Success! - Hewlett Funding Proposal Approved

Wayne Mackintosh

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Jul 27, 2009, 4:51:06 AM7/27/09

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Hi everyone,

I'm very pleased to share the news that our recent bid submitted to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been successful.

The OER Foundation has been awarded a grant of $200 000 to support strategic WikiEducator projects.

This is a testament to our community's passion and commitment to collaborative models of OER creation and distribution. The WikiEducator community can stand proud and take a brief moment of reflection and celebrate what we have achieved! This is another significant milestone for the WikiEducator family and our wiki model of OER development.

This generous funding support from the Hewlett foundation will enable us to:

1) Continue WikiEducator's work in hosting the world's largest wiki skills training project in the formal education sector. This grant will ensure that we can continue providing a minimum of one online Learning4Content workshop for the next 2 years. WikiEducator will continue to provide opportunities for educators around the world to acquire wiki skills for OER content development and collaboration.
2) Build a technology bridge for OER content interoperability between Connexions and the Mediawiki software platforms thus fostering further development and scalability of the OER ecosystem among projects which subscribe to the free cultural works definition.
3) Establish a national OER collaboration for the school sector in New Zealand with the view to developing resources and models that can be reused and remixed for other countries around the world.

I would also like to congratulate our friends at the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and their respective community projects.

The Hewlett Foundation have also awarded the WMF a grant of $500,000 for general operating support of the largest free content initiative in the world. Congratulations to our free content partners at the WMF! This combined with the recent resolution of WMF projects to support the CC-BY-SA license is reason for celebration in the free culture movement --- particularly those projects which have remained true to licensing alternatives which meet the requirements of the free cultural works definition.

I'm proud that the OER Foundation and WikiEducator have remained true to our core values modeling approaches for open philanthropy by developing all our funding proposals openly and transparently in the wiki.

A special word of thanks to every WikiEducator who continues to demonstrate that the purpose of education is to share knowledge freely.

Now onto making the future happen -- we have lots of work to do and we're going to need all the help we can get!

Cheers
Wayne

Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D.
Director,
International Centre for Open Education,
Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand.
Board of Directors, OER Foundation.
Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org
Mobile +64 21 2436 380
Skype: WGMNZ1
Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg

Paul Seiler

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Jul 27, 2009, 5:49:01 AM7/27/09

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A wonderful achievement. Well done.

Paul

On Jul 27, 8:51 pm, Wayne Mackintosh <mackintosh.wa...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Wayne Mackintosh

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Jul 27, 2009, 6:07:01 AM7/27/09

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Hi Paul,

<blush> WE Appreciate your word's of congratulations to the WikiEducator family.

The project's growing international success is also the result of national initiatives and collaborations moving OER forward.

In this regard we shouldn't forget the New Zealand Ministry of Education who are also supporting the growth and implementation of OER using a wiki model within the school sector.

The NZ Ministry of Education's work in thinking about reusable and portable content and prioritising OER using the advantages of a wiki model is not only well-founded in terms of a research-led approach, but is also inspirational. You know what they say --- "You can't lead from behind" and the NZ Ministry's leadership will ensure future success of OER in the school sector nationally while serving as an example for others to consider.

Cheers
Wayne

2009/7/27 Paul Seiler <paul....@minedu.govt.nz>

--

Gita Mathur

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Jul 27, 2009, 6:50:28 AM7/27/09

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Hi Wayne
CONGRATULATIONS! to the WikiEducator Community. Wayne your leadership
and enthusiasm have lead to this achievement. Hope to get many more
devoted & commited teachers & Educators to contribute to this endeavour.
Warm regards
Gita
-
Dr. Gita Mathur <gita....@gmail.com>
Associate Professor of Botany
Gargi College (University of Delhi)
Siri Fort Road, New Delhi 110049
skype:gitamathur

Web:
http://wikieducator.org/User:Gita_Mathur
http://wikieducator.org/India
http://www.slideshare.net/Gita_Mathur
http://wikieducator.org/EL4C26
http://wikieducator.org/EL4C27

Wayne Mackintosh

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Jul 27, 2009, 7:06:19 AM7/27/09

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Namaste Gita

<Blush> -- Like yourself, I'm an educator/teacher that is driven by the satisfaction of making the world a better place.

