Jan is an anthropologist, a VERY interesting title if I do say so myself. He travels the world and talks about technologies impact on society. Very deep stuff, definitely something I’d love to do for the rest of my life. Wouldn’t you want to travel the world?
Anyway here is some more info from his about page:
I currently conduct research for Nokia Design and split my time between running user studies and developing new applications, services and products that, if I do my job right, you’ll using 3 to 15 years from now. Prior to this role I worked as Principal Researcher in the Nokia Research Center, Tokyo. I specialize in taking teams of concept/industrial designers, psychologists, usability experts, sociologists, and ethnographers into the field and, Jan – on the phone displayafter a fair bit of work, getting them home safely. The tough part of the job is in using the data to inform, inspire and affect how my colleagues think and what they do, and in turning research into core intellectual property that underpins the future business. I live and work from Tokyo, my home since 2000.
In his most recent post he talks about how a cell phone is changing the economics of Uganda:
In the spirit of Future Perfect lets start with a simple question: To what extent do villagers need access to mobile phone? Who is in more need of personal, convenient synchronous and asynchronous communication – someone in London who works 9 to 5, 5 days a week or someone in rural Uganda working 5 to 9, 7 days a week? IMHO the impact on quality of life is far greater in the rural context and the some of the innovations this enables are touched on in this longish essay on Shared Phone Use. One example of the benefits of connectivity? Sente – the transfer of money via mobile phone that essentially also extends regular banking services such as the remittance of cash to these communities.
Check out his complete write up available in both PDF and Power Point.
Totally non related, this is my favorite blog post of his thus far.