[Profile picture of Ruben Verborgh]

Ruben Verborgh

Ruben Verborgh – Professor of Decentralized Web Technology

Trust is an inherently human relationship.

Some may trust a machine. Some love their machines.
Yet machines neither love nor trust us back.

By designing technology to facilitate our evolving relationships,
we scale personalized exchanges into trusted ecosystems.

Ruben Verborgh

My name is Ruben. I’m a storyteller. I tell stories through technology, writing, and music. I tell stories about the world and future so, one day, they’ll no longer just be stories. With the people around me, I research what we need to build to turn stories into reality.

I’m a Professor of Decentralized Web Technology at IDLab of Ghent University – imec and a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School within the University of Oxford.
I’m the Head of Data Interoperability at Inrupt and an occasional advisor to companies. From this hybrid academic and industrial perspective, my professional mission is to inspire, evolve, and reshape our data-driven society.

I investigate how an interdisciplinary approach to digital trust can lead us into a post-Big Data era, wherein a harmonious alignment of societal and economic needs incentivizes responsible data processing. Technology will support people in deciding when, why, and with whom we exchange data, and companies will experience frictionless usage of the data required to offer their services. My research group designs and implements novel proposals to support and effect this socio-economic change.

Blog

I’ve blogged about Linked Data, Web APIs, and JavaScript, but the bulk of my writings nowadays cover the present and future of data and trust on the Web:

Publications

Discover my ongoing research through my recent publications:

See all my publications…