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. Of course, in India and other developing countries, the gap is even larger.

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Tech Soup

OCTOBER 14, 2011

Check back throughout the month for blog posts, webinars, and dispatches from around the world on cloud computing for nonprofits, NGOs, and public libraries. India is of course one of the world's oldest civilizations, and is also the largest democracy in the world. Pooja Jayna is NASSCOM Foundation's manager of communications.

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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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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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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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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 16, 2011

Canada, Europe and India. Bookshare has successfully piloted an international library for the blind, but we’ve barely begun to remedy the global book famine. These include 6 of the top 10 publishers in the U.S.

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Global Giving

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

In celebration of the occasion of getting to meet this huge hero of mine, I’ve outlined five ways that companies, institutions, and nonprofits can harness technological innovations to advance financial inclusion and empower the world’s most vulnerable people: 1. Crowdfunding to unlock empathy and investment capital. 1,171,000,000.

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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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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 11, 2013

In the first installment of this series, I described the Bookshare International library and where we hope to take it next. We’ve already built a collection of titles in Hindi and Tamil, two of the most-spoken languages in India, and last summer we released our first accessible collection in Arabic.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2015

We’re doing a ton of work with partners in India , the first country to ratify it, to allow people in India to take full advantage of India’s now-favorable copyright environment. Additionally, we have over 200,000 copyrighted accessible book titles already available in most countries in the world.

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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. The new WIPO Marrakesh Treaty for the Blind: we were an integral part of the team advocating for it, and how do we make it real as the leading library for the blind with global ambitions?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2010

with print disabilities, with more than 70,000 copyrighted works in our library, the majority of which have been created under the US copyright exception by volunteers, mainly people with disabilities themselves, helping each other. • We now have global permissions for around 8,000 copyrighted books out of our 70,000. •

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 18, 2008

The main reason for my visit to South India was the National Seminar on Print Access For All, which was organized by the dynamic Mr. Krishnaswamy. He's really helped us move forward with our India projects, thanks to our India project manager, Viji Dilip, who joined me there and who has made all of these great Chennai connections for us.

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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. Articles 5 and 6.

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Tech Soup

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

To help organizations learn more about accessibility, TechSoup’s recent installment of Nonprofits Live explored accessibility and assistive technology joined by guest experts Sachin Malhan, of Inclusive Planet; Sharron Rush, of Knowbility, and Neil MacGregor of goQ. Assistive Technologies. Accessibility in Developing Countries.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 28, 2014

TED gives me the chance to brainstorm with loads of people who gather to discuss ways to change the world through technology and design. I explained Benetech’s efforts to grow the impact of our Bookshare library globally, specifically discussing partnerships with groups in India and Kenya.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 9, 2013

These relationships generate countless ideas for using technology for social good. Together with our partners in the nonprofit, technology, government, academic and publishing sectors, we participate in new cultural and technological movements, deriving new knowledge that we apply for social gain.

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Tech Soup

JULY 18, 2017

TechSoup Global's new Local Impact Map is a trove of information on what nonprofits, NGOs, and libraries around the world are doing with their TechSoup-procured IT to further their missions. Orphans Getting an Elite Education in India. By far, the biggest set of stories are the ones from organizations that serve youth and children.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Thanks to the support of the EB team, we now have direct access to digital versions of many important reference series, along with the ability to provide these books to people with qualifying print disabilities in Canada, the UK, India and all over the world! We're working very hard on textbooks.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Bookshare is our large digital library for students with disabilities such as blindness or dyslexia. We use digital ebooks at Bookshare’s core, which can easily be turned into braille, large print or digital audio (using synthetic speech technology). Steve went to India for more tests. and we needed more help.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

Reflections on an internship with Bookshare.org in Chennai, India Made possible through support from the Amherst College Center for Community Engagement Anna Reid, religion major, class of 2010 Anna Reid with employees of Worth Trust, a South Indian organization that provides vocational training and employment for people with disabilities.

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Tech Soup

APRIL 30, 2012

TechSoup Global's new Local Impact Map is a trove of information on what lots of nonprofits, NGOs, and libraries around the world are doing with their TechSoup-procured-IT to further their missions. Orphans Getting an Elite Education in India. Here is just a sampling of what we have collected so far. Want to share.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2008

The Times of India covered the story during my visit, Disabled in city help blind in US. Plus, as we get more permissions from India publishers, we'll be able to source English language books locally. I assume that this is like what Google Books uses to scan library books. for proofreading in the future.

