Project:Possibility News

Project:Possibility Showcases Breakthrough Open-Source Software for Disabled Communities

Project:Possibility — 2008-04-30T07:00:00+01:00

Project Possibility, a non-profit organization striving to create free and accessible software for people with disabilities, has unveiled what happens when altruism and expertise unite.

Project:Possibility held its Semester Project on April 30 at the University of Southern California to showcase the open source software aimed at making a beneficial impact on the disabled community. Software projects premiered Wednesday included: Universal closed-captioning for the Internet, a search engine specifically geared toward finding software for people with disabilities, word prediction software for people with limited mobility, gesture-recognition software for those who have difficulty using keyboard and mouse, and a mobile currency reader for the visually impaired.

Because Project: Possibility is an open-source organization, the finished software products will be made available on online at www.projectpossibility.org so other programmers worldwide can improve the software.

Twelve weeks ago, twenty-five USC students split into five teams, each led by a professional engineer from Google, Amgen, or NASA. The teams sought to expand on their achievements from last year�s competition, "SS12, Code for a Cause," during which the participating students had 24 hours to create useful technologies for the disabled community.

With Project: Possibility, software engineers, programmers and system designers can use their unique skills in a philanthropic and challenging way to make an impact on the world for disabled people, said Ely Lerner, a software developer at Amgen. Lerner helped to create the online closed-captioner for people with hearing impairments. He said it was a wonderful experience for both the programmer and the community served.

Said Christopher Leung, the executive director and founder of Project:Possibility, "We were astounded by the positive feedback, and industry interest in SS12. We knew we had hit on something significant, and we had to see what would result if students were given a longer period of time to work on the software."

"This program was a complete success," Leung added. "We set out with high goals in mind, and though we didn't always hit them, we identified what stopped us."

During the Semester Project, participants had to overcome the pressures of university midterms and finals. Now that the race to complete the projects is over, they said they feel honored to have been involved in such an unparalleled venture. In general, team members said they were grateful for the ability to "code for a cause" while refining their technical skills, and will continue to do so in the future.

"The vision and passion of those involved with Project: Possibility really affected me," said Stanley Lam, a volunteer for the Semester Project. "I saw the excitement that Chris and his team had for this cause and I that everything that he had envisioned might actually come to pass. I wanted to become a part of that."

Leung said Project:Possibility will be repeating both SS12:Code for a Cause and the Semester Project annually.

"Hopefully we did our job of raising awareness around the disabled community while also helping USC students learn more about different technologies," said Jacquelyn Leong, General Manager of the Semester Project. "I hope Project:Possibility will soon expand to other universities and beyond so more people will continue to give back to the community with their engineering skills."

If you would like to contribute to this noble endeavor, please go to www.projectpossibility.org for more information.

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About Project: Possibility
Project:Possibility is a nonprofit, community service project committed to creating groundbreaking open source software for the disabled community. The software that is created through this project is open source--made available in entirety to the world, free of charge. Our mission is to inspire a community of disabled persons and software developers to work together and make a difference by inventing software that will unlock new areas of life for persons with disabilities, giving them access to experiences previously impossible to achieve.

Media Contact:
Jean Guerrero
media@projectpossibility.org
(619) 992-1988

Join the Project:Possibility Team!

Project:Possibility — 2008-04-10T07:00:00+01:00

Are you interested in making a positive difference in people's lives? Are you interested in an empowering experience you won't soon forget? Project:Possibility is a cutting-edge non-profit organization that is approaching the problem of empowering humanity in an entirely new way—beginning with you.

Our team is looking for enthusiastic, talented individuals to take leadership in a variety of volunteer positions, including:

Corporate Relations
Public Relations
University Relations
Marketing
Web Development
Technology/Innovation Development
Accessible Software Engineering

For many of these positions, no technical experience is necessary. For technical roles, training and guidance will be provided. The only requirement is enthusiasm and belief in Project:Possibility's mission!

We are committed to providing empowering opportunities for everyone involved. If you are interested in joining our team, please contact us at info@projectpossibility.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

Open invitation to the Semester Project: Final Review, April 30th

Project:Possibility — 2008-04-09T07:00:00+01:00

The Semester Project continues; professional-led student teams have been making incredible progress on their projects, and the final review which occurs on April 30th of this month on the University of Southern California campus is shaping up to be an exciting event!

The Final Review is the third of three major reviews of students' work throughout this 12-week program, in which each team of students, led by a software engineer from Google, Amgen, or NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is given feedback and guidance by a panel of guest reviewers from academia and industry.

We invite you to support everyone's hard work this semester and join us for the Final Review! This is an open event; food will be served and sponsored by the USC Engineering Graduate Student Association and the USC International Students' Assembly. An awards ceremony will follow the presentations. Be sure to download the flier for all the details.

You can also check out the latest pictures from the Semester Project on our web album. For the latest news and details about the Semester Project, visit the Semester Project home page.

Mozilla and Project:Possibility Team Up at CSUN Disabilities Conference

Project:Possibility — 2008-03-13T07:00:00+01:00

Project:Possibility and the Mozilla Foundation teamed up to promote Firefox 3 at the 2008 CSUN Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference this past week. Firefox 3's array of new and improved accessibility features maintains its status as the most cutting edge browser, particularly in the accessibility arena, not to mention, exactly the type of technology that Project:Possibility is committed to supporting.

Supporting the Firefox effort was Frank Hecker (Mozilla Foundation), Marco Zehe (Firefox Accessibility), Eitan Issacson (Ascender Technologies), Steve Lee (Full Measure), James Teh and Michael Curran of the NVDA project, Joanie Diggs (Carroll Tech), and Christopher Leung (Project:Possibility).

We look forward to the 2009 Conference!

