[Dtb-talk] Latest Benetech Update

[David B Andrews]

President's Letter, July 2006

 

The challenge is on for the Benetech team!  Last year, we outlined
an
ambitious three year business plan and the foundations of two of
Silicon
Valley's key leaders are now providing the core support for that
plan:
Jeff Skoll and Pierre Omidyar (eBay's first President and founder,
respectively).  At the same time, we are accountable to deliver on
the
key objectives of our business plan.  Here are some of our top
goals:

*     Change the history of at least one country through our human
rights information program

*     Grow the users of Bookshare.org digital library for the
disabled
to more than 10,000 by 2008 (tripling from 2005)

*     Launch our new Route 66 Literacy enterprise and get it to
40%
supported by earned income by the end of 2007

*     Greatly increase our support from individual donors (tripling
this
as well)

*     Recruit at least four senior Silicon Valley leaders to get
active
with Benetech as volunteers and advisors

 

To hit these ambitious goals, we need to strengthen our team, raise
more
money and tighten our messaging.  These are the major focus for me
in
2006.  

 

Highlights of this Letter:

*     Fund raising success (yeah!)

*     New Chief Technical Officer

*     New website for Benetech

*     Major Project Updates

o      Route 66 Literacy

o      Landmine Detector

o      Bookshare.org and NFB-Newsline(r)

o      Environmental software

o      Changing history in East Timor

*     Jim speaking all over the world

 

Fund Raising Success

 

Getting strong support from both Omidyar and Skoll is a major
landmark
for Benetech.  This marks the first time our largest backers are
from
the Silicon Valley tech community.  

 

  I just attended the ceremony in Oxford in April - where Benetech
was
recognized as a winner of the Skoll Award for Social
Entrepreneurship
<http://www.skollfoundation.org/grantees/2006.asp> .  The Skoll
Foundation has been supporting us at roughly the $100,000 a year
level,
and this award was for more than $400,000 per year for three years
for a
total of over $1.2 million.  The Omidyar Network
<http://www.benetech.org/about/press_releases/PR_2006-03-22_Omidyar.shtm

l>  provided us with three years of support totaling $1.5 million.
Together, these incredible investments provide our team with the
capital
to take risks and build Benetech's capacity to scale up both our
existing projects and launch new ones.  You might think that this
has
solved all of our fund raising needs, but the funding is structured
to
challenge us to broaden and deepen our funding to support current
and
future ventures.  

 

New Chief Technical Officer

 

Our commitment to deliver on these results drove us to search for
a
Chief Technical Officer.  At Benetech, this role is crucial for my
personal ability to survive, since much of my activity centers
around
technology issues.  I'm happy to announce that Patrick Ball
<http://www.benetech.org/about/management_team.shtml#pb>  accepted
the
challenge of Benetech's CTO position.  Patrick was promoted from
within
Benetech to take on these responsibilities.  He already has a
global
reputation for technical excellence and impact from his work as one
of
the world's leading human rights statisticians.   My expectation is
that
Patrick will be able to play the larger role of advancing Benetech
and
the field of values-based technology development, while keeping his
hand
in the human rights arena, much as I've been able to stay involved
in
the disability technology field while leading Benetech.  

 

In addition to providing our primary tech leadership, Patrick's
role as
CTO will have strong exposure outside Benetech. It's essential
that
Benetech's public face be more than just me, and I'm excited about
having someone as dynamic and smart as Patrick spreading the word
about
values in technology development in general, and Benetech's mission
in
literacy, the environment, landmine removal and human rights in
specific. I hope you all get a chance to meet Patrick soon!

 

New Benetech website <http://www.benetech.org/> 

 

Essential to our goals of expanding our impact is getting the word
out
about our work.  Striking a better balance between the "head"
aspects of
technology and the "heart" impact on people has been crucial.  Our
new
website <http://www.benetech.org/> , created with last year's
capacity
building grant from the Skoll Foundation, makes a much more
compelling
statement of this heart/head balance.   Be sure to check it out,
and let
me know how we can improve it even further!

