Are you our new Digital Publishing and Data Lead?

Book Dash is a South African not-for-profit, social impact publisher of new, high-quality African picturebooks for young children. Our overarching vision is that “Every child should own a hundred books by the age of five”. 

All Book Dash books are created by volunteer creatives following an innovative, 12-hour publishing methodology called a “Book Dash”. The books are then published to our website, free to travel the world for all to read, access, download and adapt. In addition to this wide-scale digital distribution of our open-licensed content, we source funds and work with partners to print and distribute physical copies of the books to children to own.

We’re known for being bold, impactful, innovative and open. For more details on our work, see bookdash.org/what-we-do/how-we-do-it. We’re based in Cape Town, but work with partners nationally and internationally for a global footprint.

More about the role

Book Dash started as a vision project in 2014 by a group of individuals who wanted to change the landscape of access to great books for all young children. Today, we have 166 original titles in our catalogue, manage and publish 500+ translations and have printed and distributed close to 2 million physical copies to children through partners. 

This steady growth in work and impact has resulted in our seeking additional capacity in the three core areas below, so that we can continue on our mission to create new, African storybooks that anyone can freely translate and distribute. 

  • Digital publishing and distribution strategy
  • Content & metadata management
  • Data management

We’re a small, friendly and organised team with a fast-growing impact. You would join a full-time team of three, as well as have ongoing interactions with the content partners who use Book Dash books, our treasured creative volunteers, the Board and with a number of expert external suppliers.

All Book Dash employees work closely together and play an essential role in the general operations, impact and success of the organisation. We allocate project and work together, and pitch in where necessary to get the job done. However, we each have areas of expertise, insight and responsibility. This is a new role. Direction would come from the Executive Director, but taking initiative will be essential and you’d play a part in shaping your role into what the organisation needs it to be.

Your focus areas in the organisation would be:

  • Digital publishing and content distribution strategy:
    • Manage digital publishing workflows
    • Content management
    • Metadata-system management
    • Global content partnership management, content delivery and development
  • Information and data-management
    • In addition to managing content and metadata for the books, you would also assist with the management and visualization of impact-related data against our M&E Framework, which could include
      • Manage, track & visualise partner data & feedback
      • Develop and manage robust photo-management system

As with everyone involved in Book Dash, your top priority would be to support the growth and vision of the organisation in line with the achievement of our mid and long-term strategic goals. This will require you to be adaptable and it is essential to enjoy working at both a strategic level, as well as implementation level: doing some of the tasks required to achieve the strategy yourself. 

Example projects could include:

  • Developing a system for an audit of global content partners who use Book Dash books in their work, and data visualisation of the key metrics
  • Maintaining Google Data studio dashboard with key impacts metrics
  • Maintenance of metadata management systems
  • Investigation of Amazon Web Service products and management of migration
  • Development of digital workflow with expert consultants

Priorities will be identified and projects designed in collaboration with the relevant members of the Book Dash team, and training provided where needed.

Characteristics, Experience & Skillsets

When we imagine our new team member, we reckon that you are

  1. An all-rounder: You enjoy working on a wide-range of projects at a time that have different focus areas. You manage your time and energy accordingly. It’s likely that you have often found yourself involved in extracurricular activities and have many hobbies.
  2. Tech-inclined: Technology excites you. You enjoy exploring tech software, tools and systems to see how they could be applied pragmatically to support an organisation’s work. General tech troubleshooting for the organisation is something you’d be on board with, and you would enjoy working closely with developers and digital-publishing experts to realise a particular project roll-out.
  3. Data-savvy: Very comfortable gathering, manipulating, interpreting and visualising data sets. You love a good spreadsheet and Excel formulas excite you.
  4. Experienced: As this is a strategic lead position, we imagine you’ve been working for about 5 years already. You’ve likely worked with content, data and project management and digital workflows. You may have specific experience in publishing management, digital publishing, data, monitoring & evaluation, development or product management.
  5. A teamplayer: Nothing is above or below you, you’re happy to work together where needed to get the job done, as well as try things you might not have done before. You enjoy seeing how your work contributes to a larger vision.
  6. Detail-oriented & organised: You’re super passionate about detail and order which means that you love working with systems, processes and data. You feel satisfied when things are structured and organised exactly as they should be.
  7. An analytical thinker: You can identify patterns across situations that are not obviously related and identify underlying issues in complex situations. 
  8. Proactive: You identify possible solutions to barriers you encounter. You enjoy taking ownership and accountability for delivered results by using available resources effectively. You plan, manage and monitor projects with ease and joy.
  9. Inquisitive & curious: You love to learn. You like to teach yourself things and dig a layer deeper to explore and understand a complex problem in order to find a solution. You enjoy uncovering more about a topic, analysing and representing those findings.
  10. Compassionate: Doing meaningful work that’s good for the world is a priority for you.

