Dick Rijken is director of Steim and professor at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. He also works as an independent consultant in the field of digital culture and new media and is a policy advisor for the Dutch government and for the EU. His primary interest is the changing role of culture in western society. He looks at information systems as cultural products and investigates how traditional cultural players such as broadcasters and museums can redefine their role in our emerging network society.
At Steim, he works with musicians and other artists to investigate how live performance and the design of electronic instruments can inspire our thinking about complexity, intuition, and improvisation, concepts that are relevant far beyond the domain of music.

He is also an independent consultant in this field, working for museums, broadcasters, libraries, and archives, and commercial clients. Most of his projects deal with the organisation of self-organisation. Some of his projects include setting up VPRO's 3voor12 lokaal, and the ‘Wonderkamers’ in the Gemeente Museum in The Hague.
He is chairman of the e-culture committee of the Dutch Culture Council, co-chair of the EU working group on Cultural and Creative Industries, and board member of NoAcademy, a post graduate course in social design.