  

Route 66 Literacy

 

Our new Route 66 Literacy project
<http://www.benetech.org/literacy/route66.shtml>  is a partnership
between The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies (CLDS) of
the
University of North Carolina at, Chapel Hill and Benetech.  The
concept
for Route 66 was developed by Dr. Karen Erickson, one the nation's
leading experts in literacy for people with disabilities.  This
web
based service relies on a scientifically-proven instructional
technique
developed by Karen and her team.  

 

We are just wrapping up our first beta test program, where we
tested the
prototype with more than ten people at C.A.R. in Palo Alto. The 12
week
beta test went well, and we've decided to push forward with the
project.
Now we just need to raise money to go to the next step!

 

 

Route 66 Literacy includes all of the essential elements of
literacy
instruction - reading comprehension, word study, fluency and
writing -
while emphasizing high-interest content that is targeted at older
students and adults. The central premise is this:  adolescent and
adult
beginning literacy instruction is much more effective when timely
content is tailored to the appropriate group or interest
demographic.
The content for the service, for example, is composed of stories
about
popular culture, current events and community participation. Even
better: because the Route 66 Literacy service is delivered online,
these
materials can be updated as frequently as necessary. We are using
images
from Flickr that have Creative Commons licensing: a key aspect for
making the content feasible from a cost standpoint.

 

An essential and unique component of the Route 66 Literacy system
is its
integrated "Teacher Tutor" feature.  The Teacher Tutor helps ensure
that
the instructors, often parents and volunteers working with
individuals
with developmental disabilities, have all the support they need to
be as
effective a teacher as possible.   We are excited about the
medium-term
possibilities of applying this technology to the general issue of
global
literacy.  My dream is to someday see a literate daughter in the
developing world helping teach her mom to read using an inexpensive
cell
phone!

  

Landmine Detector

 

Great news: we have a preliminary agreement with GE to use their
explosives detection technology to prototype a humanitarian
landmine
detector!  We also have a contingent grant of $250,000 from the
Lemelson
Foundation <http://www.lemelson.org/home/index.php>  to help fund
the
next phase of technology development, and we're hoping to meet the
contingencies shortly.  Our next challenge is getting an export
license
from the U.S. government, and that means meeting the concerns of
the
Defense Department.  For us, this is a pretty new area, and we're
looking for help to navigate the political minefields before we can
get
to the real minefields.

 

Bookshare.org

 

These are exciting times for Bookshare.org.  We've just hired
Jennifer
Sutton and John Glass, two long-term experts in adaptive
technology, to
tackle our expanding needs.  Of particular interest is a new law in
the
U.S. that mandates that all K-12 textbooks be delivered in the
high
quality NIMAS XML format.  We just received a $60,000 grant from
the NEC
Foundation of America <http://www.necfoundation.org/>  to create an
open
source tool we call the NIMAS Validator, which makes it easier for
publishers and adaptive content producers to measure the quality
of
these new books.  We've also formally launched our expanded
newspaper
service in cooperation with the National Federation of the Blind's
Newsline(r) service <http://www.nfb.org/newsline1.htm> : more than
125
daily newspapers updated every morning at 6 am!  Other important
metrics
include 26,500+ books now in our repository and a population of
student
users that has doubled in the past year.

 

Environmental Project Management Software

 

We have been building the first working prototype of this software
to
help field conservation professionals manage projects, in a joint
effort
with the Conservation Measures Partnership
<http://www.conservationmeasures.org/CMP/> . We liken it to
TurboTax(r),
where the user is guided through the process through a
questionnaire
that focuses on biodiversity as well as providing direct access to
different views of the same information.  The software guides the
field
professional through best practices in managing conservation
projects:
we already have a Visio-like visual tool for depicting the logic
chain
from intervention through to improvements in biodiversity outcomes
(healthier coral reefs or wetlands, more salmon, etc.) as well as
a
threat-ranking system for prioritizing interventions.  As I noted
in my
last update, the Hewlett Foundation
<http://www.hewlett.org/Default.htm>
has committed $250,000 to this project, and it looks like our
conservation NGO partners will be also be funding the project with
both
hard cash and soft resource commitments.  With Hewlett's
assistance,
we're working with a small number of other donors to round out the
funding through a product launch.  

