Fellows

Andrew Rens | Fellow | Intellectual Property

Andrew Rens is Intellectual Property Fellow for the Shuttleworth Foundation. He is also Legal Lead for Creative Commons South Africa, a co-founder and director of The African Commons Project, charter member of Freedom to Innovate South Africa and a research associate at the LINK Center. After teaching at Wits Law School he was a fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.

A renowned speaker in his field, Andrew has delivered addresses at the Second Conference on Access to Knowledge at Yale Law School, Digital Citizens Indaba at Rhodes University and the National Science and Technology Forum. He also writes on access to knowledge, the commons and intellectual property and is an avid blogger at www.aliquidnovi.org.

Steve Song | Fellow | Telecommunications

Steve Song is the Shuttleworth Foundation's Telecommunications Fellow. He is focused on providing the organisation with support and thought leadership on access to communications infrastructure and its impact on social and economic innovation and growth.

Steve worked at the International Development Research Centre for ten years before joining the Shuttleworth Foundation. At the IDRC he led the centre's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programmes in Africa.

Steve is a former Senior Programme Officer with the Bellanet International Secretariat where his work focused on knowledge management and its implications for international development. Here he also researched open source approaches to collaborative work. He has led a number of knowledge management strategic planning missions and organised workshops throughout Africa and Asia.

He has also worked in the area of ICTs and development since 1991 and was involved in the early development of the Internet for the non-profit community in South Africa, including developing some of the first websites for non-profits in the country, and pioneering the first on-line searchable newspaper archive in Africa.

Steve's background is largely technical having studied Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Toronto and having worked for many years in the computer industry. However, he prefers to refer to himself as a "reformed" technologist. He has traveled extensively in Africa including making a solo trip from Cape Town to Cairo by motorcycle in 1994.

Mark Surman | Fellow | Open Philanthropy

Mark Surman is an Open Philanthropy Fellow, providing support and thought leadership on how community, networks and all things 'open' can increase the impact of the social innovations supported by the at the Shuttleworth Foundation. He also works closely with the Foundation's Open and Collaborative Resources team and leads a number of other grassroots innovation networks including telecentre.org and Open Cites Toronto.

A community technology activist for almost 20 years, Mark was previously president of the Commons Group, a research and strategy firm focused on collaboration, community building and social technology. He also served as Director of Content and Community at Web Networks, Canada's first and largest non-profit Internet provider. Before that Mark trained social activists to make their own documentaries and worked for a good number of commercial television stations. His interests include his kids, sharing, passion, open everything, Internet culture, funky tech - and how people use it.

Steve Vosloo | Fellow | Communication and Analytical Skills

Steve Vosloo is Communication and Analytical Skills Fellow for the Shuttleworth Foundation, guiding the organisation's strategy in terms of tackling the challenges that face South Africa from an education perspective. He began his career as a web developer, working in both Johannesburg and London during the dot-com boom. Since having moved back to South Africa he has developed a passion for the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for socio-economic development.

Steve was the Design & Usability Team Leader at the Centre for e-Innovation for the Provincial Government of the Western Cape and ensured that the award-winning Cape Gateway portal was as usable and accessible to as many citizens of the Western Cape as possible. He has also presented at numerous UN conferences on e-government, local digital content and youth and ICTs.

Steve has an Honours degree in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town and has just returned to South Africa after a one-year Digital Vision Fellowship at Stanford University where he researched youth and digital media.

Steve's hobbies include traveling; from weekends in the Western Cape to any form of far-flung international travel.