Posts from 2020
Shuttleworth Foundation Application FAQs
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 23 October 2020
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our first ever application information webinars. We found it a very useful process and hope you got as much out of it as we did. Recordings of each session are here if you need to recap or missed out entirely. Session 1: 23 September 2020 Session 2: 14 October 2020 Below, we have created an FAQ to refine and explain more about the application process and include...
Anil Dash: Honorary Steward, March 2021
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 15 October 2020
Anil Dash is an American entrepreneur, activist and blogging pioneer. He is currently engaged as CEO of Glitch and serves on the board of a diverse range of ethics-oriented organisations. This work includes defending our digital rights with Electronic Frontier Foundation, measuring technology’s societal impact with the Data & Society Research Institute, and protecting vulnerable girls and families from New York with the Lower East Side Girls Club. He is also a board member at...
Fellowship Application Info Session
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 9 September 2020
This is your opportunity to meet the team, learn about our criteria, and alleviate any of your fears, concerns or confusions you have around the application process. It is not a chance to pitch your idea – please save that for your application! – but a session where we will explain our procedures, give you examples of successful applications, and answer as many of your questions as we possibly can. Find out who and what...
COVID-19 & the Case for Massive Small Manufacturing
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 13 July 2020
As the crisis develops, members of the Shuttleworth community are pooling their resources together to form coherent responses to the worldwide shortage of Personal Protective Equipment. We were unsurprised, as, for many, it is a natural extension of their work in open hardware and a desire to do the right thing. For example, Tarek Loubani is 3D-printing face shields for medical workers in Canada, while Luka Mustafa is working with Slovenian companies and Fab Labs...
by SF Team, 10 July 2020
Many have criticised him for producing what has become a handbook to those most keen on being or becoming more powerful in the world. Whether the laws he outlines should be seen as an instruction manual is a valid question. However, even his critics can’t say that these rules don’t apply and are not in active use. In what Greene describes as somewhat of a counter measure, he has written Mastery, an exploration of how...
System Change is the Real Treatment for COVID-19
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 8 July 2020
Simply put, these systems have failed us. The global supply chain struggles to balance significant shocks to both supply and demand, the effects of which will last for long into the foreseeable future. We’ve seen the procurement process turned into a grizzly competition, with states and countries bidding against each other for PPE only to have their orders cancelled when the US Government buys everything. Elsewhere, governments are guilty of wasting valuable resources and time...
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 7 July 2020
Money is an element of the relationship between the funder and those who it funds (in our case, the Foundation and the Fellows), but we’ve moved away from being simply a funder and towards being a holistic support system. “Money is power” is a cliché because of the truth it holds. It’s also wildly incorrect. Traditional philanthropic models use money as a proxy for knowledge or wisdom, wielding the exchange of money as pay-to-play. This...
The system is rigged, 2020 has shown us how much
by SF Team, 2 July 2020
Unprecedented losses in livelihoods along with previously unimaginable restrictions placed on the movement of goods and people have drastically increased food insecurity, among much other suffering, around the world. We imagined it would be a matter of weeks until things got “back to normal”. We were completely wrong. Things may never go back to the way they were, and that might not be a bad thing. In the wake of the effects of the pandemic,...
The Shuttleworth Foundation: An Open Book
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 9 June 2020
As a small organisation operating at a fraction of the budget enjoyed by many other funders, we must continuously and closely scrutinise our work. Our philosophy remains the same, but new fellows, ideas and experiences contribute to our knowledge pool and influence where we go next - and how. We adapt our methods accordingly, weaving in best practices and weeding out roadblocks to our fellows’ mission progress. Just as our views on systemic shifts are...
Next Fellowship Intake: March 2021
by SF Team, 8 June 2020
Our application rhythm is changing. As a small foundation with a single source of capped funding, we continuously strive to protect the integrity and value of our fellowship programme. Occasionally, we make adjustments to keep costs in check. We must also adapt our model in response to the global challenges of our times. A mixture of both these elements means we are moving to one application round per year, with the first new cohort starting...
Tarek Loubani & Glia: Saving Lives With Open Medical Hardware
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 1 April 2020
His fellowship began in March 2017 with an opportunity to explore open hardware processes to create high-quality medical equipment at low cost and improve medical care for patients internationally. As he moves to alumni status, we caught up with Tarek to reflect on what he has achieved and learned, and find out how he has applied openness to create a brand new space ripe with potential for a more equitable future. “I don’t use the...
Anasuya Sengupta: Decolonising the World's White Web
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 1 April 2020
The problem The Internet promises an infinite space for limitless knowledge, but we have a long way to go before it resembles the real world around us. Many understand the digital divide as an access issue, and we are slowly winning that battle: billions more people will be online over the coming years. But what will they find when they get there, and whose knowledge will be available to them? Just as the victors write...
Alasdair Davies & Arribada: Unlocking Conservation Technology
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 1 April 2020
With the Arribada Initiative, he designs, develops and delivers monitoring technology to the conservation community, opens up more opportunities for research, and breaks down the systemic barriers that limit our ability to meet unprecedented environmental challenges. We spoke with Alasdair to reflect on his achievements and experiences over the last three years as a Shuttleworth Fellow and to discover more about the intriguing road ahead for Arribada. “With the Foundation, you get the sense this...
Alasdair, Anasuya and Tarek - New Alumni
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 1 April 2020
Alasdair Davies is driving change in conservation technology with Arribada, creating low-cost tools to better monitor and protect the planet. His fellowship began with a broad idea of using open source solutions to unlock the many barriers faced by conservationists, enabling them to work more efficiently, access better quality data, and achieve more impact in the field. Three years of experimentation and testing has resulted in an impressive array of tangible, useful, open source products....
Welcome Felix, Shannon and Nelson
by Chris McGivern & SF Team, 27 February 2020
Our Honorary Steward, Beth Simone Noveck, has selected three exceptional fellows from a highly compelling shortlist. We thank Beth for her work and input to our process and are delighted with the choices she has made. Each new fellow holds openness at the heart of their ideas and is breaking new ground in their respective fields: Felix is working to make European copyright laws better-suited to the modern, open Internet; Shannon is improving interoperability of...