 

Changing History in East Timor and HRP

 

We have already been successful in making history with our human
rights
efforts, thanks to exciting developments in Timor-Leste (East
Timor).
For a while, we were concerned that our work with the truth
commission
there might never see the light of day, but a dramatic series of
leaks
in January and February led to our ability to post our work
publicly.
The story was also well-covered in Wired News
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70196-0.html> .  

The magnitude of deaths in Timor-Leste has long been a subject of
contentious debate, and Benetech's results help to place the debate
on a
factual basis. Our report detailed widespread and systematic
violations
in Timor-Leste during the period 1974-1999. Benetech's statistical
analysis establishes that at least 102,800 (+/- 11,000) Timorese
died as
a result of the conflict. Approximately 18,600 (+/- 1000) Timorese
were
killed or disappeared, while the remainder died due to hunger and
illness in excess of what would be expected due to peacetime
mortality.
These estimates are the most accurate and scientifically rigorous
ever
made for conflict-related mortality in Timor-Leste. They are based
on a
database developed jointly by Benetech's Human Rights Data
Analysis
Group (HRDAG) and the Commission for Reception, Truth, and
Reconciliation (CAVR in Portuguese), the truth commission for
Timor-Leste. 

In partnership with the CAVR, HRDAG has injected new
scientifically
defensible analysis into the debate about crimes of policy during
the
Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste. These analyses were
integrated
into the CAVR Report alongside multi-disciplinary research
including
legal reasoning, history, anthropology, and sociology.

Patrick Ball had this to say: "The terrible violence in Timor-Leste
has
long been hidden from the world's attention. Even recently, as
press
coverage of the CAVR's report began, there have been political
debates
about the scale, pattern, and responsibility for the violence. Our
analysis helps shift the debate from politics to science, moving
from
data, to knowledge, to official recognition of the crimes, and
ultimately to accountability."

 

Jim does Davos, Tunis, Oxford, New Zealand, Atlanta, New York,
etc.

 

I have been traveling like crazy over the last six months,
spreading the
word about Benetech, our projects and social entrepreneurship. 
The
keynotes I've been giving lately have been especially fun: at the
Social
Enterprise Alliance conference, the Global Social Venture Plan
competition, and a technical conference on pattern recognition in
New
Zealand (how could I resist!?), along the general theme that
social
entrepreneurship is not rocket science.  I get to speak to this
from
experience as a former rocket scientist!

 

The chance to speak to students and budding social entrepreneurs
is
gratifying: nothing like idealistic energy married to pragmatism. 
This
year, I expect to speak at schools as varied as UC Berkeley,
Stanford,
UC Santa Cruz, University of Geneva, University of the Pacific,
Harvard,
MIT and Columbia.  Social entrepreneurship is highly accessible
and
motivational for students, and I expect to see more great ideas
coming
out of these cauldrons of creativity.  

 

I have been taking lots of pictures and writing my blog, the
Beneblog
<http://www.benetech.org/about/beneblog_archives/beneblog_archive.shtml>
.  My most popular blog posting ever wasn't written by me: it was
written by my son, Jimmy, from Davos
<http://www.benetech.org/about/beneblog_archives/beneblog_archive_0106.s

html> .  It is a fun way to reflect on what we and other people
are
doing in social entrepreneurship, but from a more immediate and
informal
perspective!

 

Conclusion

 

You can help us, as always.  We're often looking for great people:
we 
currently have plans to hire at least six people in the next few
months
<http://www.benetech.org/join_us/employment_opportunities.shtml> . 
We
are always working on getting access to technology and content,
especially books.  And, we are always seeking possible supporters
who
are excited about literacy, accessibility, human rights, the
environment, removing landmines or simply about technology doing
good
things in the world.  My door (and mouth) is usually open!

 

Jim Fruchterman

President and CEO, The Benetech Initiative

Email: jim at benetech.org 

 

480 California Ave, Suite 201 

Palo Alto, CA 94306   USA 

(650) 475-5440 x-106

Fax: (650) 475-1066

www.benetech.org <http://www.benetech.org/>     

The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity 

A nonprofit organization 


David Andrews
Chief Technology Officer
Minnesota State Services for the Blind
2200 University Ave. W., #240
St. Paul, MN  55114-1840
(651) 642-0513  Office
(612) 730-7931  Cell
(651) 649-5927  Fax