Upstart Business Journal mentioned our CEO, Jim Fruchterman, among a handful of MacArthur Fellows who are also startup entrepreneurs. The story notes that, while many MacArthur Fellows are academics who remain largely unknown to the rest of the world, at least a handful took their prizes and started companies. It features Jim among these “MacArthur-winning Einsteins from some startups we know and love.”
Today, at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Benetech announced a Commitment to Action — the defining feature of CGI — to increase service and expand the number of accessible books for the blind in India through its Bookshare International initiative. CGI defines a Commitment to Action as a plan for addressing a significant global challenge and requires that the commitment be new, specific and measureable. Benetech will embark on this work with support from the Lavelle Fund for the Blind and Google.
My name is Jordan Gould and I am from Brantford, Ontario, Canada, a town about an hour south of Toronto. I am currently in my second year of Computer Science at The University of Western Ontario. I found the Benetech projects interesting because I am a person with low vision and have in the past used DAISY formatted books on CD with a specialized CD player. Since smartphones and tablets are more ubiquitous now, I believe that contributing to Go Read can help expand access and usability of DAISY books in an academic environment.
I am Yashasvi Girdhar. I am a Junior majoring in Computer Science at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. I was introduced to Benetech when applying for a Google Summer of Code internship. I was really impressed by Benetech’s cause to support and serve society through the use of technology and am grateful to be given an opportunity to contribute to it.
For the first installment of our Q & A series, we sat down with Betsy Beaumon, the VP and General Manager of Benetech’s Global Literacy Program, to discuss the program’s current initiatives, key success factors and future work. In Part 2, Betsy discusses the landmark opportunity for materials that are born digital to be “born […]