If you feel as if this is describing you, we want to hear from you! Application details below.

Location

The Book Dash office is based in Cape Town. Team members have stipulated, but flexible working hours between work-from-home and office hours.

Applying

Applications are open from 14 October to midnight SAST on 14 November 2021

If you have a Gmail account, or are happy to create one, the simplest way to apply is to:

  • complete the application form here: forms.gle/tKEVQi4s5b8E7Zfx9.
  • You will be required to attach a letter of motivation and your CV as PDFs so have these ready beforehand
    • Your letter should highlight why you’re best-suited for this role, and detail specific experience, skills and education that would make you the perfect fit.
    • Your CV should be up to date, with references & their contact details. Please note, we will only refer to CVs for shortlisted candidates, so anything you’d like to highlight needs to be presented in your written letter of motivation.

If you do not have a Gmail account you can email the following information to team@bookdash.org with your full name as the Subject:

  • Name & Surname
  • City of residence
  • Attach a letter of motivation for this role. This should highlight why you’re best-suited for this role, and specific skills, experience and education that would make you the perfect fit.
  • Attach an up-to-date CV with references & their contact details. Please note, we will only refer to CVs for shortlisted candidates, so anything you’d like to highlight needs to be presented in your written letter of motivation.

Offer & Compensation

This position will be a long-term contract, with the intention to make a permanent offer. Start-date would be early in 2022. Exact date, salary offer and additional benefits will be discussed with the preferred candidate.

Queries

Any queries can be sent through to team@bookdash.org

Update: Please note that this application process closed on 30 July. We are not accepting any new applications as we’re currently in the review process.

1 July 2021: Book Dash Board Member Positions advertisement

Book Dash is a South African-based social-impact publisher of children’s books. Our vision is that “Every child should own a hundred books by the age of five”, and our innovative publishing model (driven by professional creative volunteers) allows us to produce an abundance of books at a fraction of the usual cost. 

We have printed and distributed 1.5 million physical books to children under five in South Africa, and our books are read by hundreds of thousands of people across the globe on free reading platforms, and adapted in many different ways. We’re a registered NPO and PBO. More at bookdash.org.

Book Dash is an ambitious organisation, established in 2014 and growing in impact yearly. To help us achieve our goals, the Book Dash team is seeking to appoint new Board members to bring fresh insights and new skill sets to the organisation. We are not necessarily looking for executive-level applicants with Board-level experience, but for capable, interested and committed people who can help us achieve our vision. 

Who we’re looking for

Black South Africans* who have skills and experience in any of the following areas are invited to apply to join this award-winning non-profit organisation:

  • Specialists in child development in general and ECD and early literacy in particular
  • Specialists in reading promotion, language acquisition and/or multi-lingualism
  • Specialists in diversifying across geographies 
  • Specialists in social impact with access to diverse areas of funding or partnerships 
  • Specialists in logistics and scaling (e.g. FMCG)
  • Specialists in financial, legal or business management.

Book Dash’s core principles are listed below, and whoever wants to join our Board needs to be a believer in all of them:

  • Ownership: Owning books is essential to a young child’s well-being and development.
  • Abundance: A child needs to own many books in order to fall in love with reading.
  • Representation: Young children need access to books in which they can read about characters that reflect their realities, in the language that they know best. 
  • Enjoyment: Our books are fun and engaging to create avid readers – they are not reading instruction materials.
  • Openness: Book Dash books are published under a Creative Commons open license license. This means that there are no rights to sell, and no option of exclusivity: the books are a gift to the world, and are free for anyone to use, thereby drastically increasing their reach.
  • Early impact: The earlier the intervention, the bigger the impact.

