[bksvol-discuss] BKSVOL Update July 29, 2005
- From: "Janice Carter" <Janice.C@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:54:53 -0700
BKSVOL-Discuss Update: July 29, 2005
A more traditional newsletter will go out shortly to an audience that includes
you, new members of Bookshare.org, and many who just want to know what we're
doing (including press and potential funders). The following is an update
specifically for the Bookshare.org Volunteer Community.
1. PEOPLE
2. CONTENT
3. FUNDING
4. NEXT SIX MONTHS
1. PEOPLE
A lot has happened at Bookshare.org over the past six months. So let's start
with the people part. Bookshare.org shares an awesome Engineering, Fundraising
and Administrative team with other Benetech programs, www.benetech.org (Human
Rights, Environment, etc.). Your direct team includes:
Janice Carter joined Benetech in late December as General Manager of
Bookshare.org and Director of all of Benetech's Literacy programs. Her mission
is to get Bookshare.org to financial sustainability (which means about 9,000 to
10,000 subscribers). If you have suggestions for funding or just want to vent,
please send a note to janice.c@xxxxxxxxxxxx or call 650-475-5440, ext. 122. The
BKSVOL-DISCUSS list is a great forum for volunteer scanning and collections
efforts, best practices and ideas that will serve the greater audience.
Gustavo Galindo has been with Bookshare.org since September 2002 and was
promoted to Manager, Bookshare.org Website earlier this year. He manages the
Bookshare.org website functionality and usability and oversees membership and
book collection policies and procedures which means he's responsible for
running the system that we all need to manage this business (includes content,
revenue, subscribers...).
Peter Scialli has been with Benetech and Bookshare.org forever and is our
expert in Assistive Technology. Peter manages our customer and tech support,
and is our first-response to most of your inquires and concerns. Peter also
makes certain that Bookshare.org plays well with all new versions of the
various AT software and hardware.
Susie McKinnon joined us in early May 2005 as Manager, Group Accounts. She has
a strong background in working with schools and understands the challenges that
teachers face in connecting students to accessible books. One of our quickest
paths to financial sustainability is thru our school and group account efforts.
If you have suggestions for schools that could benefit from Bookshare.org,
please send an email to susie.m@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pallavi Gupta joined us as an intern in late June 2005. She has a strong
background in literature and spent time working with the blind in India. She is
currently working on our backlog of post secondary textbooks. Numerous colleges
have been generous in offering to "share" their collections with all of us.
This post secondary collection will allow us to market to the numerous colleges
and universities in the US. If any of you have domain expertise in certain
subjects and are willing to proofread, please send a note to
Pallavi.g@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Carrie Karnos is our "alpha" volunteer. She leaps tall stacks of books in a
single bound. She also came in on Harry Potter day and helped Gustavo get that
book posted in less than 12 hours after it was available to the general public.
Pallavi, Carrie, and several other in house volunteers are picking up some of
the role that Marissa created. Gustavo and Janice are trying to manage some of
the other tasks. We will continue to ask your patience on some of the things
that are moving a little more slowly than you would like until we are able to
get a full time replacement for Marissa.
Jim Fruchterman, last, but certainly not least, is the founder of Bookshare.org
and CEO of Benetech. He is focused on fundraising, strategic efforts with
Google, Amazon, and other global players, and accessible text standards like
NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards). Which brings
us to CONTENT.
CONTENT
There are 23,000+ books now available at Bookshare.org. So take a moment to
thank yourself for your contribution to this incredible collection. Also thanks
to the tremendous support of NFB, we can now offer NFB-NEWSLINE® content in
etext to those members who live in funded states.
So, what's next with stripper stay/stripper go, NIMAS, DAISY, etc. What kind of
content do we need to get to 10,000 subscribers? What kind of quality do we
need? Some of the delay in answering your recent round of questions and
requests about content submissions has to do with what standards will be
required of the Bookshare.org collection of the future. We are in the process
of getting that information in a variety of ways:
-Jim and Janice are working with the NIMAS Technical Committee and will be
meeting in mid September for next steps.
-In order to understand best practices, Janice is scheduled to take a two day
eText Production course on Aug 1 and Aug 2 at the AHEAD (Association on Higher
Education & Disability) conference in Milwaukee.
-Bookshare.org Engineering, Gustavo, Janice, and Jim are building the project
plan for NIMAS compliance.
-And many of you who are experts in this entire process and have offered to
help will be contacted offline for your input.
-Finally, Peggy Gibbs (Benetech's new head of fundraising and marketing) is
working really, really hard to get us some large chunks of money to do the
right thing quickly. Which gets us to the next topic, FUNDING.
3. FUNDRAISING
If you know of a school or organization that could benefit from Bookshare.org,
please contact susie.m@xxxxxxxxxxxxx If you think one of your local
organizations like a Lion's Club or church is willing to fund new Bookshare.org
memberships, they can give the gift of reading at
http://www.bookshare.org/web/AboutGroupAccounts.html.
If you know of someone who can make a small donation, give them this URL,
http://www.bookshare.org/web/DonateNow.html.
And most important, we would very much appreciate your testimonials about why
Bookshare.org matters to you. Does it allow you to read to your children or
grandchildren? Does it keep you informed? Entertained? Peggy and Jim need to
tell the "story" of why Bookshare.org matters when they're meeting with funders
and foundations. If you can allow us to use your name, how long you've been a
member, even better.
4. THE NEXT SIX MONTHS
In addition to the above issues, over the next week or so you will receive the
feedback from the Users Meeting we had at the NFB Convention so we can get your
additional input as we build the project plan for Bookshare.org Version 2.0.
We are attending (and presenting in most cases) at the following shows. If
you're going to attend any of these, please let us know so we can make time to
meet in person (Janice and Susie will be at most of the fall shows).
-AHEAD (Association of Higher Education & Disability) Aug. 3-4, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin
-Closing The Gap, October 20-22, - Minneapolis Minnesota
-LDA (Learning Disabilities Association, California session) Oct.27-29,
Concord, CA
-Calstate CEC (Calstate Council for Exceptional Children) Nov. 10-12
-IDA International Dyslexia Association (national) Nov. 9-12, Denver, CO
-PATINS conference-Indiana Schools (Promoting Achievement through Technology
for Indiana Students), Indianopolis, Indiana Nov.16-17
Collections-wise, aside from our goal of getting 25,000 books on the site by
the end of 2005, we're also putting in-house emphasis on processing several
post-secondary textbook collections. But at the same time, we're still
committed to working with you to get new releases of high-interest books
scanned, validated and on our website as soon as possible.
We hope this gives you some additional visibility into what's happening at
Bookshare.org. Thanks for everything that you continue to do to help us grow....
Have a great weekend,
Your "scrappy" Bookshare.org team
Janice Carter
Director, Literacy Programs
Benetech
480 S. California Ave., Suite 201
Palo Alto, CA 94306-1609 USA
(650) 475-5440 x122
(650) 759-5828 cell
(650) 475-1066 fax
janice.c@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.benetech.org
The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity
A Nonprofit Organization
Other related posts:
