Bringing Socially Beneficial Technology into the Service of Humanity

Jim Fruchterman The Benetech Initiative

You have a great idea for a technology application that will help society. Looking at it from every angle, you can't figure out how to make a financially successful business with your idea. Should you drop your idea? This speaker says no!

Benetech has pioneered the hybrid model of the high technology startup blended with social mission, to bridge the gap between what's possible and what's profitable in social applications of technology. The goal of these efforts is not to maximize the return to shareholders, but instead maximize the return to society as a whole.

Past, present and future Benetech projects will be presented, including:

• Arkenstone, the leading reading machine for the blind
• Atlas Speaks, talking maps and GPS units for the blind
• Bookshare.org, a mix of talking books for the disabled and Napster that is actually legal under U.S. copyright law
• The Martus Project, Open Source client/server technology for the human rights community

About the speaker:

Jim Fruchterman has been a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and executive since 1981, when he dropped out of his EE Ph.D. program at Stanford. He was a founder of Calera Recognition Systems and RAF Technology, both leading firms in the optical character recognition field.

Jim holds a B.S. and M.S. from Caltech in Engineering and Applied Physics. For the last twelve years, he has also headed Benetech, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization specializing in technology for socially beneficial applications.

Contact information:

Jim Fruchterman
The Benetech Initiative
Building 23, PO Box 215
Moffett Field, CA 94035
www.benetech.org
650-603-8880 ext.106 (vox)
650-603-8887 (fax)
jim@benetech.org