Dick Rijken
Module 2: Thursday, July 18 th through Friday, July 19 th 2002
Curriculum Vitae
Dick Rijken graduated as a psychologist with computer science and electronic music
as secondary subjects. He was involved in setting up an expertise centre for artificial
intelligence at the Utrecht School of the Arts, lecturing on various subjects
such as knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, and music technology.
After that, he was head of the Interaction Design department at the Faculty for
Art, Media and Technology. This involved setting up the world's four-year curriculum
in Interaction Design in 1990. He also conducted a research project for Apple
Computer's Advanced Technology Group in the field of the user interfaces for manipulating
motion in computer animation.
In 1994 he worked for the Netherlands Design Institute, where he developed a collaborative
workspace for workshop participants of the third Doors of Perception conference
(subject: INFO-ECO). He also coordinated a workshop program for that conference
where twelve groups investigated how information technology might contribute to
a sustainable society.
In 1995 he started working at VPRO-digitaal, the new media department of a major
Dutch broadcaster, as member of its management team. There he developed the department's
24hr Cinema Service, a website that uses collaborative filtering techniques to
enable its users to receive advice about films on television via email, based
on their personal judgments of films. The department also runs a website to support
the VPRO's radio and TV acvitities, an online music portal in the field of alternative
music, and develops its own digital publishing software. Currently, he has a part
time position at the department as a strategic and conceptual consultant.
Since 1994, he has been a staff member of the post-graduate degree in Design at
the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam (connected to the Gerrit Rietveld Academy
of Art and Design). The Design department focuses on dynamic and digital media.
In 1996 he became CEO of TBWA/e-Company, a digital communications agency in the
Dutch branch of TBWA, a worldwide network of companies in advertising, marketing
and communications. In 1999 he was strategy director at the TBWA Company Group,
where he consulted on Internet strategy for clients.
Currently, he spends most of his time as an independent consultant for companies
and non-profit organisations and as a lecturer on strategic and conceptual design
issues in digital communication. He is particularly interested in cultural systems,
very large information environments with many users, where self-organisation plays
an important role.
References
These issues are central to large systems like www.ebay.com (online auctions),
www.yahoogroups.com (communities), www.mtbr.com (mountain biking), www.dpreview.com
(digital photography). but in a more general sense they apply to every personal
homepage on the web or every other website where people share information about
something they care about.