Project:Possibility Announces "The Semester Project"

Project:Possibility — 2008-02-01T08:00:00+01:00

Project:Possibility has opened applications for the Spring 2008 Semester Project Pilot Program at the University of Southern California. The Semester Project is a team-based software development challenge in which professional software engineers lead teams of university students in tackling state of the art assistive technology projects over the course of a semester. Teams who demonstrate significant effort and progress are recognized and awarded prizes at monthly meetings.

The intention of this program is to give working professionals experience in leading a team of software developers in an innovate software project, to give university students a powerful experience in being part of a software development team, and to create innovative software that will make a difference.

Please visit the Semester Project home page for more information about the program. For working professionals interested in participating as team lead, please visit the Semester Project for Leads page.

Project:Possibility Launches Updated Website!

Project:Possibility — 2008-01-30T08:00:00+01:00

The Project:Possibility website has undergone a makeover, primarily to support access to the various projects that have been under development over the past several months. Also, this website now offers information on the academic programs we have been organizing in collaboration with the University of Southern California. This website is designed to be WCAG 1.0 and Section 508 Standards Compliant. We hope that you will contact us with any issues you have around using this website!

Project:Possibility and EyeTech Agree to Hardware Loan

Project:Possibility — 2008-01-09T08:00:00+01:00

EyeTech has generously agreed to loan Project:Possibility the EyeTech TM 3 hardware for use in its open source software development. Plans are in place to augment Project:Possibility projects, such as the Word Prediction project, to utilize this eye-gaze tracking hardware and become beneficial to a wider audience. This hardware will also be featured as a hardware platform in The Semester Project, where students will develop innovative applications that take advantage of unique hardware platforms.

SS12 a Success!

Project:Possibility — 2007-11-19T08:00:00+01:00

The SS12: Code for a Cause event completed yesterday evening. Feedback from participants, mentors, and organizers was overwhelmingly positive—everyone managed to have fun, learn something new, and make a significant contribution to open source a11y. The software developed this weekend will be made available on both the SS12 and Project:Possibility websites. We thank all who volunteered their time towards the event for their heroic efforts over the weekend organizing the event and mentoring the student participants. We also thank all of the sponsors for making this event a reality. Please visit the SS12 Website for the latest updates about the results from the event.

Project:Possibility, ACM, EGSA Launch SS12 Code-A-Thon

Project:Possibility — 2007-10-25T07:00:00+01:00

Project:Possibility, with the assistance of USC Association for Computing Machinery, has launched a WAI-AA compliant registration site for the SS12: Code for a Cause Code-A-Thon challenge. This Code-A-Thon, spearheaded by Project:Possibility, will gather 60 USC undergraduate and graduate students over a weekend for up to 24 hours of open source software development for the disabled community, resulting in up to 1400 hours of development efforts. Project:Possibility will be developing the project concept and mentoring the student teams over the entire event. This event is intended to be educational, fun, and empowering for all of its participants. Please visit the SS12 website for all the details and latest announcements!

Project:Possibility Mentioned in LA Times, USC Chronicle

Project:Possibility — 2007-10-22T07:00:00+01:00

After its appearance at the USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase and Competition, Project:Possibility's accessible music instrument tuner, LunarTuner, was featured in an image in a Los Angeles Times print article on October 12, 2007. On October 22, 2007, Christopher Leung, Project:Possibility's Founder and Chair, was featured on the cover of the USC Chronicle, a newspaper published for USC Faculty and Staff (online version). The Student Innovator Showcase and Competition was a fantastic opportunity for Project:Possibility to propel itself forward and hit many of its planned milestones.

Project:Possibility Confirms USC Code-A-Thon

Project:Possibility — 2007-09-19T07:00:00+01:00

On November 17th and 18th, Project:Possibility in collaboration with the USC Association of Computing Machinery and the USC Engineering Graduate Student Association will be hosting a weekend Code-A-Thon centered around accessibility. USC undergraduate and graduate students will have an opportunity to develop accessible software for disabled persons and win prizes for their work. This event was inspired by a previous Code-A-Thon sponsored by Knowbility.org and the League of Technical Voters.

Project:Possibility Selected for USC Innovator Showcase

Project:Possibility — 2007-09-17T07:00:00+01:00

Project:Possibility has been selected to showcase its progress to date in the USC Student Innovator Showcase and Competition, an event sponsored by the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation. This is the first competition of its kind and an exciting opportunity for the project to garner publicity and support. A completely new five person team was established for this event, consisting of USC Students and a communications graduate of UC Berkeley.

Project:Possibility Introduction Movie Available

Project:Possibility — 2007-08-22T07:00:00+01:00

A short video introducing the intentions of Project:Possibility is now available on YouTube. It is also available for download as a high resolution quicktime (4.2 MB) and low resolution quicktime (1.5 MB). Enjoy!

Project:Possibility Begins Non-Profit Incorporation Process

Project:Possibility — 2007-08-08T07:00:00+01:00

Project:Possibility formed an ad-hoc board of directors and set forward in motion a plan to incorporate Project:Possibility as a 501(c)(3) non-for-profit corporation. Incorporating will open many doors for the project and unlock new opportunities for the project's participants. It will enable the project to accept sponsorships, grants, and tax-deductible donations to support its developers and buy and build hardware and software to propel its cause.

Project:Possibility Joins Forces with Knowbility

Project:Possibility — 2007-06-29T07:00:00+01:00

Project:Possibility held a meeting with directors of Knowbility, an organization dedicated to making the Internet and other technology accessible to all people. The two organizations discussed collaboration on future events such as the 2008 California Web Accessibility Conference and a Project:Possibility hosted Los Angeles Code-A-Thon. Stay tuned!