Tessel van Leeuwen - portret door Jimena Gauna

Tessel van LeeuwenConcept Developer

Tessel van Leeuwen is a concept developer with Waag Futurelab. Here, she focuses on social issues around digitisation, participation and the democratisation of technology. Among other things, she does this by questioning the social side of technology together with target groups and then integrating that into design. Her focus is on the development of sustainable public-civil partnerships and data commons as a central component of the community economy: an economic model in which cooperation and an emphasis on people and social and/or environmental goals over profit are central.

Previously, Tessel was project manager of the Code and Interface team at Waag. Tessel studied Cultural Heritage at the Reinwardt Academy (BA) and completed the part-time master's in Urban Management (MA) in 2022.

Labs

Future Internet Lab

Current projects

Digital Infrastructure for the Community Economy

Waag Futurelab explores what kind of support digital technology can provide to the development of a locally-rooted, social economy in the city of Amsterdam. It also works toward a roadmap outlining what actions can be taken to make it happen.

Future Internet Lab

Algo-Lit

Within the AlgoLit project, Waag Futurelab co-creates methods with digital inclusion specialists that professionals and citizens can use to inquire into algorithmic decision-making processes.

Digit-Able

Digit-Able aims to strengthen the digital capabilities and skills of social enterprises

Smart Citizens Lab

The Energy Transition in the Amsterdam Metropolis

How can the position of social initiative be strengthened so that they can produce 33% of electricity and heat demand in the Amsterdam metropolitan region by 2050?

Code of Conduct for the social economy

Working closely with the European Commission (Directorate General GROW), Waag Futurelab and the Commons Network are joining forces to develop a Code of Conduct together with individuals, organizations and agencies in the social economy. All with a shared goal to share, collect and build data management capacity within the ecosystem.

Bridging the digital divide

In Amsterdam, about 20% of residents cannot manage digitally. This creates tension with the fact that public services are increasingly digitising. In this project, we investigated the issue of how and why digital inequality exists in Amsterdam

Glimpses of green energy

Glimpses of green energy looks into the energy transition, on places we normally can't see. Artwork explains the challenges and gives a unique behind the scenes experiences of the energy transition in Amsterdam-Noord.

Future Internet Lab

Support NWA Route: Value creation through responsible AI and Big Data

Policy makers, private developers and researchers discuss questions about the National Research Agenda's big data.

Atelier

Atelier is a project funded by the European Commission that focuses on shaping energy-positive neighbourhoods. Residents, local stakeholders and companies will work together in these neighbourhoods to create a local energy system that generates energy sustainably.

Closed projects

Smart Citizens Lab

Public Civil Cooperation

In this project, Waag investigates new knowledge and process models, which support sustainable cooperation between citizens and governments.

Charging the Commons

Charging the Commons was a project exploring the design of digital platforms for resource communities.

Energy Reference Architecture

Commissioned by Top Sector Energy Digitization and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Waag Futurlab researched a reference architecture for the Dutch energy infrastructure.

Open HEM now!

Commissioned by the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland and Top Sector Energy, Waag developed a Public Stack for home energy management systems: Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS).

Platformcoöp Incubator

Together with the Commons Network, Waag worked on a Platform Co-op Accelerator programme that connected and advanced start-up initiatives that worked with the commons. This way, we encouraged a circular, local and fair economy.

Future Internet Lab

Living Lab Open Culture Data

This project focussed on making cultural events easier to find with open-source technology. By NPO, Sound & Vision, PublicSpaces and Waag Futurelab.

Future Internet Lab

MicroMemberships

MicroMemberships focussed on the question how innovative online revenue models could improve the independence of makers.

Future Internet Lab

Proof of Provenance

Proof of provenance focussed on tackling disinformation by guaranteeing the authenticity of messages. Waag Futurelab worked on a way to do this through digital certificates.

Future Internet Lab

MicroDonor

Healthy internet isn't free. Waag is researching a method for micro-donation to open, fair and inclusive online tools and services.

Contemporary Commoning

The research project Contemporary Commoning focused on the ways the commons could contribute to new forms of (digital) public space and initiate different forms of urban development.

Future Internet Lab

Hackathon de groene stad

In het project hackathon groene steden komen initiatieven bijeen die zich focussen op het vergroenen van steden. Waag organiseert vier groen-expedities en een hackathon.

Gaming for the Commons

Can serious games help us to reimagine our political and economic system? We aim to discover the potential of serious games to help us reclaim the urban commons.

Mobility Lab Bicycledatacommons

The Mobility Lab Bicycledatacommons explores the role of data commons in the usage of bicycle data.

Smart society cases

In this project we sketch a picture of the dilemmas that digitisation entails within public administration and the effect this has on society.

Chamber of Commons

The Chamber of Commons bolsters the interests of commons and commoners.

WeMakeThe.City

WeMakeThe.City is the festival that makes cities better.

DSI4EU

Digital Social Innovation in Europe (DSI4EU) supports digital social innovation networks in Europe.