# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/stephen-downes
# Generated: 2026-08-12T17:12:44.320Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/stephen-downes"
name: "Stephen Downes"
slug: "stephen-downes"
description: "Stephen Downes is a Canadian philosopher and commentator in the fields of online learning and new media. He has explored and promoted the educational use of computer and online technologies since 1995. He gave the 2004 Buntine Oration and was a presenter at the February 2007 Online Connectivism Conference. In 2008, Downes and George Siemens designed and taught an online, open course reported as a \"landmark in the small but growing push toward 'open teaching'\" - widely considered the first massive open online course (MOOC)."
tagline: "Canadian philosopher"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Stephen_Downes_2009_cropped.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Canada"
  isoCode: "CA"
birthDate: "1959-04-06"
livingStatus: "LIVING"
scores:
  popularity:           58.23
  momentum:             7.837511846299646
  historical:           7.011952
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  65
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
totalFollowers: 1670
platforms:
  - platform:  "X"
    url:       "https://x.com/Downes"
    handle:    "Downes"
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "http://www.downes.ca"
  - platform:  "YOUTUBE"
    url:       "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mk-nJCobXFBXE9AUZtDzQ"
    handle:    "@stephendownes"
    followers: 1670
sources:
  - url: "https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes"
    title: "Stephen Downes"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%86_%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B2_(%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85_%D9%83%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B1_%D9%85%D9%86_%D9%83%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7)"
    title: "ستيفن داونز (عالم كومبيوتر من كندا)"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes"
    title: "Stephen Downes"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes"
    title: "Stephen Downes"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes"
    title: "Stephen Downes"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes"
    title: "Stephen Downes"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes"
    title: "Stephen Downes"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes"
    title: "Stephen Downes"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3498542"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump