Empowering others to make a difference

By removing barriers and accelerating great ideas, the Shuttleworth Foundation hopes to drive educational and technological innovation in South Africa.

The Foundation is based on the belief that education is the key to unlocking the intellectual potential inherent in all individuals while inspiring them to believe that anything is possible.

It is driving social and policy innovation in the fields of education and technology through policy dialogue and practical projects, while engaging with both local and international partners to leverage existing initiatives and promoting the replication of successful programmes undertaken elsewhere.

“Mark’s hope is that his own successes in the field of technology will inspire others. ” says Helen King, Principal Advisor of the Shuttleworth Foundation.

To enable this, the Foundation has identified four areas of focus for its funding. These are communication and analytical skills, open and collaborative resources, intellectual property rights, and telecommunications.

“While the current environment is beset by barriers such as limited and costly broadband access, restrictive intellectual property policies, and pedagogies that do not equip the youth with the skills required to succeed in the 21st century, we are relishing the challenge of driving innovation in these fields and opening up resources and markets,” continues King.

A critical element of this is the focus on communication and analytical skills. The Shuttleworth Foundation believes that developing these skills should be a priority in the African context where resources are often scarce and fundamental skills require specific focus.

These skills provide learners with the foundation they need to grow their academic and professional careers. Schools must therefore ensure that learners build strong capacities in both these dimensions.

“While these skills will equip learners with the basic requirements of the information age the potential of open educational resources can cement this even further. These resources can be truly right for our context, in our languages and freely shared, improving access to relevant educational materials and the quality of education” says King.

These resources can increase access to learning opportunities and encourage more collaborative, student-centric learning. The Shuttleworth Foundation realises the importance of the creation of textbooks, courseware, and other materials for use at school level.

However, it is also committed to developing, testing, and documenting new methods for collaboratively producing education content. It nurtures networks of authors, educators, policy makers, and other funders who share in the belief that learning needs to be accessible and effective for all.

“Following from this educational focus, there is a need to change the way intellectual property rights are managed as it has become overly restrictive as corporate interests have led to a demand for lock-down on rights,” adds King.

The Shuttleworth Foundation supports initiatives that seek a balance between encouraging innovation and benefiting society, the original purpose of creating the rights.

“We live in a time when knowledge, rather than land or raw materials is the basis of wealth and development. This has increased the importance and impact of copyright and patents,” says King.

People have become increasingly aware that the cost of bandwidth in Africa is posing a barrier to the continent’s effective participation in the knowledge economy and limiting local markets and education. High speed, affordable bandwidth is a vital component of growth in business, education and in attracting international investment.

“The opening of the telecommunications market is needed to have effective broadband that is affordable and efficient.

Technology has changed the way we communicate in all aspects of our lives, business, education, socialising have all been touched, South Africa needs to be able to join this knowledge revolution,” concludes King.

From this it is clear that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done for South Africa and the rest of Africa to become competitive in the knowledge economy. However, through organisations like the Shuttleworth Foundation that are empowering individuals to harness their talents, the battle is slowly being won.

About the Shuttleworth Foundation

The Shuttleworth Foundation is powered by a dedicated team of individuals from around the globe that are brought together with a common commitment to empowering education and technology initiatives in South Africa by driving policy reform and best practice, while promoting the use of open standards, technologies and information access.

The team works tirelessly towards these goals, adopting projects that carry a common focus and defending the rights of individuals in terms of information access and knowledge exchange, while providing input to policy formulation within the country.

The organisation drives social and policy innovation in the fields of education and technology through policy dialogue and practical projects while engaging with both local and international partners to leverage off existing initiatives and promote the replication of successful programmes undertaken elsewhere.

The Shuttleworth Foundation carries an open philosophy that includes the promotion of open source, open standards and open information access with the belief that sharing stimulates change and broadens horizons. It is the further belief of the Shuttleworth Foundation that in an African context this open philosophy is key to progress and an enabler for education.

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Press Contacts

Karen Gabriels | Shuttleworth Foundation
Tel +27 21 970-1200 |

Renee Conradie | Emerging Media Communications
Tel +27 11 792-4706 |