Jaap Boter

Jaap Boter (1966) studied Musicology (MA) at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Having worked for a number of years as a consultant and lecturer of Arts Marketing at Utrecht University, he switched to the Marketing Department of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2001 as assistant professor and later associate professor. In 2005, he defended his PhD research on the local role of cultural amenities based on their plethora of transaction data.

While GIS was originally simply included to map customers as a convenient part of big data analytics, his enthusiasm for the potential of GIS techniques grew rapidly and became an important foundation of his research. At SPINlab, Jaap focuses on the (broader) role of GIS in society. He is particularly interested in how spatial information is best presented and interacted with to involve stakeholders and aid decision makers. One of the latest SPINlab projects on this, in collaboration with Geo-ICT company Geodan, is on how to develop and use Digital Twins and gaming environments such as Minecraft.