Amsterdam’s energy communities are driving a democratised energy future

In 1901, sixteen dairy farmers in the vicinity of Amsterdam, decided to establish the "Ilpenstein" cheese factory. My grandfather, Piet Nieuweboer, was one of the directors of the cooperative. The reason for collaboration within the cooperative? Cheesemaking traditionally takes place at the farm itself. The cheese factory made it possible to use innovative cheesemaking techniques. Even more important was the collaboration to improve the distribution and marketing of the cheese towards customers.

With the course "Biologisch Tuinieren in de Stad", we have trained almost two hundred new urban farmers in the city of Arnhem. Organic urban farmers with a food garden of ​​half a square meter till half a hectare. It is a dream that these organic urban farmers, and others, will eventually find and learn from each other. Our initiative is the establishment and growth of the "Biologische Stadsboeren Coöperatie Arnhem Groen". An organic urban farmers' cooperative focused on economic collaboration in a green Arnhem.

Michiel Bontenbal  will give a practical update on running open source LLM’s locally
De workshop is in het Engels maar we spreken ook Nederlands!

Join us for the workshop: Civic Sousveillance & Democratic Oversight of Sensor Technology.

In this interactive workshop, we explore democratic oversight of camera detection and other urban sensors: from citizen initiatives such as the On Camera pocket guide and smart city camera-spotting tours to current policies on data collection in public space.

With contributions by Tom van Arman & Mike de Kreek from the Human Values for Smarter Cities research project, Inge Janse & Arthur De Jaeger from Centre for BOLD Cities, and council member Elisabeth IJmker from GroenLinks-PvdA. Next to talks we will also go outside for a joint camera-spotting tour around Arcam.

Date: Thursday, January 29, 2026
Time: 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Location: Arcam
Address: Prins Hendrikkade 600
Language: Dutch
Registration: free, but mandatory via the registration form which is here

More info on the Human Values for Smarter Cities research project is here