Nathan Eagle
Encyclopedia
Nathan Eagle is an American
technology executive and one of the world's leading mobile phone developers. He currently is co-founder and CEO of Jana (formerly txteagle), a Boston-based company that engages more than two billion consumers in emerging markets. He is also an award-winning technology innovator and an adjunct assistant professor at Harvard University
, and holds faculty positions at MIT and Northeastern University.
as well as private-sector global brands. In an April 2011 interview with The Guardian
, Eagle said, “My ultimate goal at txteagle [now called Jana] is to re-route 30 percent of the money spent on mass advertising in the developing world to the individual consumers themselves -- meanwhile helping brands build loyalty, and helping consumers get the goods and services they want.” In September 2011, he said in a keynote address that such a reallocation could cause a seismic shift: “You could give one billion people a five-percent raise.”
As of 2011, Jana has been earning revenue in 49 countries with 220 mobile phone operator partners, enabling the company to create a database of 2.1 billion consumers. According to The Guardian, Eagle aims for Jana to provide global brands "direct access to their next billion consumers."
at MIT, he led one of the largest mobile phone projects conducted in academia, the "Reality Mining" study. Recognizing the untapped power of the smartphones in 2004, Eagle provided 100 volunteers from the MIT community with smartphones that logged their activity over the 2004-05 academic year. This dataset consisted of more than 350,000 hours, or about 40 years, of continuous data on human behavior. Eagle's experiment captured communication, proximity, location and activity information from the subjects and built models to predict both how single users and organizations would behave. According to Wired Magazine, “Eagle's algorithms were able to predict what people -- especially professors and Media Lab employees -- would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time.” The experiment recorded how the subjects responded to events as disparate as an organization-wide deadline and the Red Sox's stunning World Series
win in 2004. Unlike other behavior-study methods such as interviews or virtual-world observations, Eagle's research illustrated how mobile phones can be used to collect accurate, large-scale data about real social interactions. The Reality Mining data has been downloaded by thousands of researchers and has been analyzed in hundreds of academic publications. The project was named one of the "10 Technologies Most Likely To Change The Way We Live" by the MIT Technology Review.
in 2010, Eagle and Eric Horvitz launched an initiative called Artificial Intelligence
for Development (AI-D), bringing together researchers interested in applying AI research to development challenges. This initiative led to a diverse set of projects ranging from computational models of food shortages to studies on the dynamics of slums.
in 2011, Eagle formed the Engineering Social Systems group, composed of researchers from fields ranging from epidemiology and public health to statistical physics and urban planning, who are dedicated to the analysis of "big data
for social good."
named Eagle one of the world's top mobile phone developers. In 2009, Eagle was elected to the TR35, a group of the top innovators under the age of 35. His academic work has appeared in Science
, Nature
and PNAS, and his research featured in The New York Times
, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and on CNN
.
Eagle is also a regular speaker at global innovation forums including TED
. GigaOM
, and the Mobile Research Conference.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
technology executive and one of the world's leading mobile phone developers. He currently is co-founder and CEO of Jana (formerly txteagle), a Boston-based company that engages more than two billion consumers in emerging markets. He is also an award-winning technology innovator and an adjunct assistant professor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and holds faculty positions at MIT and Northeastern University.
Business career
Eagle co-founded Jana with Ben Olding in 2009. The idea for Jana began while Eagle was on MIT's research faculty in rural Kenya in 2007. Fascinated by the ubiquity of mobile phones in developing countries, Eagle began designing a platform that provided emerging-market consumers with the ability to directly engage with global organizations and earn supplemental income. He developed a way to compensate mobile phone subscribers with airtime in exchange for sharing their opinions and information about their local markets useful to global organizations such as the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
as well as private-sector global brands. In an April 2011 interview with The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Eagle said, “My ultimate goal at txteagle [now called Jana] is to re-route 30 percent of the money spent on mass advertising in the developing world to the individual consumers themselves -- meanwhile helping brands build loyalty, and helping consumers get the goods and services they want.” In September 2011, he said in a keynote address that such a reallocation could cause a seismic shift: “You could give one billion people a five-percent raise.”
As of 2011, Jana has been earning revenue in 49 countries with 220 mobile phone operator partners, enabling the company to create a database of 2.1 billion consumers. According to The Guardian, Eagle aims for Jana to provide global brands "direct access to their next billion consumers."
Reality Mining
When Eagle was pursuing his PhDPHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
at MIT, he led one of the largest mobile phone projects conducted in academia, the "Reality Mining" study. Recognizing the untapped power of the smartphones in 2004, Eagle provided 100 volunteers from the MIT community with smartphones that logged their activity over the 2004-05 academic year. This dataset consisted of more than 350,000 hours, or about 40 years, of continuous data on human behavior. Eagle's experiment captured communication, proximity, location and activity information from the subjects and built models to predict both how single users and organizations would behave. According to Wired Magazine, “Eagle's algorithms were able to predict what people -- especially professors and Media Lab employees -- would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time.” The experiment recorded how the subjects responded to events as disparate as an organization-wide deadline and the Red Sox's stunning World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
win in 2004. Unlike other behavior-study methods such as interviews or virtual-world observations, Eagle's research illustrated how mobile phones can be used to collect accurate, large-scale data about real social interactions. The Reality Mining data has been downloaded by thousands of researchers and has been analyzed in hundreds of academic publications. The project was named one of the "10 Technologies Most Likely To Change The Way We Live" by the MIT Technology Review.
EPROM
As a research scientist at MIT and Fulbright Scholar in 2006, Eagle launched MIT's Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobile (EPROM) initiative, developing a mobile phone programming curriculum that has been adopted by twelve computer science departments across Sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of African computer science students have gone through Eagle's curriculum, leading to hundreds of mobile applications designed for consumers in more than 100 countries.Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI-D)
As a postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe InstituteSanta Fe Institute
The Santa Fe Institute is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, including physical, computational, biological, and social systems.The Institute houses a...
in 2010, Eagle and Eric Horvitz launched an initiative called Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
for Development (AI-D), bringing together researchers interested in applying AI research to development challenges. This initiative led to a diverse set of projects ranging from computational models of food shortages to studies on the dynamics of slums.
Engineering Social Systems
As an adjunct assistant professor at Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 2011, Eagle formed the Engineering Social Systems group, composed of researchers from fields ranging from epidemiology and public health to statistical physics and urban planning, who are dedicated to the analysis of "big data
Big data
Big data are datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools. Difficulties include capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics, and visualizing...
for social good."
Awards and recognition
In 2008, NokiaNokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
named Eagle one of the world's top mobile phone developers. In 2009, Eagle was elected to the TR35, a group of the top innovators under the age of 35. His academic work has appeared in Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, Nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
and PNAS, and his research featured in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
.
Eagle is also a regular speaker at global innovation forums including TED
TED
TED may refer to:* TED , an annual multidisciplinary conference* TED spread, the yield spread between U.S...
. GigaOM
GigaOM
GigaOM is a Web 2.0 blog started by Om Malik and published by Giga Omni Media, Inc. in San Francisco, California. According to the company website it has a monthly global audience of 500,000. It is among the top 50 blogs worldwide by Technorati Rank, and is listed on CNet's Blog 100 list...
, and the Mobile Research Conference.