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Bringing Millions of Books to Billions of People: Making the Book Truly Accessible

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

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. However, as a technology, printed books come with serious challenges for some communities (like blind people) that technology can unlock. Love of the print book. We can do better!

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Accessibility Excitement in Geneva

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Bookshare’s role was mixed: we didn’t end up attending many of these meetings and critiqued early efforts that were crippled by heavy-handed publisher influence, although we did propose at one point to supply technology to TIGAR based on Bookshare. So, in the meanwhile, we will need to rely on licenses: permissions agreements.

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Tribute to My Mentor

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

I needed help with business negotiations and software licensing and Gerry jumped in teaching me everything I know about doing business. As the prototypical technology social enterprise, Benetech became one of the first organizations using technology to solve social problems rather than seeking to make maximum financial returns.

Mentoring 167
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Objecting to Accessibility Weaseling

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Benetech was a proud endorser of these objections (under our legal organizational name of Beneficent Technology, Inc.). We all want the same ebook that people without disabilities buy (sorry, I mean license) to work perfectly well for people who are blind, physically disabled or dyslexic.

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I Need a Good Lawyer

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

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’re deep believers in the benefits of openness, which means we publish open source software and create open content under Creative Commons licenses.

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Nonprofit Technology News for November 2013

Tech Soup

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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Getting Close to a Treaty!

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

This is especially a problem as the world moves to electronic books, which have license agreements (contracts, that are rarely looked at by consumers) that almost always prohibit making them accessible. Being silent on the big issue of circumvention would lead to a world where accessibility could be prohibited by contract.

eBook 193