We’ve invested a lot of time and energy into improving our pipelines (think software that automates producing print, web, ePub etc.) and processes. Things have improved significantly and we’re faster and more efficient than before which is continuously raising the bar on quality, review, translation, layout and available formats. It makes sense to put this all to good use and ramp up further openly-licensed title production. We will be able to ensure that each title is available for print, web, mobile, Mxit, and ePub readers.

The list of titles we are currently involved in developing is:

• Natural Sciences and Technology Grades 4-6 [Partner: SASOL Inzalo Foundation];
• Natural Sciences Grades 7-9 [Partner: SASOL Inzalo Foundation];
• Mathematics Grades 10-12 [Sponsor for Grade 11 & 12: MMI Foundation (Metropolitan)];
• Physical Sciences Grades 10-12 [Sponsor for Grade 11 & 12: MMI Foundation (Metropolitan)];
• Life Sciences Grade 10 [Sponsor: Vodacom Foundation]; and
• Mathematical Literacy Grade 10 [Sponsor: Old Mutual Foundation].

The SASOL Inzalo Foundation is also working in partnership with the Ukuqonda Institute to create:

• Mathematics Grades 7-9, and
• Technology Grades 7-9.

We’d like to wrap up the titles we’re currently working on and then begin a phased approach to reworking our FET Mathematics and Physical Sciences books as well as ensuring that every title in the table below is available by the end of December 2016. Numbers in cells indicate a potential phase while the colour of the cell indicates which organisation is developing the content. Blue cells indicate titles we plan on developing/reworking and purple cells indicate titles that another organisation is working on but that will be available under an open licence.

The production phases indicated in the table are:

1. Phase 1: Jan 2014 – Sep 2014
2. Phase 2: Oct 2014 – Jun 2015
3. Phase 3: Jul 2015 – Mar 2016
4. Phase 4: Apr 2016 – Dec 2016

We will begin in September 2013, by prototyping a process for getting more community engagement and feedback in the rework of Mathematics and Physical Sciences Grade 10. The strength of open educational resources lies in the opportunity for community engagement and continuous development. We’ll also be looking for partners and/or sponsors who share this vision and are keen to unlock the content for these subjects and improve all aspects of the accessibility of the content.

Oh, and before anyone forms a lynch mob, I know that IT could/should be under Sciences but the way things are structured at school makes it a relatively stand-alone subject and so I’ve included it as such and we would be interested in languages if partners emerge that are keen on the languages. The subjects listed are the subjects we intend to pursue regardless of sponsors and partners, it will just be faster if we can collaborate.

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While those specific books aren’t actively being pursued, they were the seeds for some our current books and a catalyst for the engagement with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) around Open Educational Resources (OERs). I’m not going to review everything that has happened, if you would like some of the highlights then read Siyavula’s Progress to Sustainability, What happened to the last 5 months and Siyavula’s MVP out.

A new curriculum is being rolled out in South Africa, commonly referred to as CAPS. Next year our Grade 7-9 and 12 learners will start using it, completing the roll out. We are on track to deliver the CAPS-aligned reworks of the FHSST Grade 12 Mathematics and Physical Sciences titles (under the Everything brand) at the end of this month for print and distribution for next year.

In addition, our team is working on extending our success, in partnership with the SASOL Inzalo Foundation, on the Natural Sciences and Technology Grades 4-6 workbooks from last year and is nearing completion of the first volume of the Natural Sciences Grades 7-9 workbooks. Those will also be printed and distributed for the start of the 2014 school year.

At the start of the 2014 school year, 11 years after I started with FHSST trying to make openly-licensed content available, the following titles will be available, in English and Afrikaans, to all government schools under a Creative Commons licence (specific licence may vary) and will have been printed and distributed to all government schools:

• Natural Sciences and Technology Grades 4-6 (approximately 3 million books)
• Natural Sciences Grades 7-9 (approximately 3 million books)
• Mathematics Grades 10-12 (approximately 1.5 million books)
• Physical Sciences Grades 10-12 (approximately 1.1 million books)

If we throw in our initial old-curriculum Grade 11 and 12 books distributed last year then we’re over the 10 million printed OERs in circulation (total school learner population 12M).

