François is the Regional Research Manager for the Open Data Lab Africa, co-ordinating existing IDRC-funded research including open data in agriculture, cities and illicit financial flows including others, as well as scoping new research. He has several years of research experience as an independent researcher, mainly in the areas of open data, higher education studies and scholarly communication. Open data-related publications include Viscous open data: The roles of intermediaries in an open data ecosystem, Open Data Intermediaries in Developing Countries andEmbedding Open Data Practice.
François also has more than 15 years of management experience as founder of COMPRESS.dsl, a publishing services company for non-governmental organisations in Africa, as well as of African Minds, an open access academic book publisher.
François is a graduate from the University of Cape Town in English Literature. He has been awarded an MPhil in Publishing Studies from the University of Stirling and an MEd in Higher Education Studies from the University of the Western Cape. He is currently registered for a PhD inScience Communication at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
