Part of the research behind Archadia was done from the offices of the Waag Society. This is an extremely inspiring place to be at, especially if you are interested in technology, media and social innovation. One of the biggest reasons for this is the amazing group of people who work at the Waag, who triggered my inspiration and imagination with their enthusiasm and their fast, creative and open minds. I interviewed several of them and these interviews will be presented in three parts, of which this is the first.

Tom Demeyer is the ‘head of technology’. Frank Kresin is the ‘program manager’ and ‘research director’. Rinske Hordijk is the ‘head of the education program’. Edwin van Ouwekerk Moria is a ‘mobile developer’. Dick van Dijk is a ‘concept developer’. To start of the interview I asked everybody what their main fascination on the theme of technology and the city was:

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As ‘mayor’ of ‘De Digitale Stad’ (the ‘Digital City’; DDS) in Amsterdam, Marleen Stikker developed the first free gateway and virtual community on the internet in 1994.

In the same year as the DDS opened, she founded Waag Society: aa medialab developing creative technological applications for societal innovation. Amongst others, Waag Society creates mobile citygames for the youth, develops storytables for the elderly and researches the possibilities for networked performances. Marleen was also at the basis of many organisation, including the Media Guild,PICNIC, and IT Innovation Platform Creative Industries.

Marleen Stikker studied Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Earlier she started the theatre magazine Alligator, the newspaper Daily Alligator, was director of media-performance festival Zomerfestijn, and chief editor of Live Magazine at De Balie.

On a sunny afternoon I got the chance to interview Marleen in her peaceful backyard in the heart of Amsterdam.

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Claire Boonstra studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Delft. After her studies she soon left the building industry for the engaging world of New Media. After working at KPN mobile, Unilever and Talpa Digital eventually she started Layar with co-founders Raimo van der Klein & Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, with whom she had also been a part of the team that founded Mobile Mondays Amsterdam. Layar is based in Amsterdam.

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