English
You can find here ‘The Netherlands in Open Connection’ (2007), an action plan (PDF – 409 kB) for the use of Open Standards and Open Source Software in the public and semi-public sector in The Netherlands. The Cabinet intends to achieve a number of goals during this cabinet session, such as good participation from citizens, sustainability of information and innovation, and a reduction in administrative burden (by supplying information only once, for example). With the aim of realising these goals in an efficient manner, the Cabinet intends to use competition in an effort to encourage parties to realise or help realise the goals listed. Interoperability between businesses and governments, between citizens and governments, and between the government bodies themselves is a necessary condition for achieving these social goals.
The Cabinet refers to interoperability as the power of systems and information systems to be able to exchange data and information by electronic means within and between organisations. Interoperability is an essential prerequisite for a future-proof development of services and applications directly or indirectly enabled by ICT. The Dutch Lower Chamber, with an eye on these social goals, has announced that it considers the use of open standards and open source software by the government and the public and semi-public sectors to be important. For this reason the Lower Chamber has asked the Cabinet to prepare a plan for this. The Cabinet is fulfilling the wishes of the Lower Chamber with this action plan.
