91 satır
4.7 KiB
HTML
91 satır
4.7 KiB
HTML
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<html newsdate="2017-12-06">
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<head>
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<title>Dutch government publishes large project as Free Software</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Dutch government publishes large project as Free Software</h1>
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<p newsteaser="yes">
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The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
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released the source code and documentation of Basisregistratie Personen (BRP), a
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100M€ IT system that registers information about inhabitants within the
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Netherlands. This comes as a great success for Public Code, and the FSFE
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applauds the Dutch government's shift to Free Software.
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</p>
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<p>Operation BRP is an IT project by the Dutch government that has been in the
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works since 2004. It has cost Dutch taxpayers upwards of 100 million Euros and
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has endured three failed attempts at revival, without anything to show for
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it. From the outside, it was unclear what exactly was costing taxpayers so much
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money with very little information to go on. After the plug had been pulled from
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the project earlier this year in July, the former interior minister agreed to
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publish the source code under pressure of Parliament, to offer transparency
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about the failed project. Secretary of state Knops has now gone beyond that
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promise and released the source code as Free Software (a.k.a. Open Source
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Software) to the public.</p>
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<p>In 2013, when the first smoke signals showed, the former interior minister
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initially wanted to address concerns about the project by providing limited
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parts of the source code to a limited amount of people under certain restrictive
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conditions. The ministry has since made a complete about-face,
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releasing <a href="https://github.com/MinBZK/OperatieBRP">a snapshot of the
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(allegedly) full source code and documentation</a> under the terms of the GNU
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Affero General Public License, with the development history soon to follow.</p>
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<p>In <a href="https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/brieven/2017/11/10/afschrift-brief-over-openbaarmaking-broncode-brp">a
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letter to Dutch municipalities</a> earlier in November, secretary of state Knops
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said that he is convinced of the need of an even playing field for all parties,
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and that he intends to "let the publication happen under open source
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terms". He went on to say: "What has been realised in operation BRP
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has namely been financed with public funds. Software that is built on top of
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this source code should in turn be available to the public again."</p>
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<p>These statements are an echo of the Free Software Foundation
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Europe's <a href="https://publiccode.eu/">Public Money, Public Code</a>
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campaign, in which we implore public administrations to release software funded
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by the public as Free Software available to the citizenry that paid for it.</p>
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<p>The echoes of 'Public Money, Public Code' do not stop
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there. In <a href="https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/kamerstukken/2017/11/29/kamerbrief-over-openbaarmaking-meest-recente-versie-broncode-brp">a
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letter to the Dutch parliament</a> Wednesday 29 November, the secretary of state
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writes about the AGPL: "The license terms assure that changes to the source code
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are also made publicly available. In this way, reuse is further supported. The
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AGPL offers the best guarantee for this, and besides the GPL (General Public
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License), sees a lot of use and support in the open source community.</p>
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<p>"Publication will happen free of charge so that, in the public interest,
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an even playing field is created for everyone who wants to reuse this
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code."</p>
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<p>This is big news from the Netherlands and an unprecedented move of
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transparency by the Dutch
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government. Following <a href="https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2017/10/11/onderzoek-open-source-software">a
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report</a> to the Ministry of the Interior about publishing government software
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as Free Software (Open Source Software), it seems that this will happen more
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often. In it, Free Software is described as making the government more
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transparent, lowering costs, increasing innovation, forming the foundation for a
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digital participation society, and increasing the quality of code.</p>
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<blockquote><p>"We applaud the Dutch government for releasing the source code
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for BRP. We have been asking for this method of working since 2001, and it is
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good to see that the government is finally taking steps towards Free Software.
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In the future, we hope that the source code will be released during an earlier
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stage of development, which we believe in this case would have brought issues to
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light sooner", says Maurice Verheesen, coordinator FSFE Netherlands.</p></blockquote>
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<p>If you like our campaign "Public Money, Public Code",
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please <a href="https://fsfe.org/donate">become a supporter today</a> to enable
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our work!</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag>front-page</tag>
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<tag>PMPC</tag>
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</tags>
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<author id="carmenbianca" />
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</html>
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