At the Open Innovation 2.0 Conference in Amsterdam (KIT - Royal Tropical Institute), Marleen Stikker received the Open Innovation Luminary award 2016. Below is the Laudatio spoken during award ceremony on 23 May 2016:
"Marleen Stikker is president and co-founder of Waag. She is founder of De Digitale Stad (The Digital City) in 1994, the first virtual community introducing free public access to the internet. She was well ahead of her time and it is this quality that makes Marleen a very special person and a key actor in our society. You can see her as a serial innovator and disruptor in the true sense. Just last year she, and others, launched the Facebook Farewell party. A critique on where our sharing society is going and the big risks we run as an open society. And with that she, again, points us to the future.
She is not only visionairy, but an entrepreneur as well. She is founder of Waag, a social enterprise that consists of Waag, a research Institute for creative technologies and social innovation and Waag Products, that launched companies like 7scenes, a mobile learning and gaming platform and Fairphone, the first fair smartphone in the world.
Marleen Stikker strongly adheres to the Maker's Bill of Rights motto "If You Can't Open It, You Don't Own It". Waag is actively involved in the Open Design and Creative Commons movement and believes that society needs open technologies that meet societal challenges.
She is the founder of what is now called the creative industries. A sector that not is only a major economic force, but also is a change agent in the we view traditional services in health, mobility or teaching.
She is currently putting her energy in promoting the role of the arts as driver for renewal in our society.
It is with great pleasure to call forward Marleen Stikker and award her the Open Innovation Luminary award 2016 in the category 'engaging open innovation platforms'."
