Jonathan Donner

I am a researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India in Bangalore. I'm a social scientist, with a background in Communication Research and Economic Development.   Contact me at jdonner at microsoft  dot com.

I maintain a blog at my personal website, www.jonathandonner.com.

Projects and Interests

	The use of ICTs by small and informal businesses
	The social and economic impacts of mobile telephony in the developing world
	Mobile banking and m-transactions

Former Whereabouts
Previously, I was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Center for Global Health and Economic Development (CGHED), at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. While at Columbia, I conducted a series of studies exploring the ways microentrepreneurs in Rwanda use mobile phones for both business and personal reasons.  In addition, I participated on a project called TRACnet, to use mobile phones and the Internet to build an HIV/AIDS public health information system for Rwanda.

I have also been a consultant with Monitor Company in Cambridge, MA, and with its spin-off, The OTF Group, where I worked on economic competitiveness projects in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. I have a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Communication Theory and Research.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Donner, Jonathan, & Tellez, Camilo A. (in press). Mobile banking and economic development: Linking adoption, impact, and use. Asian Journal of Communication 18(4).

Steenson, Molly & Donner, J. (in press). Beyond the personal and private: Modes of mobile phone sharing in urban India. In S. W. Campbell & R. Ling (Eds.), Mobile Communication Research Annual (Vol. 1). Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Books

Donner, Jonathan. (2008). Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World: A Review of the Literature.  The Information Society 24(3).

Donner, Jonathan. (2008). Shrinking fourth world? Mobiles, development, and inclusion. In J. Katz (Ed.), Handbook of mobile communication studies (pp. 29-42). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Donner, Jonathan., Rangaswamy, N., Steenson, M. W., & Wei, C. (2008). "Express yourself" and "Stay together" : The middle-class Indian family. In J. Katz (Ed.), Handbook of mobile communication studies (pp. 325-337). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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. (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. (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, J. (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 & Papers

Donner, J. (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. (2007, 20 April). Mobile telephones as institutional links in the developing world: Implications for privacy and identity. Presentation at the Workshop on Personal Privacy in a World of Intelligent Devices, School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies at Rutgers University.  presentation

Donner, Jonathan. (2006). 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), September 28-30, Brisbane, Australia.

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).