Website marksurman.commons.ca Name Mark Surman | Spouse Tonya Surman Alma mater University of Toronto | |
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Born February 20, 1969 (age 55) ( 1969-02-20 ) Toronto, Ontario Occupation Executive director of the Mozilla Foundation | ||
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Mark Surman is the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation. He supports the notions of web literacy (the skills and competencies needed for reading, writing, and participating on the web) and Open Philanthropy (which advocates the transparency of the operations of nonprofit organizations toward the public).
Contents
- Tedxkids brussels mark surman hackasaurus
- Mark surman executive director of the mozilla foundation usa
- Education and early employment
- Mozilla Foundation
- Author
- Personal life
- References
Surman is a board member of the Toronto Arts Foundation and an advisor to Peer to Peer University.
Mark surman executive director of the mozilla foundation usa
Education and early employment
Surman received his bachelor's degree in the history of community media from the University of Toronto in 1994.
In 1998, Surman co-founded and became president of the Commons Group, providing advice on networks, technology, and social change.
From 2005 to 2008, Surman was the managing director of telecentre.org. Created by Canada's International Development Research Centre, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and Microsoft, telecentre.org worked to network the global telecentre community, and improve their sustainability.
The Shuttleworth Foundation, which provides funding for people engaged in social change, awarded Surman one of its inaugural fellowship in 2007. There he helped advance thinking about how to apply open source approaches to philanthropy.
Mozilla Foundation
In August 2008, Surman became the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, an independent non-profit that was launched on July 15, 2003 as America Online shut down the Netscape browser division and drastically scaled back its involvement with the Mozilla project.
As executive director, Surman oversaw the launch of Drumbeat, a "global community of people who steward the open web, explaining and protecting the internet as a critical public resource," by supporting projects and local events that gathers creative people "around big ideas, solving problems and building the open web."
In 2012 Surman launched Mozilla’s Maker Party. In those events, volunteers associated with the Mozilla Foundation teach web-literacy classes, focusing on tools, projects, and community.
In 2013, foundation volunteers conducted 1,700 teaching events in 331 cities. At the White House's first-ever Maker's Faire in 2014, hosted by President Barack Obama, Surman and Mozilla announced that Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National 4-H Council, and the Association of Science and Technology Centers would partner with Mozilla for the 2014 Maker Parties.
In 2015 the Mozilla Foundation and Surman started expanding this work by launching Mozilla Learning Networks in 500 cities. These networks design, deliver and spread web literacy curriculum and teaching tools.
Author
In 2005, Prentice Hall published his book "Commonspace: Beyond Virtual Community." And "From the Ground Up: The Evolution of the Telecentre Movement" was published by Telecentre.org in 2006.
Surman also has written opinion editorials for the Washington Post, CNN.com, Globe and Mail, Chronicle of Philanthropy, MIT's Innovations, and Fast Company.
Surman has been interviewed by NPR Morning Edition, The Irish Times, CBC, and other outlets.
Personal life
Surman was born in Toronto, Ontario. He currently resides in Toronto with his two sons, Ethan and Tristan Surman.