What drives me is a boundless curiosity about human, societal and technological potential, and what inspires people to see possibility where others see obstacles.
I like moving between worlds: corporate boardrooms and rural classrooms, inner cities and quiet spaces of reflection, the global north and south. This movement makes for a bumpy ride at times, but also offers a rich view of the world, allowing me to notice connections across cultures and disciplines, including education, technology, philosophy, literature and art.
My fascination with technology and its potential to contribute to human development began with my master’s thesis on remote sensing of the Earth from outer space. Exploring how a wider perspective can reveal what is invisible from the ground has stayed with me ever since: from zooming out to zooming in, before zooming out again.
My work began in telecommunications, moved into digital education, and has always run alongside my exploration of human potential: what it is, and what it takes for me and for others to realise it. That exploration has not always been comfortable. The bumpy ride has been as much inward as outward.
Early in this journey, I worked from the assumption that technology could help bridge socio-economic divides. Over time, that thinking shifted, confronted by the failure of digital education projects and ever-widening divides. If I see that it is always the human infrastructure that makes digital interventions work, then the question becomes: how do we strengthen the human capabilities to build and maintain it, and what does that mean for human flourishing, education and technology?
My thinking continues to evolve through practice, writing and conversation. I share reflections on City of Wings, my Substack, and contribute a regular column to IFIP Insights. I am currently exploring how these ideas and questions travel across cultures and continents, and what they look like when they land in new contexts.
David O’Leary Award winner
The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) IP3 has presented the 2023 David O’Leary Award to Josine Overdevest.
The award recognises individuals and organisations that have advanced professionalism in ICT, championed ethical practice, and contributed to greater diversity in the profession.
IFIP IP3 Global Industry Council
In December 2023 Josine Overdevest was appointed to the IFIP IP3 Global Industry Council.
The Global Industry Council is an international think-tank that provides thought leadership on the role of technology in addressing contemporary challenges, including the Sustainable Development Goals.
TALKS
My work unfolds through conversation. Across conferences, classrooms and collaborative dialogues, ideas are tested in real time with practitioners, researchers and thinkers working at the intersection of education, technology and human development. These conversations form part of an ongoing inquiry into what it means for people and societies to flourish in a digital age.
WRITINGS
I write about education, technology and what it means to be human. My essays and columns, published on this website, in IFIP Insights, on my Substack, City of Wings, and previously in the IITPSA Ethics in IT corner, explore what it means to be human in a rapidly changing world.
