You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Reporting' tag.
Structure:
Each monthly report will be broken up into 5 different posts. One general post about how we are and what we have been up to and 4 based on investment area (telecommunication, IPR, communication and analytical skills and open and collaborative resources). Each post will be tagged appropriately and all posts from the same month will be categorised as such (this month’s is February 2008).
Education trends:
Each month the Institute of Futures Research publishes a paper about developments in education or technology globally. This month’s Education Trends shows an alarming rate of attrition in the South African education system. Only about a quarter of those that enter the education system matriculate. Given the skills gap we are currently facing in this country, it does not bode well for the next generation.
When reading figures like this, it only strengthens my resolve that we must make systemic change. That is why it is imperative that we face this crisis and start to think about how to solve it, and think about how to solve it now. Building more schools, having feeding programmes and looking at security issues are all vital areas to intervene, yet they do not ask the tough questions. What next? What is beyond? How can everyone benefit? What sort of society are we building? We must allow those with potential and motivation, to have access to, and permission to use, information that could make a difference.
The Shuttleworth Foundation’s mission is to drive innovation in education and technology. Philosophically, we do that by: accelerating great ideas and removing barriers. Practically that means we pilot projects and pedagogies, and back excellent people to drive help drive our agenda.
The way we do business, entertain and educate has changed due to the communication afforded through technology. Shouldn’t everyone, including those that have the least (and hence the most to gain) be able to benefit?
Open is a very important word to us at the Foundation. Open source, open standards, open licenses, open access. Ultimately all of these things allow the developing world to participate in the wonderful knowledge economy that has transformed the worlds of those with access.
Currently we are focused on: telecommunications (everyone must have access to be able to participate), intellectual property (everyone must be able to participate legally and freely), open and collaborative educational resources (learners need to have access on their terms, and in their context) and communication and analytical skills (new skills that are needed to be able to participate meaningfully).
We believe that innovation happens within these areas quicker and more efficiently if we share. Regularly, those that are at our offices in Cape Town have lunch together to discuss an article, watch a TED talk (a recent and welcome addition), review books and ideas in these areas. We also use this time to debrief and solicit ideas from the team about particular issues. One such lunchtime concentrated on the first in a series of papers we are going to release about how we work. We will be highlighting our successful (and not so successful) processes and practises and inviting you to learn and help us learn in the process.
Out of that meeting, we began to focus on how we report on the activities within the Foundation. We report on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis (to internal stakeholders, trustees, and publicly, respectively). This involves a lot of thought about what has happened and some thought on what we have learnt from it – but not enough and not shared widely enough for anyone else to benefit.
With this in mind, I am going to start blogging the monthly reports. These reports are made up from all within the Foundation and is simply re-purposed to ensure they are readable. We hope you enjoy!
