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The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) recently published the 2026 Paper on Progress and Trends in the National Open Source Policies and Legal Frameworks. This paper examines the evolution of the adoption of open source software and related policies in European public administrations.
Read the full paper: https://openforumeurope.org/publications/progress-and-trends-in-the-national-open-source-policies-and-legal-frameworks-3/
Open Government
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- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Government
Dutch government data should be made available for free to the public as much as possible. Public agencies should change their attitude towards the publishing of open data,
the Dutch Minister of the Interior, Ronald Plasterk said. They are often not aware of the value of the data they collect. Publishing should become a basic principle.
Read more: Dutch minister calls for more government data to be published
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- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Government
The Dutch government has prepared a new Trade Register Law that will effectively forbid free re-use of the register data of its Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel, KvK). In response to an internet consultation, Stefan de Konink, open data proponent and founder of the OpenGeo Foundation, wrote an open letter to the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Security and Justice, asking the Dutch government to reconsider its new policy.
Read more: "Dutch government hampers re-use of Chamber of Commerce data"
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- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Government
On Wednesday, June 17, the Open Overheid (Open Government) agency, part of the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, is organising a consultation event to gather input for the next OGP Action Plan. The agency has invited stakeholders, experts and visionaries to be present in Utrecht, where 140 people will be able to contribute to the direction and contents of the Action Plan for the period 2016-2017.
Read more: Dutch government gathering input for OGP Action Plan 2016-2017
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- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Government
<>Although the Dutch government is actively working on initiatives to make government data publicly available for re-use, it's not doing enough. According to the "Trend report open data 2015" recently published by the Dutch National Audit Office (Court of Audit), the level of available open data has not substantially increased over the last year, departments are using their own websites instead of the Dutch open data portal data.overheid.nl to publish their datasets, and most of the available information is geo-data provided by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (Rijkswaterstaat). Data related to government processes and finances allowing the public to monitor their government, i.e. transparency information, is lacking.
Read more: Dutch Court of Audit: "Open data in the Netherlands: work to be done"
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- Written by: Adrian Offerman
- Category: Open Government
Last week, a coalition of Dutch and international civil society organisations published the manifesto 'Onze Overheid, Onze Informatie!' (Our Government, Our Information!). In the document, the authors argue that, by paying and voting for the government, tax payers have the right to know how their votes are used and their money is spent. An open government is required from a perspective of democracy, engagement and accountability. Transparency contributes to the efficiency of government spending. Furthermore, an open government can — via open data, for example — result in new services and products.
Read more: Dutch civil society publishes 'Our Government, Our Information!' manifesto