Founder
Personnel
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Founder
Aditya Dev Sood is Founder and CEO of the Center for Knowledge Societies (CKS), an innovation consulting firm that provides design services of a kind that Indian industry never thought it would even need -- User Research, User Experience Design, Design Strategy and Innovation Management. Through his consulting work, and also through his writings and his public presentations, Aditya offers a compelling vision of the central role of design and innovation for emerging economies such as India. The focus on his firm has remained on lower income and rural groups, and through contractual consulting engagements it has sought always to bring about market successes as well as the greater societal good.
At CKS, Dr. Sood has directed a number of projects involving user research, new product/service concepting, user experience and service design. He takes a keen interest in ethnographic research, understanding aesthetic forms and designing innovative research and analysis techniques through which users as well as products and services can be imagined in new ways.
Dr. Sood is a Fulbright scholar with two doctorates from the University of Chicago and a wide range of disciplinary competencies, gained through a long and diverse education, including Architecture, Art History, Critical Theory, Comparative Literature, Sanskrit Philology, Philosophy of Language, Cultural Anthropology, Social Theory and Political Economy.
Over the last decade, Dr. Sood has written a number of reports which have informed the public debate on technology and development. The CKS Guide to ICTs for Development (2002) received widespread samizdat circulation across South Asia at the highest levels of policy making. The Mobile Development Report (2007) provided the first empirical model to explain exactly how mobile phones create income effects for rural adopters. He directed research for the Emerging Economy Report (2008), which identified innovation opportunities for regions of the world experiencing informationalization under conditions of limited or partial industrialization.
Dr. Sood has directed three editions of the Doors of Perception conference in India ('03, '05, '07). For these massive international events, he commissioned speakers, multimedia installations, live performances, and interactive seminars. He also curated and designed the multimedia exhibition of everyday technology and material culture called Used in India.
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Personnel
CKS personnel are drawn from a variety of disciplines including sociology, communications, media, business, human factors,
engineering, and design. Our design team includes specialists in industrial, interaction and product design. CKS also
receives interns from leading design, technology and management institutions. |
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User Research Team
The User Research team is responsible for ethnographic, qualitative, psychographic and future-casting work conducted at CKS.
The User Research team has wide experience in ethnographic and qualitative interview methods. Photography and videographic
techniques are used extensively. Usage diaries, cultural probes, and other innovative techniques are in continuous deployment and
refinement. |
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Design Team
Our Design team includes specialists in industrial, interaction and graphic design. The design team also conducts field
investigations into innovative user practices or ‘hacks’ that might be suggestive for the conceptualization of new
products and services. |
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Strategic Communications
Team
The StratComm team at CKS is responsible for business intelligence, recruiting and outreach activities. It coordinates
the fortnightly Ethnography and Film Series at the CKS office in Bangalore. It also handles production for the Doors of
Perception conference and other art, design, and cultural events with which CKS is associated. |
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Administration Team
The Admin team manages all contractual, financial, legal and administrative functions for the Company. It works closely
with other teams and with CKS clients and partners to ensure quality of service and clarity of communications. |
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Advisory Board
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Ashok Jhunjhunwala
Ashok Jhunjhunwala is Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai,
India. Dr. Jhunjhunwala leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras. He has incubated
a number of companies out of the TeNet Lab, and has mentored CKS since its inception. |
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Frederick Rico Noronha
Frederick Rico Noronha is a Goa-based journalist involved with Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) and Community Radio issues. Along with Partha Pratim, he is the founder of
Bytesforall.org, a voluntary online initiative on ICT4D. |
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Natalie Jeremijenko
Natalie Jeremijenko 1999 Rockefeller fellow, is a design engineer and technoartist. She was named one of the top one
hundred young innovators by the MIT Technology Review. Her work includes digital, electromechanical, interactive systems
and biotechnological work that have been highly recognized in the world of art. |
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Naresh Narasimhan
Naresh Narasimhan is Partner and Architect Principal for Venkataramanan Associates, a leading Bangalore-based design firm.
He has a keen interest in sustainable architecture and urban infrastructure. He is also a core team member of the
Bangalore Agenda Task Force, a private-public partnership for better urban governance in the city. |
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