People
FKI Board and Core Team
The Free Knowledge Institute is created by the founders of the SELF Platform. It is a spin-off of the Internet Society Netherlands. The founding board is composed of: Wouter Tebbens (president), Hinde ten Berge (treasurer) and David Jacovkis (secretary). The core team is completed by Franco Iacomella and Wytze Koopal.
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Wouter Tebbens is co-founder and serves currently as president of the Free Knowledge Institute and is director of the Free Technology Academy. Between 2006 and 2008 he was coordinator of the European Commission's FP6-funded SELF Project (Science, Education & Learning in Freedom) to design a platform for the collaborative construction of educational materials. He achieved a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Twente (Netherlands). He has worked in various functions in Europe, Argentina and Spain. In 2002 he founded the company xlocal.com offering services based on free software to SME companies. Between 2004 and 2007 he presided the working group on Free/Libre/Open Source Software at Internet Society Netherlands. Wouter is particularly intererested in social changes that come along with new technologies. Core values are: participation, access to knowledge, transparency, sustainability and social inclusion. Related to that he sees for the knowledge society the following essential building blocks: copyleft, free knowledge, open communities, open access, peer production processes, privacy. |
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David Jacovkis studied Physics in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and achieved Master degrees in Materials Science (UAB) and in Systems and Networks Administration with Free Software in the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He has ten years experience in systems engineering using Free Software, working as IT manager (Institut Internacional de Governabilitat de Catalunya) and as freelance consultant for several organisations. He also has lecturing experience at university level and has worked as an editor of educational materials. Since August 2006 he works with the UOC and ISOC.nl in the SELF Project as a learning materials facilitator and technology advisor. In 2007 he co-founded the Free Knowledge Institute. |
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Hinde ten Berge is co-founder of Free Knowledge Institute and is responsible for the financial management and coordination of the LLP-funded Free Technology Academy. She was coordinator Netherlands of the FP6-funded SELF Project. Prior to that, Hinde was a member of the Tactical Technology Collective and coordinated regional and continental training events in Asia and Africa designed to advance computer skills using Free Software. From '98 to '08 she also worked with the International Financial Cryptography Association, formed to advance the theory and practice of financial cryptography and related fields. She has a background as producer of events on the cutting edge of technology and their implications on society and politics since 1997. |
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Franco Iacomella studies and is doing research at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in Argentina. He focusses on project design and visual communication and he likes to write and read about political designs. He is involved in social and political projects related to public access to knowledge and cultural diversity. He works for FLACSO (Latin American School of Social Sciences) and is consultant for the Universitat Oberta of Catalunya (UOC). Franco has been working in the "Free/Open Culture" field for the last eight years, being a member-contributor of a large number of worldwide known institutions, projects and initiatives such as the GNU Project, Free Software Foundation Latin America, Gleducar NGO, MIA, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Open Web Foundation and others. With FKI, he is working on the SELF Project, the Free Techonology Academy and upcoming projects. He is currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. You can contact him through franco[at]freeknowledge.eu |
FKI Advisory Board
The Free Knowledge Institute is a non-profit organisation that fosters the free exchange of knowledge in all areas of society. Inspired by the Free Software movement, the FKI promotes freedom of use, modification, copying and distribution of knowledge in four different but highly related fields: education, technology, culture and science. The mission of the FKI Advisory Board is to guide these goals and projects. The Advisory Board can strenghten our links with other organisations, companies, governments and individuals. Another goal is to utilise their ideas on how to generate funding and support for various projects. The Advisory Board consists of Tom Kok, Bert Melief and Cees Segers.
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Tom Kok (50) lives in Sneek, The Netherlands. Originally an international lawyer of Leiden University, Kok started out his career as officer in the Royal Navy. Turning to financial services he became a banker with Amro Bank in 1984 and CEO of the insurance company FBTO at the age of 33. In 1998 he was appointed strategy director at Achmea Insurances. From 1996 till 1999 Kok was party chairman of political party Democrats 66, then part of the Dutch cabinet. Since 2000 Kok runs his own company, CoolGroup (www.coolgroup.nl), specialised in masterclasses in Inspiration, Innovation and trends. From 2005 till 2007 Kok was chairman of the board of broadcasting company AVRO. Since 2003 Kok is chairman of the Dutch Dialogue Marketing Association and member of the general board of the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers, known as VNO-NCW. From 2001 till 2007 Kok was chairman of the Internet Society The Netherlands. “Free Knowledge inspires and the people of FKI are inspired. For me real access to all knowledge is the fastest track to end poverty in the world. And the fastest way to stimulate new discoveries. That attracts me in FKI.” |
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Bert Melief (1951) graduated as a biologist in 1981 and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam in 1985, based on research on the vegetation history in the Colombian Andes mountains. After a few years within the computer department of a Dutch subsidiary of the Hartford Insurance Company he became manager of the User Support department of the computer centre of the University of Maastricht in 1989. In 1996 he joined the SURF foundation (in which the universities in Holland cooperate in ICT and networking facilities) as secretary of the Scientific Technical Council (WTR). In April 2001 he became principal consultant with M&I/Partners, an independent consultancy firm operating in the field of management and informatics. In 2003 he became partner at the same company. He has been a member of the board of Dutch Informatics Society (NGI) from 1996 till 2001, associated with CEPIS and IFIP, since 1999 as president. He was also involved with the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) in the Netherlands, as project director from the start and secretary of the board of ECDL-NL since its foundation in 1998. He was member of the board of directors of the ECDL foundation, based in Dublin between 2000 and 2003. Since 2002, he is president of the board of EXIN, the examination board for Informatics exams in Holland. From 2006 till 2009, Bert was member of the board and treasurer of ISOC.NL, the Dutch Chapter of the Internet Society. Since 2008 he is member of the advisory board of the Free Knowledge Institute. |
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Mr. Cees A. Segers is independent entrepreneur and advisor / trainer. He graduated as fiscal lawyer at the University of Tilburg and his career developed within the higher education sector. In addition to being a teacher in law, Cees strengthened further as informatics-pioneer as early as 1979. In 1988 he started to work for a fusionpartner of the subsequent Avans Hogeschool, among others as project leader of the national HEO-ICT project guided by the HBO-raad (board for Higher Education). He also founded the Business Intelligence-collective. From 2010 onwards Cees focusses on his meeting centre and organises workshops and trainings on free technologies, digital security and data intelligence. Since 2006, he is board member of the Internet Society Netherlands and for more than seven years Cees is vice-president of Bedrijvenkring Zundert. His major incentives are open collaboration and upkeep of a safe and fun Internet. |