1. Making an Impact through
Humanitarian Free and Open
Source Software
GHTC 2013

2. How Did I Get Here?

3. MIT Loans Paid, 2 Startups and 24 Years Later…
Come do social
good with me!
When can I
start?

4. What Does Benetech Do?
create software for
Maximum Social Benefit
solve large, critical problems
in Areas of Need
global literacy
INNOVATION
SCALE
human rights
environment

5. Technology Assists Students with
Learning and Physical Print Disabilities
Jessica, Steffon and
Shane are three of
250,000+ members
who can access
Bookshare’s library of
210,000+ books,
textbooks and
periodicals with reading
tools tailored to their
special needs
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sUMmzi3nmig

6. Open Source in our Global Literacy Program
Build Upon
Create & Contribute
Poet

7. Why: Economics

8. Why: Economics

9. Why: Innovation Needs Collaboration
Benetech
W3C
DAISY
Academia
IDPF
LRMI
Benetech Organizational Truths
● We prefer open to proprietary
● We think we can do more together
http://benetech.org/about-us/mission-history/

10. Why: Expanding our Impact
Bookshare / Chafee Qualified
Other Disabilities (e.g. ADHD,
Austism) and English Language Learners

11. Why: Harvest Volunteer Contributions

12. SocialCoding4Good
Apply your tech skills to social good by volunteering with
organizations like Benetech, which develop HFOSS
Education
Disaster Relief
Human Rights
Global Health
Microfinance

13. Impact: Mifos
Mifos is used by microfinance institutions around
the globe to provide financial inclusion for more
than one million people working their way out of
poverty
• Deanna McCusker volunteered for three
months, designing a user interface for the
newly launched Mifos X software. She
continues to contribute time to guiding its
implementation!
From basic 3-hour tasks
to expert three-month
projects,
SocialCoding4Good
matches volunteers +
projects based on
experience, skillset, and
availability

14. Impact: Mozilla Webmaker
At Cisco Back-toSchool Volunteer Day
& Code Sprint, web
developers created
Mozilla Webmaker
plug-ins for use in
educational settings
Mozilla’s Popcorn adds interactivity & real-time
context to online video using browser technologies
like HTML5
• Cisco teams developed easy ways for teachers
to create digital learning resources - like this invideo quiz, or this real-time feed that displays
keywords and research links to information on a
video’s topic

15. Impact: Mobile Martus
Hack on projects and
prototypes that will live on
beyond the hackathon and
become sustainable field
ready products

16. Getting Involved
●
Visit http://socialcoding4good.org
●
Fill out volunteer profile
– Skills
– Availability (hours, days, weeks)
– Open source experience
●
Get your employer involved
– Skills-based / probono employee volunteering programs for Corporate
Social Responsibility and Human Resources groups
– Current program partners include VMware, HP

17. Get involved:
socialcoding4good.org
Gerardo Capiel
gerardo@benetech.org
Twitter: @gcapiel