Mark Surman is in the business of connecting things: people, ideas, everything. A community technology activist for almost 20 years, Mark is currently an open philanthropy fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation in South Africa, where he is inventing new ways to apply open source thinking to social innovation. He is also the partnership advisor and former managing director at telecentre.org, a $26 million effort to network community technology activists in countries around the world. On the side, Mark convenes conversations about all things 'open' in Toronto and around the world.

Previously, Mark was 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, and worked on the team that designed and managed the Government of Ontario's Volunteer @ction Online grants program. Before that, Mark trained social activists to make their own documentaries and worked for a good number of commercial television stations.

Mark's biggest fetishes are community, conversation and collaboration. He has facilitated over three dozen participatory workshops and unconferences, including Open Cities, Hollyhock's Web of Change, CopyCamp, PenguinDay.ca and countless telecentre.org events. "Passionate conversation," says Mark, "is an essential fuel for building successful networks and communities."

When he finds time, Mark likes to write about community, technology and changing the world. He's proud to have written things like From the Ground Up (a nice picture book about why telecentres matter), Commonspace (FT.com book about web 2.0, written before there was web 2.0) and Appropriating Technology for Social Change (SSRC research paper about activism on the Internet). When he was still an idealistic student, he wrote From VTR to Cyberspace, an illustrated essay about Gramsci, community television and the Internet. Now his idealistic ramblings appear on his blog.

The following is a sample of Mark's work. Click on 'more' in each category for full information.

Shuttleworth Foundation - Open Philanthropy Fellow
Eighteen month fellowship to integrate open source thinking and business practices into how the day to day work of the Shuttleworth Foundation. Also responsible for international network building and outreach, especially in the area of open education. 2007 - present

telecentre.org - Managing Director
Designed and managed joint Canada / Switzerland / Microsoft initiative to network community technology activists around the world. Established program and team, developed grassroots engagement and grant making strategy, grew budget from $11 million to $26 million and built a global community of networks spanning over 30 countries. 2005 - 2007

The Commons Group - President
Founded small consulting group that developed and managed projects connecting networks, technology and social change. Also, worked extensively on open source software development and advocacy within the non-profit sector. Grew company from one to ten people before winding it down to start telecentre.org 1998 - 2004

Web Networks - Director of Content and Community
Managed the community and technology services divisions of Web Networks, a $1.4 million/year social enterprise providing Internet services to Canadian non-profits. Included product development and day-to-day management for community portal, web hosting and application development business lines. 1994 to 1998

Program Design and Grant Review - Ontario Ministry of Citizenship (V@O)
Provided senior program planning and evaluation advice to the director of Volunteer @ction Online, an $11.5 million funding pool supporting non-profit Internet projects. Also, provided pre-approval sustainability and technology review for all proposals being considered by the program, and worked directly with potential grantees to improve their proposals in these areas. 1998 - 2001

Changing Technology Funding Practices - IMPACS
Worked with the Institue for Media Policy and Civil Society to promote broader understanding of technology issues amongst Canadian grantmakers. Included development of various articles on technology funding as well as a cross Canada series of workshops and consultations. 2003 - 2004

APC ActionApps - Association for Progressive Communications
Leadership and project management for APC's 'Action Applications', a collection of open source web publishing and constellation building tools. Developed specs, managed global development team, worked with funders. 1998 - 2001

BalkanBytes Business Planning Workshops - Regional Environmental Centre
Ran business planning workshop to help environmental NGOs in South Eastern Europe develop technology and information services enterprises. Each participating network created a plan describing market needs, products and services, marketing strategy and financing. 2004

Open Sourcing Education in South Africa - Ubuntu Live
Portland, OR, USA: Presentation on the open (source) education strategies being developed by the Shuttleworth Foundation. 2007

The Future of Open Education - iSummit 2007
Dubrovnik, Croatia: Presentations and facilitation for three day track on the future of open education at iCommons iSummit 2007. 2007

Telecentre Community Development Workshops - telecentre.org
Various locations: Convened and co-facilitated over 20 workshops gathering social entrepreneurs from the community technology sector in Europe, Asia and Africa. 2005 - 2007

Open Sourcing Education
Learning and wisdom from iSummit 2007 Sep 07 2007

From the Ground Up
The evolution of the telecentre movement Aug 19 2007

The Evolution of Learning
Taking open educational resources to the next level Jul 29 2007

Aspiration - Board of Directors
Worked with executive director and other board members to develop sustainability strategy for organization aimed at getting better software solutions into the hands of non-profits. 2007 - present

Centre for Social Innovation - Open Franchising Advisor
Collaborated with board and leadership team to develop open franchising model that will allow CSI to rapidly spread it's shared workplace and incubation programs across Canada. 2008 - present

rabble.ca - Co-founder
Developed original business and technology plan and served as board member for Canada's most popular progressive news web site. 2001 - 2004

Independent Study (History of Community Media) - Bachelor of Arts - University of Toronto
Independent study degree looking at Challenge for Change and other early examples of community-based electronic media. The degree also included courses in international development, cultural studies and communications at Trent, Queens and Ryerson.
1988 – 1995