New paths for opening the world


Welcome to Openworld!

We are a transnational social venture formed to help grassroots initiatives and global good causes become self-funding. Openworld catalyzes formation of free zones and free institutions – actual as well as virtual – in new ways that build assets for civil society initiatives.

Openworld is working at present on three tracks.

I.  Innovative ideas...

Openworld strategies apply free market ideas to create assets for humane and progressive initiatives at local and international levels.

  • New Catalysts for Sustainability: A Global Opportunity for Digital Philanthropy. In this white paper, Openworld President Mark Frazier reviews opportunities for microscholarships and other digital challenge grants to spread skills, promote policy reforms, and leverage public land transfers in ways that make nonprofit groups self-funding.  A summary of findings from this 11-month Sabre Foundation-sponsored, and Whitehead Foundation-backed, research project is available here. The full 80-page strategy paper -- including an appendix of resources for sustainability -- is also downloadable.  *New*  To advance key business climate reforms proposed in the white paper, an Openworld Institute has been formed to promote free and open source eGovernment solutions that will enable communities to make  land grants more valuable as lasting endowments for local and global good causes.  Openworld has also launched a public discussion forum on opportunities for "Opening the World with Virtual Catalysts."
  • Market-Based Approaches to Reducing Global Greenhouse Emissions: an African Reforestation Initiative. In a recent paper for the Congressional International Conservation Caucus, Openworld Chairman Soleman Abdi Idd sets out a sustainable way for international companies to partner with communities in privately funded reforestation projects that will reduce global greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  The presentation can be accessed here.
  • 21st Century Incentive Systems for Peer Learning.  Students at a bootstrap school in rural Sri Lanka offer results of their web research on updating the widely-used 19th Century Lancaster System of rewarding students who teach students. Their work-study project paper is here.  *New*  Openworld's new "Assisting Entrepreneurial Schools" portal has introduced a pioneering proposal to engage students as designers/co-owners of new for-profit charter schools, in communities where public schools are failing to deliver high quality education.
  • Paths Toward Peace:  A Sri Lankan Example for Post-Conflict Societies.  This article by Mark Frazier, published in Vision in Action magazine, surveys replicable ways for information technologies to create jobs and improve transparency of business climates in areas recovering from war.  The article is also downloadable.

 
II.  Grassroots action...

On-the-ground projects we are assisting include:

  • the Horizon Lanka Academy in Sri Lanka. Openworld and its partners are helping to fund microscholarships, work-study projects, student creation of eLessons, and a dedicated internet connection for a pioneering private school launched on a volunteer basis in rural in Sri Lanka. The project is now attracting diaspora funding for land grant endowments to help ensure its sustainability, and gaining national media and political support as a replicable model for villages across the country.
  • eCenters and Microscholarship Funds in Kyrgyzstan.   With support from the Academy for Educational Development and a $100,000 catalytic microvoucher challenge grant from USAID, Openworld is assisting private telecenter operators in this Central Asian country in extending online learning and certification opportunities at grassroots levels, following local commitment of land grants as endowments for ongoing microscholarship funds. A new multimedia presentation on their progress -- with more than 5000 microvouchers disbursed in the first year -- can be seen here.
  • Strategy development for Business Parks and eGovernment initiatives in Bulgaria. In response to the growing interest of Bulgarian municipalities in private sector-led eCenters and Business and Technology Parks, Openworld and its partners are offering to assist selected communities in designing "quickstart" facilities and development tenders for land grant concessions that offer liberalized business climates.

In addition, Openworld is extending catalytic offers of microscholarships, work-study projects, and in-kind contributions -- including video cameras, notebook computers, and software -- to local self-help initiatives that are interested in endowing microvoucher funds and "eAcademies" through land grants in Somalia, Haiti, Gabon, and Uganda.

III. Virtual tools and support systems...

Openworld and its partners also have a range of online projects to promote sustainable eLearning opportunities and to support private sector-led projects that can generate resources for local microscholarship funds. These include:

  • (with funding from USAID's Regional Competitiveness Initiative) for jobseekers and freelancers in Macedonia, Kosovo, and Montenegro to find projects in rapidly growing online free markets for telework;
  • Offering "Openworld Presenter" freeware/shareware authoring tools for creation of eLessons that can fill gaps in existing educational systems; 
     
  • Using free Skype internet calling software for diaspora and other volunteer faculty to offer online "English as a Second Language" practice sessions for schools serving poor communities;
     
  • Working with FLOW -- an emerging movement for liberating the entrepreneurial spirit and focusing it on the goals of sustainable peace, prosperity, and happiness -- to engage students in cross-cultural exchange to understand and develop Openworld approaches to local social and economic development; and
     
  • Providing digital toolkits in international and local languages for private development of eAcademies, eCenters and Technology Parks around the world on a success-sharing basis with nonprofit organizations. Click for more on tools for global eAcademies , Bulgarian eCenters and Business/Technology Parks, and Krygyz eCenters.

The new Openworld Institute is also moving to sponsor global free and open source software teams that will develop turn-key eGovernment solutions for web-based land registries and business climate liberalizations, as a means of raising the value of land assets held by local self-help organizations and their regional and global nonprofit partners.

 
Where Openworld is heading

Our projects are grounded in the experience of a global team that has worked over the past two decades in more than 60 countries on national and local economic policy liberalization, telecommunications, skills development, telecenter, and business and technology park development projects.

We see Openworld's initiatives in coming years leading to creation of "open world zones" and "World Cities" that can replicate the asset-building success of ZonAmerica (Uruguay), Freeport (Bahamas), Singapore, and Dubai. The seeds we are planting for civil society institutions are intended to bring forth sustainable nonpolitical solutions that generate new skills, health, and job opportunities for all who seek them.

We will welcome your interest and support in helping to open the world!  Please visit our new guestbook to register for updates, and/or email us with ideas on how you can help out. We look forward to hearing from you.