Jon Gregson

Jon is Director of Development Dreamers Ltd and is currently based in UK. He works as an international development consultant, focusing on the role of knowledge management and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in addressing development goals. Since 2002 he has been a tutor, research supervisor and examiner on the University of London postgraduate degree programme for international distance learning students. He currently has responsibility for the ‘Managing Knowledge and Communication for Development’ course offered through the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

His past roles have included being Director of Global Networks and Communities for University of London International Academy which included overall responsibility for the online library strategy, and being Head of the Knowledge Services Department at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) which is based at the University of Sussex. Whilst at IDS, he had oversight of the British Library of Development Studies (BLDS), and headed up the highly regarded ‘Mobilising Knowledge for Development Project’ , funded by the UK Department for International Development, which played a significant role in developing capacity in a number of libraries in Africa. In 2015, Jon led an IDS team on a research project, using foresight methodologies, to explore future scenarios for the role of libraries which led to the publication of a report titled ‘The future of Knowledge Sharing in a Digital Age’, which is available from the IDS website (www.ids.ac.uk).

Jon has a keen interest in Open and Distance Learning and in mobile learning, and was one of the founding fellows of the University of London Centre for Distance Education. He has lived and worked in Nepal and Kenya, and traveled extensively as part of his work. His recent have projects included contributing to higher education strategy development in Myanmar and Ghana working as a member of Open University UK teams.