About the role

  • Board members are not paid for their time and input.
  • There are two scheduled Board meetings per year, as well as some subcommittee work.
  • All meetings and work is conducted online, so candidates can be based anywhere, but would need reliable access to the internet.
  • Terms for Board Members are 3 years long, with an initial probation period.

We are open to applications from people who believe in what we do, and feel that they can contribute meaningfully.

Process to apply

If you are interested in joining the Book Dash Board, please send a letter of motivation to board@bookdash.org. In the letter, please highlight relevant experience, explain why you would like to join the Book Dash Board, and what contribution you think you would make. You can include your CV should you wish, but should assume that we might only read your letter of motivation in the initial selection process.

 We reserve the right to not appoint anyone.

*Although this is not a B-BBEE position, Book Dash is committed to increasing our diversity in decision-making positions in the organisation, and this includes (but is not limited to) racial diversity. As a result, we are seeking candidates as per the B-BBEE Act guidelines laid out in the act and detailed below:

“Black people is a generic term which means Africans, Coloureds and Indians–

  • Who are citizens of the Republic of South Africa by birth or descent; or
  • Who became citizens of the Republic of South Africa by naturalization.”

Book Dash is looking for a small team of tech-savvy graduates or freelancers available immediately for short term contract work within the month of February.

The job would comprise work on our WordPress site to upload all existing African language versions of our books for the world to enjoy.

There is no software development work or experience required for this job and you don’t need to be able to speak an African language to be able to do the work.

Book Dash is a South African, not-for-profit publisher of beautiful, African picturebooks for all to enjoy. Our vision is that “Every child should own one hundred books by the age of five”. You can read the books here: bookdash.org/books.

You’d be an ideal fit for this job if:

  • You’re already familiar with working in WordPress
  • You’re meticulous, pay attention to detail and enjoy following a structured workflow
  • You have your own laptop and would be willing and able to work from a COVID-safe office location in Salt River, Cape Town
  • Are available to work between the 17th – 23rd February, ideally full days (at least 25 hours, potentially more)
  • Enjoy working in a team to get a job done
  • Ideally, our vision resonates with you and you value the power of books to change lives
  • Please note that there is no software development involved in this job, and experience in that field is therefore not required but an understanding of how websites work is preferable.

Outline of the job:

  • You’ll be uploading multiple African language versions of Book Dash’s extensive library of picturebooks to our website, allowing them to be read by anyone
  • You’ll need to follow the workflow provided and report to a team leader, correcting errors that come up
  • You would be paid a rate/book uploaded and report on your progress to a team leader
  • You’ll be provided with training, expected to have your own machine and ideally be able to work from a COVID-safe office in Salt River, Cape Town
  • We’re also seeking a Team Leader who would have additional quality assurance responsibilities, and be responsible for keeping the project on track and the team working according to timelines provided.

Interested candidates must please email julia@bookdash.org with:

  • your full name as the subject line
  • a short explanation of prior experience, especially WordPress experience, and experience working in or managing a team, that would make you a good fit for this job
  • at least one reference or testimonial from someone for whom you’ve done similar work
  • any qualifications you feel relevant

Expression of interest is due by 3pm on Friday, 12th February 2021, but we may fill up spaces as appropriate candidates apply.

Questions can be sent to julia@bookdash.org

Thess events were recorded as part of the Open Publishing Fest, 2020 – a decentralized public event that brings together communities supporting open source software, open content, and open publishing models. For more visit: openpublishingfest.org

Book Dash was involved in three exciting events:

  • Book Dash and the power of open: We gather a couple of our incredible partners who re-use Book Dash books in all sorts of wonderful ways to tell us how the open license we use, powers their work too. Watch the recorded session here: youtu.be/XM5bptZVHbw
  • Productivity, Sprints and Remoteness: We reflect on our Virtual Book Dash with Book Sprints and learn from their experience with virtual, fast-paced book-making, too. If you’re interested in the processes and tricks behind collaborative, book-making on a deadline, check out the session recording here: youtu.be/BfNbgG6FQBU
  • Book Dash: Origins and Evolution: the Book Dash founders speak about the origins and the evolution of the innovative Book Dash model for producing new, African storybooks in just twelve hours. Missed it? Watch the event: youtu.be/cEAB7M7YDvU

 We’re fully registered with MySchool, meaning it’s quick and easy to add us to your profile.

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