HCTIA Faculty Fellow Spotlight: A Conversation with Jonathan Donner

Tell us about your experience at Fletcher so far.

I’ve been a researcher in my professional field (Information and Communication Technologies and Development) for decades, but since most of my work has been in technology and consulting companies, I don’t get to spend as much time in the classroom.   What a joy and privilege it was to teach Fletcher students last spring. The students are amazing – with such a diversity and depth of experiences—it is rewarding to build a course that draws on all of them. I value the extended conversations and opportunity for all of us to exchange ideas.  I’m looking forward to the Spring course, and, in the meantime, to working closely with a couple of students as they pursue their capstone research projects.

Tell us more about your course in the Spring? What can Fletcher students expect to learn from your class.

For decades, the community of practice called “Information and Communication Technologies for Development” (ICT4D) has championed the use of technologies to pursue lofty aspirations like the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.  My course in the Spring will focus on how and why this community is reinventing itself as “Digital Development.” This reinvention reflects additions to the underlying technologies –satellites, platforms, AI, biometric identity, etc.– but also, a changing understanding of the roles each of these play in shaping economies and societies on a crowded, warming, interconnected world. I think it’s important to be able to hold two things true at the same time – that these technologies are, still, tools that can be used ‘for good’, but also are systems that confer or reinforce power and influence in ways that policymakers and the public aren’t always able to understand (let alone shape or control).

So there’s a lot that students can draw from the class. It’s not a technical class, and there are no prerequisites, but if a student wants to pursue a deeper expertise with one of the technologies, they can do an applied project/paper. If instead, they want to reflect on power, justice, and the broader system, that’s there, too.  To bring the threads together, we’ll be visiting topics in the state of the art in Digital Development: health, livelihoods, sustainability, financial inclusion, agriculture, trade, and more.  I’ll make sure that as a class, we identify key actors in the community, from governments and development institutions to NGOs and the new internet giants), that we apply useful toolkits and frameworks from practice, and explore insightful theoretical perspectives from a variety of disciplines.

What can you share about your Platform Livelihoods project.

My other role, outside of Fletcher, continues to be as Senior Director of Research for Caribou Digital, a consultancy focused building more inclusive digital economies. For example, recently in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, my colleagues and I been working on some projects in “Platform Livelihoods” – exploring how people are “working, trading, renting, and creating” in new online marketplaces.  Several projects wrapped up at the same time, just in the next few weeks we’ll be releasing a study on Gender and Platform work, together researchers at the University of Ghana, Qhala Limited in Kenya, Lagos Business School in Nigeria, and the NGO Value for Women. We’re releasing a second study, together with researchers at Kilimo Source in Kenya, Habitus Insight, and Learn.ink on what we call “Social Agriculture” – famers using social media in Kenya as a new marketing channel and source of information. And yet another, again with Qhala, contrasting platform work in eight different sectors of Kenya’s economy, from ‘gig work’ and freelancing to microenterprise and the arts.   All of the videos, reports, and related papers will be available at www.platformlivelihoods.com over the next few weeks. 

Give us some of your favorite podcast recommendations!

On the professional side,  I would recommend the Sunday Podcast by Tech Policy Press. The conversations with researchers and a great mix of in-depth yet approachable – during all the COVID travel bans, this podcast in particular helped me feel like I was still meeting new colleagues, and hearing firsthand about their cutting-edge work.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I grew up surfing in New England and have stuck with it over the years.  I wish I could recommend this as a great summer hobby in Boston, but around here, most of the best waves are in the wintertime.  People will walk through snowdrifts to surf the waves the nor’easters bring. And of course, as in all parts of life, the internet is changing surfing. The forecasts, maps and online communities are amazing – I can plan sessions right on my phone.  That’s great, but of course…so can everyone else!  Can you believe it can be crowded in January?