We have also completed some titles which have yet to be printed but are available in digital format and for printing:

• Life Sciences Grade 10
• Mathematical Literacy Grade 10

Further openly-licensed titles are being developed by the SASOL Inzalo Foundation covering:

• Mathematics Grades 7-9
• Technology Grades 7-9

In the original vision for FHSST we wanted to make sure every learner could access the content they needed to learn. Our journey with Siyavula has allowed us to put books on desks but also demonstrate significant web-, mobile- and Mxit-based uptake which, in my opinion, makes our content legally, technically and practically accessible. Have a look at the traffic to our Mathematics and Physical Science content so far this year:

Maths

Science

You can read about what sorts of things we’re starting to learn from this data in a proof-of-concept report we produced last year.

We’re continuing to make great strides at an ever increasing pace on the openly-licensed content front, no sign of slowing down after 11 years.

So what’s next, we just launched an overhaul to the premium offering around Everything Maths and Science so we’re progressing well on that front. When we’re done with our current titles we’d like to continue pushing OERs into the mainstream. Personally, I’d like to overhaul Mathematics and Physical Sciences 10-12 again, we used these titles to beat down the door to DBE, develop and test all our pipelines and design our processes. They deserve the benefit of everything we’ve learnt in the last few years and we could make them much more interactive and get feedback on how they’ve been used. We’ll also continue to pursue more content production, we’ve identified 45 titles that we’d like to make sure are openly available in the next few years (20 of them will be done by the end of 2013).

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Never mind whether Edward Snowden is a martyr or a rogue warrior, just know that he is extremely unlikely to ever exist in South Africa thanks to the recently approved “secrecy bill“.  Whistleblowers in the public service in South Africa enjoy some protection if they are disclosing information that reveals criminal activity but what the NSA have been doing with Prism is apparently legal.  The law itself requires review.  In South Africa, the chances of anyone getting that far are slim, not to mention the fear engendered by the current ambiguity around whistleblower protection.

And in South Africa the situation is arguably worse than in the US.  Note that while the big Internet companies have leapt forward to seek permission from the government to be more transparent about what they have shared and how, the reactions from Verizon and AT&T have been “We have no comment”.

Verizon and AT&T on PRISM: "We have no comment." http://t.co/DKPziaVGWq

— CNNMoney Tech (@CNNMoneyTech) June 7, 2013

There is no tradition of openness or transparency for telecommunications operators, not even the pretence.  In South Africa, the communication regulator can’t even get the information they are legally entitled to from the mobile operators in order to better regulate the market.  The culture of secrecy is embedded in telecommunications companies where all attempts at transparency are brushed off as potentially compromising their competitiveness.  I experienced this first hand when trying to get Telkom to release a map of their fibre infrastructure in South Africa.  They responded that they “decline to grant access to the records since they contain financial, commercial, scientific, and/or technical information, other than trade secrets, the disclosure of which is likely to cause harm to the commercial or financial interests of Telkom“.  In the end only public embarrassment forced their hand.

And South Africa, similar to at least 34 other countries in Africa, has enacted legislation to make the registration of mobile sim cards mandatory.   In the security-conscious United States, you can still purchase a pre-paid SIM card without having to register it.  The argument for SIM registration has been that of improved law enforcement though be able to better track criminals yet no evidence has ever been presented that backs up that assertion.  Maintaining a SIM registration database is dangerous to personal privacy.  While there are legal protections against its abuse, you have to be confident that the technology and process safeguards exist to back that up.  When the South African Police Service website was hacked a few weeks ago, they didn’t even know it had happened.

So here are three things I’d like to see in South Africa in the wake of the NSA Prism scandal:

1. Real whistleblower protection for public service employees. Support the Right2Know campaign!
2. An end to mandatory SIM card registration until evidence is produced that a) it actually makes a difference; and b) sufficient safeguards are in place around its use.
3. Tougher rules that oblige better and more consistent transparency on the part of telecommunication operators.

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On Wednesday, 22 May 2013, on the topic of human rights, and during the Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues, Prof James Anaya, Mr Cecil Le Fleur, delivered a statement on behalf of the National Khoisan Council in South Africa.  In the statement, Mr Le Fleur called upon the South African government to urgently implement the recommendations of the former Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues, Prof Rodolfo Stavenhagen set out in his report on his mission to South Africa.  He said that although South Africa is now a free country, it cannot be a true democracy if the Khoi-San peoples are not afforded the right to self-determination as envisaged by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

• The leadership and governance structures of the dominant tribes were recognized by our democratic dispensation 18 years ago.  However, the Khoi-San as the first indigenous peoples, are still struggling 18 years after the dismantling of apartheid to get the same recognition from our South African government. We call upon the government to enact legislation that recognizes the Khoi-San peoples’ indigenous institutions and leadership, without further delay.
• We ask for formal recognition of our collective land and heritage rights defined in terms of our ancestral territories including  use; access and management rights; 
• We ask that government set up a Ministry to deal specifically with Khoi-San affairs, led by skilled Khoi-San persons in cooperation with other partners; 
• We ask that Affirmative Action policies not continue to marginalize and discriminate against the Khoi-San through the continued stigmatization of being labelled Coloured through the system of apartheid as mentioned by Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Prof. Rodolfo Stavenhagen’s Mission to South Africa of 2005;.

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Dr. Wilmot James, Member of Parliament Photo courtesy of Democratic Alliance

A Protection of Traditional Knowledge bill based on the bill drafted by the incumbent of the StellenboschChair of IP Law, Professor Owen Dean, was published in the official government gazette and was tabled in Parliament by Dr. Wilmot James earlier this year. This bill, referred to as “Wilmot’s Bill” serves as an alternative to the widely criticized Government bill. President Zuma refused to sign Government bill citing constitutional concerns and ordered it returned to Parliament for consideration by the House of Traditional Leaders. The Portfolio committee, despite the President’s objections, recommended that the Government bill be passed into law. In addition to creating dedicated legislation to the protection on traditional knowledge, Wilmot’s bill would also provide for the establishment of a National Register of Traditional Knowledge as well as a National Council and National Trust and trust fund in respect of traditional knowledge.

In a synopsis accompanying the bill, Professor Dean explained that this bill is meant to provide adequate, financially viable, legally enforceable protection for traditional knowledge that will

• Provide sui generis (of its own kind/unique) protection for traditional knowledge,
• Comply with South Africa’s international obligations,
• Give effect to the principles for the protection of indigenous knowledge advocated by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
• Safeguard our existent IP statutes from irreparable harm 
• Establish a more sophisticated system for the protection of traditional knowledge in South Africa that far exceeds the level of protection anywhere else in the world.
• Provide how intellectual property rights will be protected;
• Determine what is eligible for traditional knowledge intellectual property right protection;
• Provide ownership definitions for traditional knowledge intellectual property rights; a
• Provide for the duration, nature and scope of the traditional knowledge intellectual property rights

     

For the Bill submitted by  Dr. Wilmot James, see here. For Professor Owen Dean’s bill, see here. For the synopsis of Professor Owen Deean’s bill, see here. 

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A workshop on the international legislative framework and the South African domestic laws relating to access and benefit sharing was held in Zeerust, South Africa on 9 and 10 April 2013. This workshop was the second of three workshops in a pilot project funded by the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Institute, and organised by the Indigenous Knowledge Systems unit of the Medical Research Council of South Africa. Laureen Manuel and Stephanie Booker of Natural Justice conducted the workshop, which included presentations and training on biocultural community protocols (BCPs).

The participants of the workshop included committee members and youth from the Mokgola community in Zeerust. The topics covered the international and domestic law on Access and Benefit Sharing, specifically the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol, and the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act and Bioprospecting, Access and Benefit Sharing Regulations of South Africa.

The presentation and group discussions on BCPs revealed some community tensions which ended in concurrence that there needs to be more discussion within the community to reach agreement on certain issues.

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Via abs-initiative.info

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