Dutch digital government embraces open ICT standards

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Dit is een Engelstalig nieuwsbericht in het kader van World Standards Day. 

Since 2006 the Forum Standaardisatie has been advising Dutch government on the mandatory and recommended use of open ICT standards. In this 16 year time span, the Forum increased the awareness and adoption of open ICT standards that are critical to a secure, interoperable and vendor independent digital government. Digital services, systems and infrastructure of the Dutch government now commonly build upon open standards such as https and DNSSEC.

Forum Standaardisatie works as an independent advisory board to the Dutch digital government, and is made up of around 20 members from all layers of government, the private sector and academia. The Forum maintains a 'comply or explain' list of open ICT standards that public organisations must acquire and deploy wherever applicable in projects with an ICT budget of over 50,000 Euros. It also monitors the use of open ICT standards in public services and tenders, and helps governmental organisations deploy them. On European level, Forum Standaardisatie contributes to Interoperable Europe and the Multi Stakeholder Forum on ICT Standardisation.

As Larissa Zegveld, general director of Kennisnet and chairwoman of the Forum Standaardisation, puts it:

Over the past 16 years, Forum Standaardisatie has made a difference in making Dutch digital government more secure, interoperable and vendor independent through the use of open ICT standards.