Description: Mark Surman is the director of telecentre.org. He is currently an open philanthropy fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation in South Africa where is inventing new ways to apply open source thinking to social change and social investment. Mark also co-convenes conversations about open cities in his hometown of Toronto.
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.
