Current position

I work as a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. I have been granted a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship funded by the European Commission under its 6th Framework Programme to conduct my post-doctoral research on the topic of 'E-democracy technologies and the problem of public trust'.

Research experience

In 1997 I rounded off my Cultural Anthropology Masters carrying out a year-long fieldwork project, studying the socio-economic position of professional jazz musicians, using various research methods, such as participant observation, interviews and a survey. The results of my jazz research were published in a peer-reviewed Dutch scientific journal.

As I had become interested in the interaction between technological development and social change, I started in 1998 with an MSc programme in Social Science Informatics, among others to improve my knowledge and skills in ICT research.

On 23 January 2007 I was awarded the degree of Doctor after successfully defending my Ph.D. thesis prepared in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

In 1999 I was first employed by the University of Amsterdam as an assistant researcher, soon to be offered a fulltime research position. As a researcher on three major European research projects Self-Organization of the European Information Society (SOEIS), Facilitating Administrative Services for Mobile Europeans (FASME) and the electronic voting project True-Vote, I have become experienced in working in international and heterogeneous contexts combining academic research with social relevance. In these projects I have been working with partners from 10 EU member states.

The SOEIS project applied theories of self-organization on the development of the information society, with a special focus on governance. I collaborated in a scientometric sub-project on the effects of the EU Biotechnology Programs on the self-organizing research system.

In the FASME and True-Vote projects I conducted qualitative and quantitative research on the social implications of large-scale, complex e-government systems.

In the FASME project I studied the social, institutional, political and legal issues related to the design and the implementation of large scale internet/smartcard based infrastructures for e-government. I also studied the heterogeneous interests of various social groups involved in the use of the FASME-system and implications for the acceptance of the system by the larger public. The emphasis was put on privacy issues, information ownership issues, and administrative and legal regulations. As the FASME system was meant for cross boundary services, the study included a comparison of the cross national differences between social, institutional, political and legal issues that may hinder or enable the adoption of this type of technology.

In the True-Vote project I investigated the social and organizational conditions and implications of deploying electronic voting technologies. I also studied in several experiments the use of the technology, and the effects on voting behaviour. The development of the e-voting technology adopted a participatory approach, in which technology was designed and implemented not only for the users, but with their involvement which played a role in the project from its early phases. I experimented with, and studied the effects of various modes of user participation. 

                                      From April 2006 till March 2007 I worked as a researcher at the Department of Science System Assessment at the Rathenau Institute in The Hague, the Netherlands. The SciSa department is headed by Prof. dr. Peter van den Besselaar. I investigated different research assessment systems and was particularly interested in their unintended consequences. In the meantime I finished my PhD. thesis 'Context Matters'.

I have experience in designing research projects, organizing the data collection, analyzing data, and disseminating the results to a larger audience, alone and in effective collaboration with colleagues from research, business, and governmental backgrounds. I adopted a multidisciplinary approach. Finally, I have written academic publications, presented numerous papers at international conferences, and reviewed journal articles and conference papers.

Professional Experience

2007 (April) - 2009 (April)                                                                         Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII)                                 University of Oxford.                                                                                       

2006 (March) - 2007 (March)                                                                  Researcher at the Science System Assessment Department (SciSA)         Rathenau Institute, The Hague.

2003(Apr) – 2005 (Oct)
Researcher TruE-Vote project, NIWI                                                              Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam.

2001 (Oct) – 2003 (Mar)
Researcher TruE-Vote project, Department of Social Science Informatics    University of Amsterdam.

2002 (Apr) – 2002 (Jun)
Organisation E-voting expert meeting, Department of Social Science Informatics University of Amsterdam.

2000 (Feb) – 2001 (Sep)
Researcher FASME project, Department of Social Science Informatics        University of Amsterdam.

1999 (Dec) – 2000 (Jan)
Organisation SOEIS expert meeting, Department of Social Science Informatics University of Amsterdam.

