features to a mobile ebook reader app for the more than 250,000 print disabled users of Bookshare , the largest online library of accessible content in the world. And, in so doing, we can help amplify the real, global impact they have on the lives of real people every day.

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Open Source Lesson Tech Project 118

Tech Soup

APRIL 14, 2014

Uber – is an alternative taxi or ridesharing service. Duolingo – is a free language-learning app and website that is also a crowdsourced web translation service. I pair it with a read-it-later service like Instapaper or Pocket. – is an alert service that our IT help desk department uses.

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Phone Map Aggregator eBook 50