Re: [Accessibility] Announcing BrailleBlaster

[John J. Boyer]

The wording about copyright simply means that the sponsors will defend 
the Open Souce nature of BrailleBlaster if anyone abuses it. ViewPlus is 
a vendor of embossers. Abilitiessoft is innterested in developing 
software for people with disabilities, preferably Open Source. It is set 
up as a commercial organization because that is simpler and less 
restrictive than being a nonprofit.

John

On Thu, Jul 08, 2010 at 11:28:43AM +0530, Sasikumar M wrote:
>    Nice initiative. But the clause "BrailleBlaster's sponsors are ViewPlus
>    Technologies, Inc. and
>    Abilitiessoft, Inc. They will hold the license copyright." is a little
>    tricky. It is not clear what this means, since both the companies are
>    commercial entities. Can you clarify, please?
>    *
>    - Sasi
> 
>    On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 10:57 AM, John J. Boyer
>    <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>      This is an announcement of an exciting new software development project
>      that will greatly increase the availability and usability of Braille.
>      Since this is an open source project, you are invited to participate. We
>      need transcribers and technical writers as well as programmers.
> 
>      BrailleBlaster will be excellent for translating and formatting braille
>      and inserting tactile graphics and hence release a blast of braille.
> 
>      It will be very user-friendly for non-technical users but also powerful
>      enough for experts.
> 
>      Naive users will be able easily to compose simple documents and then
>      translate and emboss them in braille or read them on a braille display.
> 
>      Advanced users will be able to divide books into multiple braille
>      volumes, with title pages, tables of contents, and end-notes for each
>      volume.
> 
>      The BrailleBlaster project should be completed within less than two
>      years.
> 
>      BrailleBlaster will be fully usable in speech or braille by people who
>      are blind.
> 
>      It will be designed for Windows, MacIntosh, and Linux operating systems
>      and common screenreaders
> 
>      It will have visual display controls that make it maximally accessible
>      for users with low vision and other visual disabilities.
> 
>      It will be localized into most major languages.
> 
>      BrailleBlaster will be developed under the Apache 2.0 license, which
>      permits broad use, including use in commercial software.
> 
>      BrailleBlaster's sponsors are ViewPlus Technologies, Inc. and
>      Abilitiessoft, Inc. They will hold the license copyright.
> 
>      --
>      John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
>      Abilitiessoft, Inc.
>      [2]http://www.abilitiessoft.com
>      Madison, Wisconsin USA
>      Developing software for people with disabilities
> 
>      _______________________________________________
>      Accessibility mailing list
>      address@hidden
>      [4]http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/accessibility
> 
>    --
>    M Sasikumar, KBCS/ETU/OSS Divisions, *CDAC Mumbai (formerly NCST) - Navi
>    Mumbai campus
>    *** check me out on twitter as thelittlesasi ***
> 
> References
> 
>    Visible links
>    1. mailto:address@hidden
>    2. http://www.abilitiessoft.com/
>    3. mailto:address@hidden
>    4. http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/accessibility

-- 
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities