about me
I am a researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India in Bangalore. My primary research interests concern the economic and social implications of the spread of mobile telephony in the developing world. Visit my MSRI homepage for updates on current projects. I am currently based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Previously, I was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. I have also been a consultant with the Monitor Group in Cambridge, MA, and with its spin-off, the OTF Group. I have a Ph.D. from Stanford in Communication Theory and Research.
You can reach me at: jonathan <<at>> jonathandonner . com
publications
book
Ling, Richard & Donner, Jonathan (2009). Mobile Communication. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
journal articles and book chapters
Donner, Jonathan. (2009). Mobile-based livelihood services in Africa: pilots and early deployments. In M. Fernández-Ardèvol & A. Ros (Eds.), Communication technologies in Latin America and Africa: A multidisciplinary perspective (pp. 37-58). Barcelona: IN3.
Donner, Jonathan. (2009). Blurring livelihoods and lives: The social uses of mobile phones and socioeconomic development. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 4(1), 91-101.
Donner, Jonathan. (2009). Mobile media on low-cost handsets: The resiliency of text messaging among small enterprises in India (and beyond). In G. Goggin & L. Hjorth (Eds.), Mobile technologies: from telecommunications to media (pp. 93-104). New York: Routledge.
Steenson, Molly & Donner, J. (2009). Beyond the personal and private: Modes of mobile phone sharing in urban India (pp. 231-250). In S. W. Campbell & R. Ling (Eds.), The Reconstruction of Space and Time: Mobile Communication Practices (Vol. 1). Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Books.
Donner, Jonathan, & Tellez, Camilo A. (2008). Mobile banking and economic development: Linking adoption, impact, and use. Asian Journal of Communication 18(4) 318-332. (alternate link to preprint version)
Donner, Jonathan. (2008). Shrinking fourth world? Mobiles, development, and inclusion (pp. 28-42). In J. Katz (Ed.), The handbook of mobile communication studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Donner, Jonathan, Rangaswamy, N., Steenson, M. W., & Wei, C. (2008). “Express yourself” and “Stay together”: The middle-class Indian family (pp. 325-338). In J. Katz (Ed.), The handbook of mobile communication studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Donner, Jonathan. (2008). Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World: A Review of the Literature. The Information Society 24(3), 140-159. (Alternate link to author post version)
Donner, J., Verclas, K., & Toyama, K. (2008). Reflections on MobileActive08 and the M4D Landscape. In J. S. Pettersson (Ed.), Proceedings of the First International Conference on M4D (pp. 73-83). Karlstad, Sweden: Karlstad University Studies.
Donner, Jonathan. (2007). Customer acquisition among small and informal businesses in urban India: Comparing face to face, interpersonal, and mediated channels. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 32(3) 1-16.
Donner, Jonathan. (2007). The Rules of Beeping: Exchanging Messages Via Intentional “Missed Calls” on Mobile Phones. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1).
Donner, Jonathan. (2006). The use of mobile phones by microentrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda: Changes to social and business networks. Information Technologies and International Development 3 (2): 3-19.
Donner, Jonathan. (2005). The social and economic implications of mobile telephony in Rwanda: An ownership/access typology. In P. Glotz, S. Bertschi & C. Locke (Eds.), Thumb culture: The meaning of mobile phones for society (pp. 37-52). Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag. (Alternate URL // Reprint))
Donner, Jonathan (2005). The mobile behaviors of Kigali’s microentrepreneurs: whom they call – and why. In Kristof Nyiri, ed., A Sense of Place: The Global and the Local in Mobile Communication. Vienna: Passagen Verlag.
Donner, Jonathan (2004). Microentrepreneurs and mobiles: an exploration of the uses of mobile phones by small business owners in Rwanda. Information Technologies and International Development 2(1), 1-22.
Donner, Jonathan (2003). What mobile phones mean to Rwandan entrepreneurs. In Kristof Nyiri, ed., Mobile Democracy: Essays on Society, Self and Politics. Vienna: Passagen Verlag: 393-410.
Donner, Jonathan. (2001). Using Q sorts in participatory processes: An introduction to the methodology. In Social Analysis: Selected Tools and Techniques (Social Development Papers 36, pp. 24-49). Washington, DC: The World Bank.
selected conference presentations
Walton, M., & Donner, J. (2009, 9-11 October). Read-Write-Erase: Mobile-mediated publics in South Africa’s 2009 elections. Paper presented at the International Conference on Mobile Communication and Social Policy, New Brunswick, NJ.
Donner, J., & Gitau, S. (2009, 30 September). Four frames of social software use by mobile-centric internet users Paper presented at the GLOBICOMP Workshop: A preconference workshop of UBICOMP2009, Orlando.
Donner, J., & Toyama, K. (2009, 17-21 August). Persistent themes in ICT4D Research: priorities for inter-methodological exchange. Paper presented at the 57′th Session of the International Statistics Institute (ISI), Durban, South Africa.
Donner, J., & Escobari, M. (2009, 17-19 April). A review of the research on mobile use by micro and small enterprises (MSEs). Paper presented at ICTD2009, the International Conference on Information and Communications Technologies and Development, Qatar. (prepublication paper) (slides)
Donner, J., & Gitau, S. (2009, 15 April). New paths: exploring mobile-centric internet use in Cape Town. Paper presented at the Workshop on Mobile Media in South Africa, University of Cape Town. (paper) (slides)
Donner, Jonathan. (2007, July 2-4). Perspectives on mobiles and PCs: Attitudinal convergence and divergence among small businesses in urban India. Paper presented at the Mobile Media: An international conference on social and cultural aspects of mobile phones, convergent media, and wireless technologies, Sydney, Australia.
Donner, Jonathan. (2006, September 28-30) Internet use (and non-use) among urban microenterprises in the developing world: An update from India. Paper presented at Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), Brisbane, Australia.
Nyaruhirira, I., L. Munyakazi, J. Donner, J. Ruxin, C. Schocken, D. Ellis, G. Scharffenberger, P. Johnson, L. Sundaram. (2004, July). Technology Supports Rapid Scale-Up of Rwanda’s HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Programs. Presented at “AIDS 2004: XV International Conference”. Bangkok, Thailand.
Donner, Jonathan (2004, June). Innovative approaches to public health information systems in developing countries: An example from Rwanda. Presented at ‘Mobile Technology and Health: Benefits and Risks’. Hosted by the Department of Economics, Society, and Geography at the University of Udine, Udine, Italy.
other publications
Donner, Jonathan, Rikin Gandhi, Paul Javid, Indrani Medhi, Aishwarya Ratan, Kentaro Toyama, Rajesh Veeraraghavan (2008, June). Stages of design in technology for global development, Computer, 41(6), 34-41.
Donner, Jonathan. (2007, September). M-Banking. id21 insights #69, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
Donner, Jonathan. (2005). User-led innovations in mobile use in sub-Saharan Africa, Receiver #14, Vodafone.
