Jim Fruchterman: Raising the Floor: Caltech Y Social Activism Speaker Series
- Public Event
| Presented By: | The Caltech Y and the Social Activism Speaker Series |
Please Note: This event will take place in Sturdivant Lecture Hall, room 153 in the Noyes Laboratory of Chemistry, building #72 on the campus map. Due to adjacent construction, please enter the building through the south entrance.
Ensuring Technology Fully Serves All of Humanity!
To paraphrase William Gibson, technology is here, it's just unevenly distributed. What happens when the market fails to meet the needs of disadvantaged communities and the social sector? Social entrepreneurship can bridge the gap between what's possible and what's highly profitable, helping make sure that the benefits of technology are more broadly distributed.
Jim Fruchterman will share how his nonprofit tech company, Benetech, manages to lead in providing technology that serves the needs of the disability, human rights and environmental movements. He'll describe how the tech community can help raise the floor for people around the globe, ensuring that everybody on the planet has access to technology and the information they need for education, employment, health and social inclusion.
A technology entrepreneur and engineer, Jim Fruchterman has been a rocket scientist, founded two of the foremost optical character recognition companies, and developed a successful line of reading machines for the blind. He is now a leading social entrepreneur through his deliberately nonprofit technology company, Benetech, which concentrates on applying technology to challenging problems facing our society, including literacy for people with disabilities and human rights monitoring and analysis. Fruchterman has won numerous awards for his work, including the 2006 MacArthur Fellowship and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2004 and 2006. He was named a Schwab Social Entrepreneur of 2003, which has included attending and speaking five times at the World Economic Forums in Davos, Switzerland. Fruchterman believes that technology is the ultimate leveler, allowing disadvantaged people to achieve more equality in society.
The Social Activism Speaker Series is a Caltech student organization that focuses attention on current social and political issues by inviting prominent activists to share their experiences and perspectives with the Caltech community and the public. This student-run series is coordinated with the help of the Caltech Y, and is made possible by contributions from the Moore Hufstedler Fund, Student Affairs, Campus Life, the Alumni Association, the Graduate Student Council, and the Caltech Y, as well as staff support from Public Events.