1999 (Apr) – 2000 (Jan)
Junior Researcher SOEIS project, Department of Social Science Informatics University of Amsterdam.

1998 (Jul) – 1999
Research assistant / data-entry, CO-efficient, Bureau for Communication Research Amsterdam.

1993 – 2000
Manager & Bartender, Jazzcafe ’t Geveltje, Amsterdam.

1992 – 1993
Bartender, Jazzcafe ’t Geveltje, Amsterdam.

1991 – 1992
Geurpanellid, Olfactomat, Amsterdam.

1991 – 1992
Student mentor, Department of Cultural Anthropology, University of Amsterdam.

1990 – 1992
Bartender, Common Room, Department of Cultural Anthropology               University of Amsterdam.

Editorial Review Board Member

• Editorial Review Board Member of the International Journal of Information Communication Technologies and Human Development (IJICTHD). Co-Editors-in-Chief Mila Gascó-Hernandez, International Institute on Governance of Catalonia and Fran Equiza, Intermón Oxfam, Spain. New publication from 2009 onwards. Brochure

• Member of the international Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) of the Advances in Knowledge Communities and Social Networks Book Series (AKCSN). Editor-in-Chief Dr. Hakikur Rahman.

Peer Review Experience

Books

• Information Communication Technologies and City Marketing: Digital Opportunities for Cities around the World.  Edited by Mila Gascó and Teresa Torres. Idea Group: Hershey (PA).  Forthcoming.  

• The Encyclopedia of Digital Government. Edited by Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko and Mattia Malkia, 2006.

• Digital Cities 3: information technologies for social capital, a cross-cultural perspective. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, edited by Peter van den Besselaar and Satshi Koizumi, 2004.

• Electronic Commerce: Research and Development. Edited by Marcin Paprzycki, 2003.

Journals

• International Journal of Electronic Government Research (IJEGR)

• Science, Technology and Human Values Journal.

• IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.

Conferences

• IADES International Conference, e-Commerce 2008
• 8th International Conference on Electronic Commerce and Web technologies (EC-Web 2007).
• IASK International Conference E-Activity and Leading Technologies 2007 (E-Alt'07)

• 2nd ESF Electronic Voting Conference, 2006.

• e-Commerce 2006. IADES International Conference.

• International Conferences on Electronic Commerce (ECOM-03, ECOM-04, ECOM-05, ECOM-06, ECOM-07).

Programme Committees

• PC Member of the IADES International Conference, e-Commerce 2008.

• Scientific Committee member of the IASK International Conference E-Activity and Leading Technologies 2007 (E-Alt'07)

• PC Member of the IADES International Conference, e-Commerce 2007.

• PC Member of the International Multidisciplinary Conference on Electronic Commerce, ECOM-07.

• PC Member of IRIS 2007 Workshop on e-Democracy within the framework of International Symposium on Legal Information Science 2007.

• PC Member of the 8th International Conference on
  Electronic Commerce and Web Technologies, DEXA 2007.

• PC Member of the IADES International Conference, e-Commerce 2006.

• PC Member of the International Conferences on Electronic Commerce (ECOM-03, ECOM-04, ECOM-05, ECOM-06)

"Extracurricular" Activities

• I am one of the founders of the "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (We don't trust e-voting computers) foundation. "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (or "We don't trust voting computers") is a coalition of citizens concerned about the use of voting computers during Dutch elections. The foundation wants all elections for local council, provincial government, Parliament and European Parliament to happen in such a way that it is possible in principle for every citizen to monitor whether or not the election has been fair.

• During the True-Vote project I created a website dedicated to electronic voting issues. My Electronic Voting Page provides references and links to papers, books, news, blogs, mailing lists and other e-voting researchers. The website is used, and linked to, by academia (students, lecturers and researchers), governmental departments and NGO’s from all over the world. It plays a role in opening up the e-voting communities’ expert knowledge. The IPSA portal describes the site as follows: