
Jerry Watkins has 20 years' high-profile international experience in communication, content and interaction. He researches the impact of social media, mobile content and communication technologies on existing cultures, organisations and systems.
Commercial communication and design
1999-03 Senior Producer, Imagination Ltd., London
Imagination is a leading global communications agency which regularly tops Marketing magazine's UK design league tables (see www.imagination.com). I worked directly with major international companies and CEOs to:
> define communication objectives
> produce detailed project briefs and storyboards
> research market environments and organisational culture
> create and clarify content and key messages
> produce video, motion graphics, web and print outputs.
Clients included AT&T Wireless, Bell Canada, Deutsche Telekom, Portugal Telecom, Prudential Financial, Telecom Italia, Vodafone Group.
1999-03 Senior Producer, Imagination Ltd., London
Imagination is a leading global communications agency which regularly tops Marketing magazine's UK design league tables (see www.imagination.com). I worked directly with major international companies and CEOs to:
> define communication objectives
> produce detailed project briefs and storyboards
> research market environments and organisational culture
> create and clarify content and key messages
> produce video, motion graphics, web and print outputs.
Clients included AT&T Wireless, Bell Canada, Deutsche Telekom, Portugal Telecom, Prudential Financial, Telecom Italia, Vodafone Group.
2013-16 Mobile Indonesians: social differentiation
and digital literacies in the twenty-first century
Site/s: Denpasar, Makassar - Indonesia
Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP130102990
Overview: the first dedicated study of the social implications of mobile telephony's recent and rapid popularization throughout Indonesia. We are studying multiple communities of interest and practice to understand how mobile content and devices are shaping new and unexpected communicative ecologies.
Method: communicative ecology mapping
Chief Investigators: Emma Baulch (QUT), Jerry Watkins (UC), Ariel Heryanto (ANU)
and digital literacies in the twenty-first century
Site/s: Denpasar, Makassar - Indonesia
Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP130102990
Overview: the first dedicated study of the social implications of mobile telephony's recent and rapid popularization throughout Indonesia. We are studying multiple communities of interest and practice to understand how mobile content and devices are shaping new and unexpected communicative ecologies.
Method: communicative ecology mapping
Chief Investigators: Emma Baulch (QUT), Jerry Watkins (UC), Ariel Heryanto (ANU)
2012-15 Opportunity Spaces: community engagement in the planning, use and governance of shared school facilities
Site/s: Victoria, Australia
Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP110200550
Partner Organisation: State Goverment of Victoria,
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
Overview: a study of current practice in ICT-enabled classrooms and future directions for shared schools as hubs for mobile learning
Chief Investigators: Denise Meredyth (RMIT), Ian McShane (RMIT), Jerry Watkins (UC)
Site/s: Victoria, Australia
Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP110200550
Partner Organisation: State Goverment of Victoria,
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
Overview: a study of current practice in ICT-enabled classrooms and future directions for shared schools as hubs for mobile learning
Chief Investigators: Denise Meredyth (RMIT), Ian McShane (RMIT), Jerry Watkins (UC)
2009-11 Smartphones and mobile content
Site/s: Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh - India
Project team: Jerry Watkins, MS Kiran
For: Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver BC
Aim: pilot grassroots deployment of smartphones and
mobile content for development communication
Method/s: Participatory Content Creation
Action research, participant observation
Publication/s: Watkins, Jerry (2011)
Designing mobile information and content strategies for grassroots participation
Site/s: Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh - India
Project team: Jerry Watkins, MS Kiran
For: Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver BC
Aim: pilot grassroots deployment of smartphones and
mobile content for development communication
Method/s: Participatory Content Creation
Action research, participant observation
Publication/s: Watkins, Jerry (2011)
Designing mobile information and content strategies for grassroots participation
2009 Communication for development
Site/s: Honiara, Isabel - Solomon Islands
Principal consultant: Jerry Watkins
For: Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver BC
Collaborators: Ministry of Health, Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands Development Trust
Aim: test new strategies and tools to increase
community participation in programming initiatives
for community health communication
Method/s: Participatory Content Creation
Training of trainers
Site/s: Honiara, Isabel - Solomon Islands
Principal consultant: Jerry Watkins
For: Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver BC
Collaborators: Ministry of Health, Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands Development Trust
Aim: test new strategies and tools to increase
community participation in programming initiatives
for community health communication
Method/s: Participatory Content Creation
Training of trainers
2006-09 Finding a Voice: making technological change socially effective and culturally empowering
Site/s: India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia
Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP0561848
Supported by: UNESCO, UNDP
Outcome: a network of 15 local media and ICT initiatives where local researchers monitored creative engagement with ICT-supported grassroots social change
Method/s: Ethnographic Action Research, Participatory Content Creation
Publication: Watkins, J., and Tacchi, J. (eds. 2008) Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices
New Delhi: UNESCO
Site/s: India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia
Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP0561848
Supported by: UNESCO, UNDP
Outcome: a network of 15 local media and ICT initiatives where local researchers monitored creative engagement with ICT-supported grassroots social change
Method/s: Ethnographic Action Research, Participatory Content Creation
Publication: Watkins, J., and Tacchi, J. (eds. 2008) Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices
New Delhi: UNESCO
2007-10 Moving Content:
creative engagement in marginal spaces
Site/s: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa - India
Funded by: Intel Labs, Intel Corporation, Portland OR
Principal Investigators: Jo Ann Tacchi (RMIT),
Jerry Watkins (UC)
Purpose, Method/s:
multi-sited ethnography of innovative applications of mobile technologies in low infrastructure areas of India
Publication: Watkins, J., Tacchi, J., and Kiran, M.S. (2009) 'The Role of Intermediaries in the Implementation and Development of Asynchronous Rural Access', C. Stephanidis (ed.) Universal Access in HCI, Part III, HCII 2009, Lecture Notes in Computer Science
creative engagement in marginal spaces
Site/s: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa - India
Funded by: Intel Labs, Intel Corporation, Portland OR
Principal Investigators: Jo Ann Tacchi (RMIT),
Jerry Watkins (UC)
Purpose, Method/s:
multi-sited ethnography of innovative applications of mobile technologies in low infrastructure areas of India
Publication: Watkins, J., Tacchi, J., and Kiran, M.S. (2009) 'The Role of Intermediaries in the Implementation and Development of Asynchronous Rural Access', C. Stephanidis (ed.) Universal Access in HCI, Part III, HCII 2009, Lecture Notes in Computer Science