Robin van Koert - A brief biography Robin van Koert was born in Nieuwkoop, the Netherlands, in 1965. He went to primary school in the town of 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. Later on he enrolled at a preparatory academic education school, the highest level secondary education school in the Netherlands, in the same town. In 1983 he graduated and enrolled at university. He studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. There he obtained his M.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering on a thesis addressing the structural organizational problems of a subsidiary of Philips Electronics. Subsequently, he worked as a project and production manager in the textile industry in the Netherlands (Gamma Holding, the Netherlands), Ghana (Unilever, UK) and Ivory Coast (Gamma Holding, the Netherlands) for about seven years. In 1997, he started his Ph.D. research with prof. dr. C.J. Hamelink of the Department for Political and Socio-Cultural Sciences of the University of Amsterdam. Field research took him to Ghana, Mali, Indonesia, Vietnam and Peru. In June 2001, he obtained a Ph.D. in Political Science with the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for his dissertation on "Electronic Media in Rural Development", on the political aspects of electronically mediated information flows. He has since conducted research for the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London on electronic surveillance related UK legislation, as well as on the use of data-bases and the Internet for research and campaigning activities by the Amnesty International movement. He has published three papers on ICT and rural development (2000, 2002 and 2003) in the Internet peer magazine FirstMonday. He has written a chapter on Vietnam for 'Cyberactivism in Asia', a book edited by the Bangkok branch of the Germany based Friedrich Naumann Stiftung. In addition, he researched and drafted a campaign document on the Internet and human rights in Vietnam for Amnesty International's International Secretariat in London. In addition, he wrote a monthly column for the website of his favourite football club, FC Den Bosch in 2005 and 2006. Finally, he was part-time member of the Brazil Team at Amnesty International's International Secretariat in London. Finally, he wrote several articles for Dutch (national) media outlets on offshore outsourcing. Currently he is working as a Brooklyn based freelance writer.
	Biography last updated September 2007