We are thrilled to share that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has recognized Benetech with the 2014 Region 6 Directors Special Award, Outstanding Small Company of the Year, for Innovative Contributions to Humanitarian Technology. Benetech won the award for its continued commitment to community improvement through literacy, environmental, and human rights initiatives.
This summer, for the third consecutive year, we partnered with Google Summer of Code. We had the pleasure of working with computer science student Joe Maag, who helped create an iOS app that aids the transcription of (inaccessible) math images into readable and accessible math notations, to utilize Benetech’s MathML Cloud tool and advance math accessibility for all.
How can we use technology to help social entrepreneurs collect and use their data more effectively and securely? We are exploring this in Benetech Labs. The solution we have been exploring is a semi-customized, open source, secure, data collection and analysis application that makes it easier for social sector users to safely gather and use information more efficiently.
Adopting an open source philosophy has proven to be quite effective when furthering technology-for-good, notes online magazine Opensource.com in an interview with Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman. Fruchterman goes on to describe the open source tools Benetech builds; clarifies why it is important that cybersecurity tools in particular are open; explains how Benetech’s culture of “open” shapes its product development as well as broadly serves its social mission; and reflects on the reasons why the open source ethos is well suited for creating social impact.
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.”
