Shuttleworth Fellows Chat March 8 2012




 * Helen Turvey - well - my passion is building this organisation that supports seriously smart people at the edges of development


 * Marcin Jakubowski - My passion is creating the open source economy as a viable economic option. I live in a mud hut and meet Fortune 500 people all over the world. I have found that aggressive pursuit of strategic partners is key. I would want to travel and visit people in person, that has been my latest strategy. I think a dedicated facilitator or 'collaboration incubator' could help sniff out opportunities and present them to the potential collaborators. Focus on high vision and value generation sustains the process in long term - such as us doing production.


 * Arthur Attwell - My passion is making book content accessible to everyone -- especially those who live far from bookstores or will never see a credit card or a computer. My project is Paperight. Essentially, we're making it possible for anyone with any printer to print books for their customers legally and easily. we have a very specific, audicious goal: *to put every book within walking distance of every home within five years* We leverage existing ebook and rights infrastructure to make it happen. Revenue model: publishers charge a rights fee for printouts, and we take a cut. we're also pitching integrations with distance-learning institutions that are paid SAAS (software as a service -- the vageuest possible term for selling automation :) (http://paperight.com and http://arthurattwell.com).  I've just been invited to participate in a Silicon Cape (http://www.siliconcape.com/) mentorship programme, and waiting to hear details. Will keep you posted.


 * Gavin Weale - My passion is improving young people's lives by giving them control of their own media platforms... specifically, now, in Africa. the wider context is Livity, essentially a marketing agency set up 11 years ago to try and use brand marketing spend for social change. which evolved into a series of campaigns, platforms and methodologies that have taken on a life of their own. One such platform is www.live-magazine.co.uk - a youth magazine made entirely by young peope in London UK, and sustained by ad revenue. … and thanks to shuttleworth funding, this has now become Live Magazine SA, a multi-platform youth content channel produced entirely by south african youth - iin print and soon to be on mobile. here's a link to our youtube channel (which has some more background): http://www.youtube.com/livemagsa and my blog is at http://www.livityafrica.com . Michelle, founder of Livity was over from UK for this, and we spent intense time together talking about the evolving biz model here. SO SO SO useful. came to realise that... she is my mentor! i've been whining to people for ages how i need / want a business mentor. Gavin Weale: and we did a lot of planning about managing growth, the emerging start-up and getting lots of key processes into place. issue 2 of LMSA is online now at issuu: http://issuu.com/livityafrica/docs/live_magazine_sa_issue_2_issuu


 * Karien Bezuidenhuit - my passion is to help passionate people realise their vision. the biggest challenge has been finding mentors who also get Open. Arthur Attwell: @KB True. I think finding a mentor is like dating: you have to do a lot of it to find the right person. Helen Turvey: yes - I am re-meeting with openbusiness.cc again at some point next week - I will do some digging. had a great trip to the US, which i have shared in between, one of the highlights was getting to meet marcin in person and visiting his farm


 * Paul Gardner-Stephen: So my passion is making sure that people can communicate anywhere, anytime. seeing that when the phone networks went down, people could not use their cell phones to communicate, even though they really have two-way radios and should be able to communicate.  Thus was born servalproject.org. Blog at http://servalpaul.blogspot.com.au/ . HOT: http://gigaom.com/2012/02/28/googles-schmidt-preaches-tech-utopia-to-the-choir/

Note: sorry, had to censor sensitive matirial on communications megaliths blocking open communications. Apply within to hear the truth:) -MJ