The Shuttleworth Foundation funded education and technology projects to the tune of R12 million in 2002 and another R20 million has been budgeted for this year, with about R9 million earmarked for education projects alone.
According to Reana Rossouw, Shuttleworth Foundation CEO, the organisation receives more than 200 proposals a month for requests for funding and aims to give grants ranging from R5 000 to R1 million.
The Shuttleworth Foundation was set up by software millionaire Mark Shuttleworth with the aim of promoting maths, science and technology in education. It also promotes the use of open source software for rural and disadvantaged people, and its Hip2b^2 programme plans to address social development among learners and generate income for projects aimed at improving education in the country.
Rossouw says projects that received funding last year included www.translate.org.za, which aims to produce multilingual South African versions of popular open source software applications. Another project was the Linux Libraries, which aims to prove the software could be used to establish "telecentres" inside libraries of disadvantaged communities.
"Open source software has generated a lot of interest from the private sector and government," Rossouw says. "We expect a major announcement to be made within the next couple of months about its implementation."
The Hip2b^2 branding exercise is to make the foundation self-sustaining through revenue generated from youth-oriented sales of clothing, accessories and other goods.
Rossouw says the Shuttleworth Foundation looks for high-risk projects that are aimed at benefiting the community and will often fund projects that the more traditional charity funds will not.
"Part of our challenge is to prove that open source software is suitable for education and community development, not least because of its thin-client service structure," she says.
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