TheBridge profile: Bulelani Jili

Name: Bulelani Jili

Current city: Cambridge, MA

Current job: Cybersecurity Fellow and Harvard Ph.D. Candidate

Past job: Research Associate at Oxford University; Futures Fellow at Mercator Institute for China Studies

Q. How are you (or your org) currently bridging the gap between innovation and regulation? At the Cyber Project, we aim to provide leadership in advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the most salient challenges facing cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, and U.S. foreign policy.

Q. What can innovators learn from policymakers? I believe that companies can learn to carefully examine the social and political consequences of their technology, especially for historically marginalized and vulnerable communities. By centering people and user experience, their products can be an ameliorate rather than an impediment to society.

Q. What can policymakers learn from innovators? That change is not a bad thing. Disruption can be the condition of innovation if lessons are learned.

Q. Describe how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. The job revealed the salience of brevity. Working with government officials, think tank leaders and executives, underscored the need for lucid and succinct communication. Whether it is a research brief, policy memo, and presentation, one can prioritize the most relevant information for their audience.

Q. Job advice in three words? Preparation, Study, Self-advocacy

Q. Favorite book you recommend? Iginio Gagliardone’s book, "China, Africa, and the Future of the Internet", provides a measured account of Beijing’s growing geopolitical footprint, and it details China’s growing influence in Africa’s tech sectors. As China helps African governments expand connectivity, Gagliardone shows how these digital infrastructure projects have the potential to be both means of economic development and domestically led authoritarianism.

Q. Living person you admire? I am inspired by many individuals, but I am most moved by my colleagues. I am humbled by their incessant effort to move the margins of knowledge and to improve the conditions of cybersecurity and U.S. national security. Their deep meditations on our collective challenges and attention to plausible policy solutions are the fuel of today, and the harbinger of hope to come. 

Q. Everyday is probably different, but can you describe a "day in the life" of your job? My day usually involves intensive study on a given issue on Chinese tech as well as scheduled calls with informants across the world. At weekly workshops, I am in conversation with other academics and researchers on the state and quality of my finding.

Q. If you had to live in another city, which would it be? I would probably move to Washington, D.C.  

Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? The benches near Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.

Q. Morning routine? I wake up at 6 am, go on a run, take a shower, pick up a cup of coffee at Tatte, and start getting ready for the day.  

Q. Favorite App? My favorite is the Nike Run Club. The App offers a chance to continue training with guided running workouts, custom coaching plans, and GPS-tracked workouts.

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