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Curriculum Vitae

This page captures the roles I have had as a professional. It also lists some of my education, diplomas, and other experiences.

See the “Now” page for my current focus and activities in more detail.

Work experience

2024 - now — HvA

Teacher-coach

  • Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam)
  • Aug 2024 - now

The Associate Degree Software Development is a 2-year programme with a strong focus on practical team work. As a teacher/coach, my role is to prepare students for their first job as a developer: capable to quickly learn about new tools and technologies, and able to understand and grow their role in a team.

1995 - now — drostan.org

Sociotechnical trailblazer for civil society

  • drostan.org (self-employed, freelance)
  • 1995 - now

Various roles. See my whole website!

2016 - 2022 — D4D

CTO and Senior IATI Consultant

  • Data 4 Development
  • Jan 2016 - Jun 2022

Offering a broad range of information technology services: information management process design, strategic advice, selection and implementation of software and services. My own focus is on "all things IATI": the International Aid Transparency Initiative. This includes developing products, processes, workshops and trainings, to help organisations produce and use IATI data, and improve on data quality management.

2011 - 2014 — Open for Change

Co-founder and evangelist

  • Open for Change
  • Jan 2011 - Dec 2014

"Open for Change" was the network for open development. We're promoting linked open data and open development through awareness raising, presentations, conferences, and events, and by sharing experiences and insights, or collaboration in projects and programmes.

Started in 2009 as an informal network of innovators in international development cooperation, we have organised Open Development Camps (2011 to 2014, Amsterdam, Nairobi), each with well 100-200 participants, and many Open Tea networking events with peer presentations.

2006 - 2014 — Nivocer

Co-founder and director

  • Nivocer B.V.
  • Dec 2006 - Oct 2014

We provided application development and services for monitoring and evaluation, market research, and programme and project management for "civil society organisation in international cooperation". We were specialised in tailoring our online survey tools to the specific conditions of such international networks: internet-based, easy to use, able to deal with challenges of power supply and connectivity, multiple levels of "ownership" and responsibilities.

After many years of fruitful and joyful collaboration, we have decided to close down Nivocer B.V. by the end of 2014.

2005 - 2006 — Greenpeace

Consultant online campaigning

  • Greenpeace International
  • Nov 2005 - Dec 2006

Product owner consultant in the 'people project' in the international climate campaign team, co-developing the concept and platform for a social network of pioneers in climate adaptation, advocating the possibilities of social media and online collaboration across Greenpeace campaign teams.

1997 - 2004 — AIDEnvironment

Consultant online collaboration

  • AIDEnvironment
  • 1997 - 2004

Consultant in various fields of online collaboration:

  • Internet tools to support partnerships and platforms
  • Online policy-making, project management, campaign coordination
  • Strategies and visions to mobilise and activate knowledge within organisations and networks
  • Online communication and facilition

1999 - 2002 — OneWorld

Information Architect

  • OneWorld Netherlands
  • 1999 - 2002

Start-up at NCDO of a Dutch web portal on human rights, environment and development, from initial market and needs analysis to business planning and coordination of technical implementation, and eventually joining the OneWorld International network as OneWorld Netherlands. Designed and implemented online discussion projects on the technical platform.

1994 - 1999 — Milieudefensie

Network administrator and IT lead

  • Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
  • 1994 - 1999

I started as the only part-time system administrator (as conscientious objector), built up a 5-person IT department providing ICT infrastructure, services, and helpdesk, with 2 Novell servers and approx. 80 PCs. Introduction of: a cat5 office network for IT and telephony across two buildings, server infrastructure, IT policies, email and internet at the workplace.

Volunteering

2010 - now — KV Zeeburg

Board member, tour leader, coach

  • Kanovereniging Zeeburg (kayaking club in Amsterdam)
  • 2010 - now: Tour leader, member of the tour organising team, coach for new tour guides, Google Workspace lead, member of the communications team.
  • Nov 2010 - Sep 2020: Board member of my kayaking club (secretary), doing the website, internet presence, social media and PR.
    • Built a new website based on Wordpress and later with Google Sites
    • Renewed communication style, house style and logo.
    • Integrated with MailChimp to build a list of interested people.
    • Set up Google Apps for internal information management (Drive, Calendar)
    • Created a Facebook page, now with a few managers.
    • Introduced a print magazine using Editoo print-and-send-on-demand.
    • Created a Slack-based online community (especially active during the Covid pandemic).

2011 - now — Elections

Election worker

  • Gemeente Amsterdam
  • ca. 2011 - now: Election worker (polling station and vote counting) during official elections (Parliament, provinces, municipality, Europe, water boards)

Certification

2025 — BDB module 1

  • Hogeschool van Amsterdam, HvA Academie
  • 2025
  • Module 1 of "Basiskwalificatie Didactische Bekwaamheid" for higher vocal education.

2015 - now — First Aid

  • 2019 - now — Dutch Red Cross — European First Aid Certificate (EFAC)
  • 2015 - 2018 — Oranjekruis — Diploma First Aid

2018 — BSIFT II

  • 2018 — UNICEF — Basic Security in the Field training and certificate of completion.

Education

1986 - 1993 — University of Twente

Ir. Informatica

  • University of Twente, faculty of Informatica, Enschede
  • 1986 - 1993
  • Diploma: Ir (equivalent to MSc)
  • Traineeship: developing object-oriented approaches to verify formal properties of Petri nets (coverability and reachability graphs) at the Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale et Appliquée de Cachan.

  • Graduation: knowledge representation and the use of description logic in the domain of physical characteristics of ceramic materials (various approaches to part-of relations in ontologies, Prolog, knowledge bases).

  • Activities and societies:

    • Member of the faculty promotion committee, co-organiser of faculty promotion days.
    • Inter-Actief student association and faculty politics; including a study trip to the U.S. on Artifical Intelligence and Parallel Processing (1989)
    • Assistent in various teaching activities.
  • Board member, reviving the local chapter of the Hobby Computer Club (HCC).
    • Organising local meet-ups.
    • Teaching programming workshops (mostly in the Pascal language).

1980 - 1986 — GSG Emmen

VWO

  • Gemeentelijke Scholengemeenschap (GSG) Emmen
  • 1980 - 1986
  • Diploma: VWO
  • Learning to program in Pascal and Basic (1981 and later)
  • Teaching computer programming in Ecol (1985 and later)