The Dutch Government Works on Open Source with a Drupal Developers Day

About fifty software developers came together on the 9th of December for the Drupal Developers Day organized by DICTU, a large Dutch governmental ICT organization. Seasoned developers and ambitious newcomers from all over the country traveled to the office of DICTU in Assen. They all have one thing in common: the desire to contribute to open-source projects.

The Developers Day is an initiative of the Department of Web & App Services of DICTU. Web & App Services builds web applications for the government using Drupal. With the Drupal Developers Day, the team wants to give knowledge and code back to the open-source community. 

“Open source software is often a good choice for governmental organisations.” 

says Esmeralda Tijhoff, who works at Web & App Services DICTU. 

“Drupal is a widely supported content management system. A million people worldwide contribute to its source code. They do this voluntarily, just like we do today. Thanks to all those developers involved, Drupal is a leader in accessibility and security.”

DICTU is the largest Drupal employer in the Netherlands. Team leaders Corien Potkamp and Wilte Clobus believe it is important that DICTU returns components developed by DICTU back to society and the Drupal community as much as possible. 

“By choosing open source, DICTU contributes to a transparent government,” 

says Corien, 

​​“We are a user of open source, which also includes giving back as much as possible. We share modules and other code with developers around the world. Everyone benefits from this and it is also sustainable because it prevents duplication of work and duplicate code storage.”

With Developer Days you inspire developers

The format of a 'Developer Day' is a well-known phenomenon among developers. At these types of meetings, developers come together to work on their own or joint projects. These days are a joyous time for open-source developers. Valerie Valkenburg, the Drupal developer at Finalist in Rotterdam, comes with two other colleagues to participate in the day: 

“I come to meet old acquaintances and gain new experiences,” 

she says enthusiastically. 

“Collaborating on open source is not only exciting but also incredibly inspiring.”

An innovative government with open-source

The fact that a government organization is active in an open-source community is not unique, but it is still special. 

“The Dutch government’s policy is clear,” 

says Esmeralda. 

“Software developed with public funds should be returned to society as much as possible. We are increasingly seeing participation in open source communities explicitly requested in tenders. It is only logical that DICTU, as a large ICT organization within the national government, is also committed to this.”

Bert Boerland, chairman and founder of the Dutch Drupal Foundation, also agrees. He traveled to Assen to greet the participants and DICTU on behalf of the Drupal community. Bert: 

“DICTU not only uses the open source tool Drupal and does not only contribute to the open source project Drupal. DICTU breathes Drupal! And so open source is the oxygen of an innovative government.”

When asked whether we can expect more Developers Days at DICTU, Corien Potkamp smiles encouragingly. 

“You can see that this is alive because our developers also want to share their work. This is all possible during this event. It is encouraging to see that participants from all over the country come to Assen to work on projects together. It would be great if we could organize this more often.”

Want to read more about Web & App Services? Visit dictu.nl