Staff Spotlight: Jon P.

Your job title: 

Answer: Data Analyst

How long you’ve lived in this area:

Answer: 11 years

How long you’ve worked here: 

Answer: 11 months

An animal you identify with or just like a lot: 

Answer: Otter

One of the exciting things about talking to people in IT is learning about how they conceptualize the work they do and the digital tools and materials that they’re engaged with every day. For Jon, programming is more of an art than a science. He used the example of how sculpture is an art but still consists of putting a chisel to a slab of marble. With programming, the raw materials are numbers and codes, but the way those elements are applied makes all the difference, and Jon is a particularly skilled crafts-person.

Jon’s official title at the Co-op is Data Analyst. He’s been with us for only a year, but he’s lived in this area for over a decade. He is a graduate of Marlboro College, where he studied philosophy. When asked if he has any special side-projects he’s working on in his spare time, he told us that he’s “semi-working” on an app that would make raw economic data from the government instantly accessible for real-world, real-time use, instead of getting information filtered through the media. Since he joined our Co-op staff community, Jon has helped the Co-op make our own data similarly accessible and user-friendly, which has made a huge impact on the day-to-day experience of many of our staff.

One of the main focuses of Jon’s work at Marlboro was the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. He offered this quote: “Digestion is more profound than consumption.” Perhaps there is a relationship between Jon’s work in IT and the subjects he studied at college? His impulse to give people direct access to unmediated data, and to make that data easy to use and comprehend, speaks to a desire to democratize information. Jon is a deep thinker, and though information science can seem cut and dry, there’s much more here than meets the eye.

At the time of this interview, Jon and his wife Effie were expecting their first child. Since then, they have welcomed Nefeli into their family. Congratulations, Jon! You’re a valuable part of what makes our cooperative work, and we appreciate you.