About Forrester
Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.

Jennifer is a member of Forrester's Business Technology Futures team, which serves CIOs and their business partners by predicting the long-term business impacts of information technology. Her research focus is on smart computing and analytics and tech-driven business transformation, analyzing changing patterns of technology adoption and deployment, particularly in emerging markets and in the public sector. She advises clients on market opportunity assessments for investment and go-to-market best practices in emerging markets, balancing demand-side research with understanding of the policy and competitive environments. Jennifer's recent research has focused on "smart city" initiatives as a way of managing the complexity of demographic changes and leveraging technology solutions in response to the demands of an increasingly urban population. These initiatives apply equally to cities, universities, and even company towns as they are stretched by growing populations and shrinking resources.
Before joining Forrester, Jennifer spent more than eight years in sales and marketing roles at Sun Microsystems, including roles in software product marketing, software sales enablement and development, and industry marketing and partner strategy for telecommunications and media.
Jennifer's extensive international experience includes more than 20 years in sales and marketing, research, consulting, and education in developing and transitioning countries. As a public policy analyst and consultant in Russia and Eastern Europe, she designed post-communist housing reforms and advised governments on housing privatization, mortgage finance policies, and income-based assistance programs. As an educator in the Peace Corps in Central Africa, Jennifer taught high school math, designed national math curricula and exams, and conducted marketing workshops with local entrepreneurs. Jennifer has published in numerous academic journals and spoken widely at academic and business events.
Jennifer earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science from Stanford University and a B.A. in economics from the University of Virginia. Her doctoral research focused on the fiscal and political relationships between regional governments and the central administration, combining quantitative analysis of regional budget data with extensive fieldwork in Moscow and three Russian regions — Udmurtiya, Novgorod, and Ulyanovsk.
How many of you suffer from at least mild “cyberchondria"? Do you run to the computer to Google your latest ailments? Are you often convinced that the headache you have is the first sign of...
As I sit at my kitchen table enjoying the quiet of my house before my kids come home, I know that I will move to my office and shut the door once that tranquility is shattered by their arrival. Then...
The recent Executive Order Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum Open Data Policy –...
I highly recommend reading Gene Leganza’s blog on the role of the Chief Data Officer, written several months ago. Having had several related discussions this past week while in Washington DC,...
Smart meters provide consumers with granular data on how they are consuming energy — when is the meter spinning fastest, which appliances are the energy guzzlers, how much energy are those...
Banks have a reputation for being stodgy and conservative. But Credit Agricole (CA) has broken the stereotype. I had a great discussion a few weeks ago with Bernard Larrivière, Director of...
As we know, citizen engagement is a top priority of governments around the world. Many are launching digital outreach projects such as Adopt-A-Hydrant (pictured to the right). This is good news for...
. . . Nor has it ever really been. Government data has long been a part of strategic business analysis. Census data provides insights into local standards of living and household budgets, health...
Really, it is not. I was heartened to see that it doesn’t even make the oxymoron list, which does however include “government worker,” “congressional ethics,” and...
“Telecommuting” and flexible work spaces are nothing new. I’ve worked from home, from public libraries, airport lounges, and even Sun Microsystem’s iWork Cafes and drop-in...
Yesterday the Kenyan president broke ground on a new smart city development outside of Nairobi. The site of the new Konza Techno City is located in Eastern Kenya, 60 km from Nairobi on...
Last week I gave a Forrester webinar on open data in government. The premise was that while big data is changing business, open data is changing the business of government. Open data provides not...
I was invited by the Moscow city government to participate in the Moscow Urban Forum, a conference designed to bring urban policy experts together to discuss opportunities for Moscow. Last...
For some reason public safety has been a hot topic for me of late. I recently presented at ZTE’s Public Safety Summit in Dubai, where there was an audience of public safety officials and...
A few weeks ago, I attended the Meeting of the Minds 2012, a conference dedicated to urban planning and sustainability, or smart cities. The conference was a great balance of academics and nonprofit...
I attended a Xerox analyst event last week in Grenoble, France, and was very impressed with both the setting and what I heard. Xerox is much more than the verb it was once associated with, and office...
I spent a lot of time last week thinking about public safety. What is public safety? How do you achieve it? Well, it seems to me that it could be anything and everything; but that...
With Dan Bieler, Bryan Wang, Pascal Matzke In mid-July, my colleagues and I attended Orange’s annual analyst event in Paris. There were no major announcements, but we made several observations:...
Many of the marque open data programs are in the big cities. Think New York City and its NY Big Apps Contests, or Chicago or London or Barcelona or Rio de Janeiro. But smaller cities are also sitting...
I’ve always been a map person with maps showing up in my house as floor rugs, shower curtains, clothing, dishes, jigsaw puzzles etc. So the ESRI User Conference was right up my...
[Written with Enza Iannopollo, a Research Associate in Forrester’s London office] During last month’s Forrester Forum in Paris, Enza spoke with a client who shared some thoughts...
Orange Business Services has all the pieces to have a comprehensive smart cities services offering. But they aren’t telling that story, or maybe just not yet. Given the interest in smart cities...
I had an interesting follow-up conversation last week with Dmitry Chikhachev of Runa Capital. I asked what he was seeing in smart cities and civic innovation among Russian startups in these areas....
Today I attended a conference for Russian entrepreneurs organized by Digital October. I’m going to digress a moment and describe the location which for a Moscow veteran is one of the...
If there is one theme that jumps out of my most recent client discussions, it is the need for business smarts in our approach to smart cities. Cities are faced with a barrage of vendor...