Alumni Week: What if we were the ones in charge of our technology?
Wednesday 8 October | 19:30-21:00 | REC C0.02
- Date
- 8 October 2025
- Time
- 19:30 -21:00
- Room
- 0.02
Please note: this session is in Dutch.
Internet pioneer and founder of Waag Futurelab Marleen Stikker (author of The Internet is Broken – But We Can Fix It) will engage in conversation with tech entrepreneur Jim Stolze during this event, discussing the future of technology and digital autonomy.
Afterwards, Stikker will deliver a lecture in which she shares her quest for a fairer, more open, and more human-centred digital era. How can citizens, designers, scientists and governments work together to create technology that strengthens, rather than undermines, society? And what role does science play in this?
An urgent call for digital autonomy – and a look at possible solutions. The session will conclude with an opportunity for questions from the audience.
Speakers
Marleen Stikker is the founder and CEO of Waag Futurelab. In 1993 she played a pioneering role in the birth of the internet as the ‘mayor’ of De Digitale Stad (The Digital City). Since its founding in 1994, Waag has grown into a leading European research institute for technology and society.
Stikker was involved in establishing, among others, PICNIC, Creative Commons Netherlands, Fairphone, Public Spaces and Meentcoop. She is Professor of Practice at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), a member of the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, a board member of the Amsterdam Economic Board and one of the chairs of the Environmental Planning Consultative Body.
She is the author of The Internet is Broken, But We Can Fix It (2019) and Internet Survival Guide – How We Can Regain Control Over Technology (forthcoming, 2025). She holds an honorary doctorate from VU Amsterdam and is a recipient of the Felipe Rodriguez Award.
Jim Stolze is a writer and entrepreneur, best known as the founder of TEDxAmsterdam. Through his company Aigency, he provides artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to major corporations. In 2019, he published his book Algoritmisering, wen er maar aan! (‘Algorithmisation: Just Get Used to It!’), which remained in the top 10 management books for over a year. He is also the initiator of the National AI Course, which has now reached more than 500,000 people in the Netherlands.
