Advisory Board

Kentaro Toyama

Kentaro Toyama is W.K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan School of Information, where he conducts research on the impact of digital technology on community development and society more broadly. He is a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, and author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology.

Previously, he was a researcher at UC Berkeley and assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India, which he co-founded in 2005. At MSR India, he started the Technology for Emerging Markets research group, which conducts interdisciplinary research to understand how the world's poorer communities interact with electronic technology and to invent new ways for technology to support their socio-economic development. The award-winning group is known for projects such as MultiPoint, Text-Free User Interfaces, and Digital Green. Kentaro co-founded the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) to provide a global platform for rigorous academic research in this field. He was also co-editor-in-chief of the journal Information Technologies and International Development.

Before his time in India, Kentaro did computer vision, artificial intelligence, and multimedia research at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA, USA and Cambridge, UK, and taught mathematics at Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana.

At The Technoskeptic, we frequently find it is those most intimately familiar with the ins and outs of technology who can offer the most penetrating critiques of it. We’re delighted that Kentaro is sharing his advice and expertise with us. He will also be a regular contributor.