I thought that the Bookshare.org community would value hearing this sad news and to think about Peter Scialli and his contributions. Guido Corona and I talked about this yesterday: he was a good friend of Peter's. Jim Fruchterman ________________________________ From: Jim Fruchterman [mailto:jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:24 AM To: Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [Beneblog: Technology Meets Society] Remembering Peter Scialli I know that the Bookshare.org community will be sad to hear of the passing of one of our original staff members, Peter Scialli. Peter Scialli at a computer, half turned to the camera, Bookshare.org on the screen <http://bp2.blogger.com/_lAXr465KvME/SGAlLMXw65I/AAAAAAAAATM/rrUqgzDqmdA /s1600-h/peter.jpg> Peter started working with me over twenty years ago, with his access tech company ShrinkWrap Computing. The name was a play on Peter's Ph.D. in psychology, which was his other career path beyond technology, which he loved so well. Peter became one of the top dealers of the Arkenstone reading machines, Benetech's founding social enterprise. When we sold Arkenstone to another company, Peter offered to fill our technical support needs on an interim basis. This coverage really helped with a difficult transition. Peter then stepped into the role of alpha Bookshare.org user and support guy. His photo was our user photo (see the picture above). He was our main and only tech support staffer for the early years of Bookshare.org. He left us a few years ago to go back to his original profession of psychology, and became a project director of a counseling agency. Peter's impact on the field of access technology for the blind was major. He moderated email lists, organized conference sessions (I particularly remember Dueling Scanners) and wrote articles for the journals in the field. Peter believed strongly in the power of technology to help people with disabilities, became an expert in the field and then committed himself to sharing that expertise widely. His knowledge, sense of humor and dedication will be sorely missed. -- http://www.benetech.org/ 480 S. California Avenue Suite 201 Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 644-3400 You are a subscriber to Benetech's BeneBlog, authored by Jim Fruchterman, as: jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe click this link: Unsubscribe <http://clickmeter.dundee.net/u?id=35510682.7fa3bdc9fb0831d3e1fcbce360e4 0f43&n=T&c=F&l=benetech>