Blog

Today, May 15 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day—a day intended to get people talking, thinking, and learning about digital accessibility for people with disabilities. This is an opportunity to share what Benetech’s DIAGRAM Center is doing to ensure that digital content is accessible to all. The DIAGRAM Center is working at the frontier of accessible publishing and online content by making it easier, faster, and cheaper to create and use accessible digital images. One of the many emerging technologies we are researching is 3D printing for accessible educational materials.

Palo Alto, California, May 14, 2014—Benetech is pleased to announce that it has appointed technologist and social entrepreneur Kushal Chakrabarti as Senior Advisor to Benetech Labs, where the Benetech team and partners prototype, iterate, and test new software-for-good applications. Kushal is the founder and co-chairman of Vittana, an award-winning nonprofit that fights youth poverty in developing countries. Drawing on his experience as a serial entrepreneur, he will provide Benetech CEO, Jim Fruchterman, and the senior management team strategic guidance and insight on Benetech Labs.

On April 7, 2014, The Heartbleed Bug—a serious vulnerability in encryption technology used by most Web servers to secure communications over the Internet was announced. The good news is that the Martus servers (where all data is stored and backed up) are not affected by Heartbleed. The Martus Desktop client, too, was not affected by the Heartbleed bug. However, Android 4.1.1 is vulnerable. If you use Mobile Martus, we recommend you update Android, then delete and recreate your Martus Mobile account, so that a new private key is generated. If you are unable to update Android 4.1.1 we strongly suggest that you do not use Mobile Martus.

How do you bridge the breakthroughs of Silicon Valley with unmet social needs? Financial magazine Barron’s highlights this question in a story about CEO Jim Fruchterman, his founding of Benetech, the organization’s social enterprise business model, and the impact of its work on the lives of marginalized communities.

Palo Alto, California, April 28, 2014—Benetech has announced the appointment of Christy Chin as the Chair of its Board of Directors. Chin is a Managing Director at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and has served as a member of Benetech’s Board of Directors since 2009. Chin succeeds longtime Chair and Benetech Founder, Jim Fruchterman.