Paul Atkinson: Paul Atkinson is a Reader in Design at Sheffield Hallam University. His background is diverse, having been an industrial designer before entering education to teach product design and design history

Michael Avital: Michel Avital is a boundary spanner at the crossroads of information, technology, and people. He is Associate Professor of Information Management at University of Amsterdam.

Bruce Mau: Bruce Mau is the Chief Creative Officer of Bruce Mau Design. Clients of his Chicago and Toronto studios include Coca-Cola, McDonald's, MTV, Arizona State University, Frank Gehry, and Miami's American Airlines Arena.

Renny Ramakers: Renny Ramakers is design critic and co-founder and director of Droog, the conceptual design company which was set up in 1993. She organizes design exhibitions and has been a member of various design prize juries worldwide.

Carolien Hummels: Carolien Hummels is director of education in Industrial Design as well as Associate Professor on Aesthetics of Interaction in the Design of Intelligent Products and Systems at Eindhoven University of Technology

Ronen Kadushin is industrial designer and practices Open Design, and he is guest professor at Burg Giebichenstein, University of Art and Design Halle, teaching Open Design.

Andrew Katz is partner at Moorcrofts LLP and specialising in IP and commercial law, with particular interest in open source and open content issues, and he is a believer in open innovation.

Tommi Laitio is a Researcher at Finland’s only independent think tank Demos Helsinki. Tommi focuses on social entrepreneurship, arts & culture and civic engagement.

Joris Larmann first gained notoriety as a designer with his functional rococo radiator heat wave. After this he started Joris Laarman Lab in 2004 together with his partner and film maker Anita Star.

Bre Pettis s an entrepreneur, video blogger and multi-artist. Bre is one of the founders of the Brooklyn-based hacker space NYC Resistor, and a founder of MakerBot Industries

Matt Ratto is director of the Critical Making lab at the University of Toronto where he uses basic electrical, craft, and computing equipment to design, develop, and explore material fabrication and technical prototyping.

Dick Rijken is director of STEIM and professor at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. He also works is a policy advisor for the Dutch government and for the EU.

Joost Smiers is Professor (em.) of Political Science of the arts, Research Fellow in the Research Group Arts & Economics at the Utrecht School of the Arts, the Netherlands.

Pieter Jan Stappers works at ID-StudioLab in the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft. The focus of his research and teaching is on the early phases of design projects.

Creative Commons Nederland is a co-operation between Nederland Kennisland (Netherlands Knowledgeland), the Institute for Information Laws (IvIR) and Waag Society.

Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of easy and effective tools for creators to share their creative work if they want to. The organisation was founded in 2001 in the USA by Lawrence Lessig, in reaction on the developments in the copyright situation, such as DRM and other forms of protection.

Premsela, the Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion, creates opportunities for the growth of Dutch design from a cultural angle of approach. In all our projects, we collaborate intensively with a large number of partners. With them, we organise lectures, debates and exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad. Premsela also publishes Morf, the Netherlands’ biggest design magazine, and the international web portal Design.nl. Our activities are aimed at designers, students, clients, producers, and everyone interested in the cultural value of design and fashion.

Waag Society develops creative technology for social innovation. The foundation researches, develops concepts, pilots and prototypes and acts as an intermediate between the arts, science and the media. Waag Society cooperates with cultural, public and private parties.

Waag Society is an interdisciplinary medialab, where besides research and development there is room for experiment with new technology, art and culture. Waag Society divides its activities in five social domains: Healthcare, Culture, Society (public domain), Education and Sustainability.

Waag Society is housed in two historic monuments in Amsterdam, de Waag and Pakhuis de Zwijger

Open Design Now looks at design in the new creative commons, co-creation era. It presents practices, tools, and licensing systems, as open design is a way of designing everyone can participate in. Includes essays, cases, and visuals on various issues of open design, as well as practical guidelines for designers, design educators, and policymakers to get started.