The growth of devoted and committed teachers across the world is what inspires our OER work.

I grew up to witness the scourge of apartheid in South Africa --- and as you know, your father of Indian independence spent some time in South Africa working on the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in those difficult years. Mahatma Gandhi has challenged us to: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

OER is an opportunity for individual educators to live up to Gandhi's challenge :-)

Cheers and thanks
Wayne

2009/7/27 Gita Mathur <gita....@gmail.com>

--

Maria Droujkova

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Jul 27, 2009, 7:27:39 AM7/27/09

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Congratulations!!!! Great job!

Cheers,
MariaD

Make math your own, to make your own math.

http://www.naturalmath.com social math site
http://groups.google.com/group/naturalmath subscribe now to discuss future math culture with parents, researchers and techies
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Savithri Singh

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Jul 27, 2009, 7:40:52 AM7/27/09

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Dear Wayne,

CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS!!! I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW THAT WE IS THERE FOR THEM!!

Savithri Singh

2009/7/27 Maria Droujkova <drou...@gmail.com>

--
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Principal
Acharya Narendra Dev College
(University of Delhi)
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New Delhi 110 019

Tel: 2629 4542, 2629 3224, 2641 2547
Fax: (011) 2629 4540
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http://wikieducator.org/India/wikieducator_launch
http://www.slideshare.net/singh.savithri

Sarita Kumar

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Jul 27, 2009, 8:49:03 AM7/27/09

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Wow!!! Great News. Congrats

Sarita

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http://wikieducator.org/User:Saritasanjay
http://wikieducator.org/India

Gladys Gahona

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Jul 27, 2009, 8:55:32 AM7/27/09

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That's excellent news Wayne!

Warm wishes

2009/7/27 Sarita Kumar <sarita....@gmail.com>

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Gladys Gahona
Private Teacher (Math, Physics, Chemistry) Secondary & Tertiary grades.
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Barbara Dieu

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Jul 27, 2009, 8:56:24 AM7/27/09

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Fantastic news, Wayne! Way to go!
Warm regards from Brazil,
Bee

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Robert Kruhlak

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Jul 27, 2009, 11:47:51 AM7/27/09

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Congrats Wayne! Wonderful wake up call <smile>

Cheers
Rob

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Burnaby, BC
CANADA
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Randy Fisher

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Jul 27, 2009, 12:05:36 PM7/27/09

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Hi Wayne,

This is indeed wonderful news ~ and a credit to your tireless devotion and commitment to seeking funding and resource support for the WikiEducator project. Of course, it is the community's growth and productivity which makes your 'job' that much easier!

Now that the technology/infrastructure funding needs are sorted out, I look forward to the next stage of the project's development, whereby the OER Foundation reaches out to prospective members, to join us in realizing our dream. These 'members' will include educational institutions, corporate sponsors, governments, aligned nonprofits and project-specific stakeholders. It will be important to leverage our past, and most recent successes to bring others on board.

Speaking of 'leverage', I wish to congratulate the NZ Ministry of Education for its leadership role (and behaviour). The NZ national OER collaboration is an exciting example, for others around the world to emulate and replicate (according to their priorities, customs, and context, of course). It's also an 'example' that folks and organizations in the WE community can 'leverage' to achieve national, provincial/state, or even sectoral goals. Exciting times.

I look forward to the rollout of our next steps, and facilitating these relationships and opportunities wherever possible.

Bravo to Wayne, and to the WE community.

- Randy

On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 1:51 AM, Wayne Mackintosh <mackinto...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
________________
Randy Fisher MA, OMD

* Change Management, Learning & Performance
* Stakeholder Engagement, Virtual Collaboration & Communities of Practice
* Organization Design & Development
* Coaching & Facilitation
* E-Learning

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"Open Education is a Sustainable & Renewable Resource.

Alison Snieckus

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Jul 27, 2009, 3:26:39 PM7/27/09

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Wayne,
Much congratulations to you and the WE community at large. In particular, I look forward to having the Connexions content more directly accessible in WikiEducator.
Alison