Volunteers, I am passing along announcement of a new Benetech employee. Carl Rand's addition to the Bookshare side of the organization means that the DIAGRAM project is underway. In the short term this will have no impact on your work. Over the longer term of years not months, especially noting Jim and Betsy's mention of image description, we expect new breakthroughs to result in new tools. The end should be a greater appreciation of the value you add already to books with the images you describe and a more streamlined process for inserting them into digital books. You can be proud that you are a part of an organization with a vision that is not limited by what was impossible only a year ago. Scott Rains Benetech Fellow, Bookshare Volunteer Department ________________________________________ From: Betsy Beaumon Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 4:00 PM To: Benetech Employees Subject: Welcome Carl Rand Please join me in welcoming Carl Rand to Benetech. Carl is joining us as the Program Manager for the DIAGRAM (Digital Image and Graphic for Accessible Materials) Center. In this role he is the main driver of all the day-to-day activities of this 5 year, $5m project, including managing multiple project threads with partners and subcontractors, disseminating information to the public and insuring useful tools and processes are delivered and usable. He comes to us with an extensive background in technology program/project management in both IT and development environments, as well as experience in business process improvement, business continuity planning, systems engineering, risk assessment and mitigation, mentoring, training and curriculum development. Carl has worked for several corporations including CA (Computer Associates), NetApp, Intuit, Nortel Networks, Visa International and IBM as well as an electronic medical records software start-up. In an earlier life, he worked as a marine research biologist and secondary school science teacher. In addition to his day jobs, Carl has been a featured track and workshop speaker at several ProjectWorld conferences and is an instructor in the Project Management Certificate Program for UC Irvine Extension. He is an active member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP). Carl holds an MBA from Pepperdine University and a BA in Marine Biology from Occidental College and stays in touch with the marine environment by sailing and scuba diving whenever he gets the chance. Carl will be located in Palo Alto, in the back half of the first floor. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.