Benetech
Encyclopedia
Benetech was founded in 1989 by high technology entrepreneur Jim Fruchterman
in Palo Alto, California
. Benetech is a not-for-profit social enterprise
organization: it creates technology social ventures, such as Bookshare
(providing e-books to people with print disabilities), the Route 66 Literacy Project, the Miradi environmental project management software, Martus (human rights abuse reporting), and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group
, which provided statistical evidence in the trial of Slobodan Milosovic.
Benetech and its Martus software was featured on the PBS NewsHour.
Jim Fruchterman
Jim Fruchterman is a leading social entrepreneur. He is a former rocket scientist and technology entrepreneur who creates social technology enterprises that target under-served communities....
in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
. Benetech is a not-for-profit social enterprise
Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit....
organization: it creates technology social ventures, such as Bookshare
Bookshare
Bookshare is an online accessible digital library for print disabled readers. In 2007, it received an award of $32 million from the US Government's Office of Special Education Programs to make the service available for free to all print disabled students in the US...
(providing e-books to people with print disabilities), the Route 66 Literacy Project, the Miradi environmental project management software, Martus (human rights abuse reporting), and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group
Human Rights Data Analysis Group
The Human Rights Data Analysis Group is an organization of researchers who apply statistical analysis to questions of fact relevant to human rights, usually estimates of the number of people killed in civil conflicts...
, which provided statistical evidence in the trial of Slobodan Milosovic.
History
Benetech was founded under the name of Arkenstone in 1989. It was created to provide reading machines for blind people. During the period 1989-2000, over 35,000 reading machines were sold in sixty countries, reading twelve different languages. In 2000, the Arkenstone reading machine product line was sold to Freedom Scientific, and the nonprofit's name was changed to Benetech. The funding from the asset sale was used to start the Bookshare.org and Martus projects.Benetech and its Martus software was featured on the PBS NewsHour.