Hi, everybody. Tonight's the night when you can make a big difference to the future of Bookshare. Two of Bookshare's developers are meeting with us, the Bookshare members and volunteers, to get feedback on our ideas for helping with internet outreach and improvements to how the Bookshare site is used. I know you've got good ideas, and this is your time to speak up and share them with the people who can actually make them happen. If you are deaf/blind, please email me with any ideas you'd like me to mention for you. Everyone's ideas matter. You may have overlooked this press release in your weekend mail. It's important that we be there to help our Bookshare engineering team as they make Bookshare even better. So check this out.
[bksvol-discuss] Benetech Engineers To Discuss Bookshare Improvement Tools Tuesday, 1-15-08
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY Friends of Bookshare News Wire: January 10, 2008 Indianapolis, Indiana USA Topic: Benetech Engineers Discuss Bookshare Improvement ToolsPresenters: John Brugge. johnbrugge@xxxxxxxxxxxx . 608-206-4773
Meghan Larson . meghanlarson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
320-420-6199
Friends of Bookshare are really excited about the special program planned
for next Tuesday evening as it will focus on research the Bookshare
Engineering Group is doing to develop tools that could better connect
existing Bookshare users and make others aware of Bookshare who might be
able to use it.
John and Meghan will briefly describe the three broad areas of tools they
have been researching and what they see as some possible application of
technology, i.e., desktop-based "widgets" to interact with Bookshare
content, web browser-based "widgets" or "plugins" to allow searching
Bookshare when not at the Bookshare site, and social networking applications
for sites such as MySpace or Facebook to share reading lists with friends.
Following that overview, however, the major portion of the time will be
devoted to interaction with Bookshare members and volunteers. In other
words, the primary purpose of this event is to provide input on whether
these types of technologies are ones that you would see yourself using. In
addition, they want to hear about what tools in these areas users have had
any experience with, and how accessible they have been.
Benetech is doing everything possible to involve booksharians in the
improvement planning process. Hopefully each of you will consider this to be
a responsibility, as well as an opportunity, to ensure Bookshare truly meets
the needs of members and non-members alike. You can do this by planning to
attend and participate in the meeting and by sharing your ideas during the
discussion.
Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Time: 6:00 p.m. Pacific, 7:00 p.m. Mountain, 8:00 p.m. Central and 9:00
p.m. Eastern, and elsewhere in the world Wednesday GMT 2:00
Where: Friends of Bookshare Community Room at:
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e
There are no membership requirements, no direct costs, no need to pre-register, and no passwords required. All you need is a PC running Windows 2000 or later, an Internet connection, a sound card, and speakers. Since this is an audio conference, a microphone will be needed to allow you to interact audibly with the presenter and each other. However, text chat is also available. If you are a first-time user of the Accessible World online conferencing software, there is a small, safe software program that you need to download and then run. A link to the software is available on the entry screen of each room.. Note: Archives of events are available for download at http://www.friendsofbookshare.org Media Contact: Pat (Patricia) Price, Planning Committee Chair Friends of Bookshare http://www.friendsofbookshare.org 317-254-1185 pat@xxxxxxxxxxxx Monica Willyard
