Trust, responsibility and reciprocity are important ingredients in an open, sharing culture. They have been discussed in relation to software development; the debate has been revived in the context of society’s ongoing informatisation. Design will have to develop a strategy of reciprocity, particularly when objects become “smart” elements in a "web of things". It will have to identify fundamental questions superseding clients’ design requirements. Marleen Stikker is the founder and director of Waag Society, a media lab that develops creative technical applications for social innovation, concerns itself with the social effects of the Internet and actively promotes open data.