UK’s Department for International Development Announces Support for the Web Foundation and Web Index

Sir Tim Berners-Lee Receives Inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering

Mar 18, 2013 at 8:55 am • Justin Edwards • Leave a Comment

The Royal Academy of Engineering announced today that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, is one of the recipients of the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which recognizes “outstanding advances in engineering that have changed the world and benefited humanity.” Berners-Lee shares the award with Vinton Cerf, Robert Khan, Louis Pouzin and Marc Andreesen. All five are being recognised for their major contributions to the development of the Internet and the Web.

Reimagine the Concept of Education

Mar 1, 2013 at 9:52 am • Justin Edwards • 1 Comment

From Rosemary Leith, Founding Director of the World Wide Web Foundation. This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

Look out your window at the slum over the wall in New Delhi and imagine how you can change the way the world educates.

Armed with the world-changing practical philosophy of Internet pioneers before him that a computer can do anything you can imagine, Sugata Mitra is showing that if you pose a big question to children, give them access to the Web, they will self-organize and solve the problem. Mitra will now use the TED Prize money to build a School in the Cloud in India and disseminate SOLE toolkits for anyone in the world to initiate their own self-organized learning environments.

Launching Research: Exploring the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries

Feb 19, 2013 at 10:14 am • Justin Edwards • 4 Comments

We are pleased to announce the launch of ‘Exploring the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries‘ (ODDC), a two-year research programme co-ordinated by the World Wide Web Foundation and established with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada).

Interview With Nathaniel Padi – 14 Year Old Mobile Entrepreneur In Ghana

Jan 2, 2013 at 10:22 am • Justin Edwards • 1 Comment

Announcing MY World: A Global Survey for Citizens

Dec 21, 2012 at 12:46 pm • Justin Edwards • Leave a Comment

We are excited to announce our partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, the UN Millennium Campaign, and the Overseas Development Institute to put in place an innovative global survey, known as MY World, to drive global citizen participation in the post-2015 process telling us the changes that would make the most difference to their lives.

Admitting Failure as a Social Entrepreneur

Dec 20, 2012 at 10:18 am • Justin Edwards • 13 Comments

Guest post by Alloysius Attah, alumni of Mobile Web Ghana Lab

Back in high school, what success in education and learning meant to my teachers and parents was that I score straight A(s) at every examination. I was trained to have a perfect score in my examinations and that was success to us. I remember those of mates that were not able to make good grades were labeled as not being serious and were often treated as kids without talent. My dream by then was to finish school and enter one of the best universities in the country – and land a good job after that. Failure was an abominable word in our society and it still is. Society has it that, failure is the worst thing that can happen in our lives – both personally and professionally. And since we are all products of our environment, we grew up believing that from a very young age consciously or unconsciously.

We’re Hiring – Announcing 8 Exciting New Positions

Dec 19, 2012 at 9:44 am • Justin Edwards • Leave a Comment

The Web Foundation is expanding in 2013, with eight new positions announced this week. Positions range from working with our Open Government Data and Web Index programs, to supporting an alliance of public/private partnerships to radically reduce the cost of …

User Feedback on the Open Data Index

Dec 12, 2012 at 8:59 pm • Justin Edwards • Leave a Comment

In September this year, we published a pilot version of the Open Data Index, a ranking of the 61 countries measured by the Web Index but focusing only on indicators of their open data practices. We published the indicators and methodology alongside the Index.

There has been a lively debate about our methodology in the open data community, which we welcome. It will undoubtedly help us to improve the 2013 edition. All kinds of interesting issues have been raised and we’d like to respond to some of the most important.

Mobile Platform Gives Voice To Citizen Reporting On Ghana’s Election

Dec 7, 2012 at 3:21 pm • Justin Edwards • 1 Comment

The Web Foundation has partnered with Al Jazeera Network to launch a mobile-voice channel to generate crowd-sourced news on the recent presidential election in Ghana. Hosted by Kirusa, the platform was able to receive calls from various network subscribers in the country. Airtel Ghana has provided a toll-free number for their subscribers (local charges apply for other networks).

Ahead of this service deployment, Sir Tim Berners-Lee spoke with Al Jazeera’s Sophie Sportiche on Internet connectivity and its future in the unwired world.

UK’s Department for International Development Announces Support for the Web Foundation and Web Index

Nov 13, 2012 at 1:26 pm • Justin Edwards • Leave a Comment

The UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, Rt. Hon. Justine Greening, MP announced today plans to work with the World Wide Web Foundation to give millions of the poorest the power to hold their government to account and improve their lives through mobile technology.

At OpenUp!, a conference convening entrepreneurs, governments and civil society, hosted by Omidyar Network and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), she announced Britain’s plans to help six million of the world’s poorest to benefit from innovative new tech projects in Africa and Asia.