Joeri Minnen

Sociologist

Joeri Minnen is a senior researcher at the Research Group TOR (Tempus Omnia Revelat – Time reveals everything) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium). He studies daily human behaviour with a focus on the methodology of time-diary studies. In doing so he developed the MOTUS-software platform. Through the MOTUS-app (both web and mobile) respondents register their time and answer context questions, which vary according the registered activity. Since MOTUS is able to program surveys, diaries and communications (small, medium, large scale), fieldwork can be programmed and automatically be executed. Multiple studies can take place at the same moment. Recently MOTUS also included passive registration, where information from other sources is included in the time expenditure of respondents. The input can also be used to trigger extra questions (eg. based on geofencing questions on why to visit a certain place can be triggered). This knowledge is recently being transferred to a Spin-Off of the Research Group TOR called ‘hbits’. An overview of the research projects (both of TOR and hbits) can be found on the webpage: www.hbits.io. Joeri Minnen is managing director. In addition to the above, Joeri Minnen is treasurer of IATUR vzw (International Association for Time-Use Research) and expert in the working group on harmonised time-use research (HETUS) of EUROSTAT.