Marleen Stikker
Director of Waag Society
Founder of PICNIC

Marleen Stikker is the developer and mayor of Digital City (DDS), the first European free gateway and virtual community on the internet. It is a place where citizens, organisations, companies and publishers make their first steps on the electronic highway. DDS has been described as the most influential practice where computer networks meet civil society.

Stikker is also the founder of Waag Society, a media lab developing creative technological applications for societal innovation. The foundation researches, develops concepts, pilots and prototypes and acts as an intermediary between the arts, science and the media. Its activities are divided into five social domains: Healthcare, Culture, Society (public domain), Education and Sustainability.

The society has a strong focus on letting user groups participate on the internet, new media and technology that otherwise have limited access. Examples of its work include creating mobile city games for youth markets, developing story tables for the elderly and researching the possibilities of networked performances. Its Creative Learning Lab focuses on new ways of education. Waag Society is also concerned with the social effects of the internet such as finding new ways of distribution, copyright systems, civilian authorship and cross media developments. Many of its projects found national and international acclaim and have been awarded over the years.

In 2006 Stikker started, together with Bas Verhart (Media Republic), PICNIC, the Cross Media Week. PICNIC is an international event in the areas of creativity, media, technology, entertainment, art and
science. PICNIC has been described as the grown up version of Burning Man, with posher venues and more dealmaking.

She is co-founder of IIPCreate, ICT Innovation Platform Creative Industries. She is currently a member of the Board of Advisors of ICT Regie, a board member (Raad van Commissarissen) at WPG Publishers and on the board of the Dutch Filmmuseum. She has given numerous talks and lectures on the subject of creative research and social innovation and is the founder of Media Guild, an incubator for creative start-ups.

Stikker studied Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.