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Three short years ago, the idea for SocialCoding4Good began forming at OSCON, O’Reilly’s annual open source conference. When we presented SocialCoding4Good at last year’s OSCON, we were struck by the number of people who shared their own experiences contributing to global Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) projects. It’s time for us to take the next step, and support this growing contributor community. To that end, we’re thrilled to officially introduce our new Developer Community Manager, Emma Irwin. In Portland? Meet Emma Irwin in person at OSCON this week.

One year ago, on June 28, 2013, at a diplomatic conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) agreed on a historic international copyright exception for people with print disabilities, known as the Marrakesh Treaty. We certainly have plenty to celebrate on the first anniversary of the signing of the Treaty, but the road towards equal accessibility for all is still long and there is much that remains to be done. Access to written materials and education is not a privilege, but a basic human right—fundamental to personal, economic, and social development. I hope you join us as we advance this global right and work towards making the Marrakesh Treaty as successful as possible, so that it can empower people with print disabilities—particularly those in developing countries—live fuller lives based on equal access to knowledge.

Information technology organizations seeking to redefine the idea of service in the digital age can learn from Benetech and CEO Jim Fruchterman, argues business and technology magazine CIO Insight. In a story titled “Creating the IT Organization of the Future,” author Charles Araujo highlights Benetech’s social enterprise business model and names Fruchterman a “Digital Renaissance Man.”

In June, at the company’s Mountain View headquarters and in Hyderabad, India, dozens of Google employees participated in SocialCoding4Good events through this year’s GoogleServe, an annual volunteer service where Googlers come together to give back to their communities. In particular, Benetech is thrilled that they were able to contribute their skills to help advance accessibility for students with print disabilities.

Benetech has announced that Bookshare, the largest accessible online library for people with print disabilities, is expanding its services in Canada. Thanks to its partnership with Canada’s newly launched Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), Bookshare now offers its large and growing collection of accessible ebooks to Canadians with print disabilities in their own communities through their public libraries.