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Tech Soup

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Check back throughout the month for blog posts, webinars, and dispatches from around the world on cloud computing for nonprofits, NGOs, and public libraries. Sign up for TechSoup's email newsletters and discover great resources, ideas, and donated technology for nonprofits and public libraries. Mark your calendar!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 6, 2006

I asked the folks there if they knew of less expensive accommodations, since the Taj Palace Hotel where the India Economic Summit was held was fabulous but also more than I'd ever paid per night in the U.S.! The meeting was held at what used to be the Viceroy of India's lodge in New Delhi, and steeped with history.

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Tech Soup

MAY 7, 2013

I posted some nonprofit technology trends and news late last month, but found some late breaking nptech news items I wanted to add. This is technology for good news from India. The phone is a project of Sumit Dagar and the Indian Institute of Technology. We sincerely invite your nonprofit or library tech news nominations.

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Tech Soup

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Check back throughout the month for blog posts, webinars, and dispatches from around the world on cloud computing for nonprofits, NGOs, and public libraries. Sign up for TechSoup's email newsletters and discover great resources, ideas, and donated technology for nonprofits and public libraries. Mark your calendar!

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Tech Soup

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

When we surveyed NGOs and libraries around the world this year about where they are in regard to using and needing cloud based IT services, we didn’t know how far things have gone toward cloud adoption. The survey was fielded in February and March 2012. What Didn't Surprise Me.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 29, 2010

That shortchanges Larry’s background: he was the key leader in the campaign to eliminate smallpox in India, cofounded the Seva Foundation and a couple of high tech companies, and was most recently running Google.org. I had no idea when I agreed to the mentor gig that there would be something like this I actually know something (a lot) about.

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Tech Soup

JUNE 4, 2012

demonstrates what nonprofits, NGOs, and libraries around the world are doing with their TechSoup Global software donations to further their missions. It helps endangered Asian children get off the streets in Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, East Timor, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Our Local Impact Map.

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Global Giving

MARCH 7, 2019

dollars and British pounds, and donors in India and East Africa can contribute in their local currencies via our partnerships with ImpactGuru and M-Changa. In addition, adding euros to the site also adds complexity to our technology and operations, which requires resources to maintain. The Big Question. Want more tips like this?

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Tech Soup

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Symantec gives a lot back to the nonprofit and library community through their donation program here at TechSoup — See what organizations like yours are saying about their donated Symantec products. Symantec Supports Women in Technology. Women are underrepresented in the field of technology, and it’s a global problem.

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Tech Soup

APRIL 19, 2012

TechSoup’s Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) has provided warrantied refurbished computers and other IT devices to nonprofits and libraries for seven years now. It made us think about ways we could bring good dependable low-cost computers to nonprofits and libraries. to scale up RCI in California. Fast Forward to 2012.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2010

I would class this as TVI (nearly identical) plus additional provisions creating a similar exception for schools, libraries and archives. Right now, it’s not in great shape: • No global exception norm, but voluntary agreement by rightsholders (that’s today’s status quo), with model agreements that are terrible from the nonprofit/library side.

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Tech Soup

DECEMBER 19, 2011

SAP is helping to make a difference in the nonprofit and library community through their donation program here at TechSoup. Enabling 1,000 nonprofits through donations of technology, thereby helping organizations to run more efficiently and maximize their potential. Seven Billion Actions.

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Tech Soup

JANUARY 15, 2013

In addition, one of the most surprising findings from our survey is that NGOs in the lower-per-capita-GDP countries (around $10,000 per year or below), like India, Egypt, South Africa, Bulgaria, and Mexico are planning to move a significant portion of their IT to the cloud faster than higher GDP counties. no Internet! - a thing of the past.

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Saleforce Nonprofit

MAY 18, 2021

Even five months after the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered, worldwide vaccination efforts remain a constant news topic, especially in the face of new infection waves that are currently surging in India and other countries. Our hearts and minds go out to India and its people in this terrible acute crisis phase.

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