MaidSafe Foundation - Introduction

I thought it is about time I shared with the community a little introduction about the MaidSafe Foundation and what we have been up to recently.
Given that the Foundation is integral to MaidSafe’s strategy, we feel now is the right time to focus more attention on moving the Foundation forward. It is also something that @dirvine is extremely passionate about.

The Foundation is heavily focused on aiding, assisting and supporting the advancement of education, creativity and innovation. The MaidSafe Foundation works with the local community (and beyond) to develop innovation and creative learning. We are currently in the early process of setting up a Fabrication Laboratory (fab lab) in Ayrshire.
We are starting small and have invited small groups of children sourced locally through the local council childcare services and schools to participate in mobile fab lab workshops. The kids participated in a day of learning, problem solving and of course fun. The days comprised of the kids creating and designing their own t-shirts, laser cutting and assembling their own animal toy, making bristle bots, laser cutting and building a game (connect four) as well as many other things. These workshops have been great fun and enjoyed by all. All kids were incredibly enthusiastic about the fab lab concept and all the children agreed that they would use a fab lab if one were available locally. As we develop we would like to start encouraging entrepreneurs and businesses from further afield to use the equipment.
We are still very much in the infancy stage of this process, and have a few challenges along the way in order to successfully achieve our goals. However, we are off to a good start and if we continue to grow and nurture our mobile fab lab workshops they will grow in popularity and enable the Foundation to positively impact upon as many lives as possible.

Donations
As you may be aware, the Foundation will become self-sustaining as soon as MaidSafe.net becomes profit making and enables dividends to flow into the charity. Until that time, the Foundation exists and is able to provide its free services based on the goodwill of third parties, and is also applying for public sector funding. It is worth noting that the Foundation
is now accepting bitcoin donations. Anyone wishing to make a donation can do so at the following address:

1LTuhdKbTxCoSmjutxydP8bAfzn6USPpTC

100% of all donations and funds raised will go directly to our projects.

Feedback

All the kids were incredibly enthusiastic about the Fab Lab. Below are some of their responses:

100% of the children said they would love the Fab Lab to visit them again.
100% of the children said they would use the Fab Lab if one were available in Troon.

What was the best thing about the Fab Lab?

o Designing t-shirts
o Making bristle bots
o Making toy elephants
o Loads to do
o The laser
o Everything

What would be your dream thing to make in the Fab Lab?

o A laser shooter
o Hats
o The Eiffel Tower
o A potion
o A shrink ray
o A onesay

The local council, who have been using the fab lab had this to say:

“An excellent service which engages children in activities which stretch their imagination and their creativity. The children had a fabulous time and went away home with lots of wonderful creations which made them feel proud of their achievements. A sign of children engaged is seeing the backs of their heads and smiles on their faces and that’s what I saw”. – Diane Hodge Childcare Services Officer, South Ayrshire Council.

A big thank you to @Scott, @Shona and Linda Rose for all their help during our workshop sessions.

30 Likes

donated! :smile: wish this was something accessible to my children

8 Likes

Donated! Will put more when I have it. Love the efforts; very meaningful work being done all around

4 Likes

What - and why - is the plan to monetize the website itself?

I just donated a really ridiculous amount

If somebody find that amount ridiculous, you can sue me.
But since that was my last money, tough luck that you’ll get more money out of me through court.
:stuck_out_tongue:

Please good people keep this up, this Maidsafe Foundation thing is great: Would be fun, if these kids could be taught how to code for the SAFE Network in a playful way

6 Likes

When MaidSafe.net starts to make profit and return dividends, this will start the flow of money to the Foundation as it is MaidSafe’s largest shareholder (@dirvine donated his shares in the company to set this up). So as MaidSafe grows, more and more money will be channelled into the Foundation.

13 Likes

Fablab is primarily for children by the looks.

I also like the idea of fabcafe where the adults get to fabricate, socialize and enjoy good coffee.

4 Likes

I understand your “post exploitation”[1] strategy, once dividends start returning. However I can’t help but notice that your reference is to the site on the clearnet, which does not specify in what ways and to what extent http://maidsafe.net intends to “make profits”.

MaidSafe.net - provisioned by fasthosts.co.uk - does not have a monetization policy specified anywhere on its site. If you plan to make a profit, what is your monetization agenda, and how do you intend to achieve that agenda?

[1]

Post Exploitation Hacking refers to the series of steps to be followed after breaking into a system.
Cybrary.it

I think there is some confusion here. MaidSafe.net is the name of the company and is not referring to monetising the website itself. The dividends I refer to are anticipated to come from MaidSafe taking (initially) 5% of all safecoins generated, earning through the build and release of applications, as well as network farming. These coins will then be converted into £GBP and receipted as income. I hope that makes sense.

3 Likes

It does, thank you for that explanation.

I see in your patent (sorry for the google link in advance) that you do indeed name the patent holder as “maidsafe.net”.

Ok, cool.

On a much less serious note, I’d like to (humorously) point out that (with no relation to the software nor philosophical views of the individual) that this is (once again - humorously) similar to the name “kim dotcom” in regards to the implied meaning of the words, although the literal definition is distinctly different.

1 Like

No worries. We have actually transferred ownership of all patents to the MaidSafe Foundation, not sure how long it takes for this information to populate Google.

4 Likes

I would just like to say thank you for all your kind donations. It really does make a difference and every penny will go towards increasing and improving our fab lab workshops. I will keep you updated with progress and photos as we grow.
So again a big thanks to everyone for all your support :slight_smile:

5 Likes