After seeing the value in providing affordable tools that greatly empowered the reading disabled, social entrepreneur Jim Fruchterman was inspired to found a business that utilized technology to serve social causes. It’s called Benetech, and while it’s not quite making robots like one might excitedly infer (not that we would rule that out) the company’s mission is to “combine the power of the human mind with a deep passion for social improvement, creating new technology solutions that serve humanity.” He told me about some of Benetech’s signature projects and how it all got started at lunch during the first day of the Global Philanthropy Forum.

Jim’s first project was the development of Bookshare.org – now the single largest library in the world for the visually impaired with some 37,000 volumes. According to the website, Bookshare.org dramatically increases access to books for the community of visually impaired and otherwise print disabled individuals. The online community enables book scans to be shared, thereby leveraging the collections of thousands of individuals who regularly scan books (into brail, large print format or into audible digital files like Books on Tape), eliminating significant duplication of effort. As Jim described it, there is nowhere else in the world where you can find everything from blind “porn to cookbooks” all in one place (and for free)!

He said that one day his son had come home and was showing him Napster as he downloaded music (he of course clarified that at the time, this was still legal). He started to think, “couldn’t we use this same technology to serve disabled readers?” (Meanwhile, I thought, “What a guy! He learns about a new technology and immediately asks himself: how can we use this idea to improve the world? What if we all did a bit more of this?) But that’s not even the most amazing part. Jim also discovered a provision of U.S. copyright law that would enable the database to be free and accessible to all. Napster crashed, and Bookshare.org boomed.

Benetech’s technological innovations are also being used to promote human rights and international justice. The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) (one of two Benetech “Human Rights” projects) provides data collection and analysis to NGOs, domestic and international courts, and war crimes tribunals. It documents cases of human rights abuse and violent crime and enables groups to better demonstrate evidence of the infamous “G” word: Genocide, and other war crimes.

As Jim was telling me about this project, I started to realize that during my work with the Global Justice Center, I had encountered a group that compile and analyze collective data on the ongoing crimes committed by the military junta in Burma–they used the very technology Benetech developed.

Part of the problem in ending impunity for the atrocities committed by governments, like General Than Shwe and Burma’s military leadership for example, is the challenge of collecting sufficient evidence to convince the world, and specifically, the UN Security Council, that something must be done. Some experts of peace and conflict argue that transitional justice processes – or using international justice processes to end impunity for criminal heads of state - can be a way to depose criminal governments and catalyze national healing and justice. The people of Burma have suffered for over 50 years while criminal governments like Burma and Sudan are shielded by rogue allies, like China. But thanks to new technology and tools like Benetech’s human rights database, it will be harder for governments like China to ignore the war being waged against Burma’s people by its leaders and it will be harder for criminals to get away with impunity.

Jim has also done some work on land mines and his is working on his newest project, Maradi, a software application for environmental conservation management. He keeps a blog called BENEBLOG. Check it out.

P.S. - Benetech is hiring ?