One reason for selecting joint winners is that open standards and open source should, according to Dr van Zon, further cooperation among government organisations; the two winners had developed extensive cooperation based on standards in addition to their own individual activities.
The Zeeuws-Vlaanderen Waterschap won the prize due to the broad implementation of open source software within its organisation. Open source software is being used by the Waterschap for security, internet and intranet, digital photo management. Open source is used on a day-to-day basis, rather than in a test environment. This Waterschap is a relatively small organisation that has shared its experience and knowledge with a number of larger organisations including the city of Haarlem and the Belastingdienst (Dutch Revenue Service).
The Unie van Waterschappen won the prize due to its implementation, completed in 2004, of the first financial reporting system based on open standards. In order to fulfil their reporting requirements for EU-wide financial statistics, the Unie developed and implemented (with the support of external organisations) a system based on XBRL, the open XML-based Business Reporting Language. It conducted training programmes internally and for member Water Boards and delivered the first full financial report to the Dutch National Statistics office (CBS) this April.
Water Boards are extremely important public sector bodies in the Netherlands. In a country where over half of the land is below sea level and kept dry through artificial means, the Water Boards maintain the dykes and canals, and are responsible for flood control, water quantity, water quality and treatment of urban wastewater.
Further Information:
- Announcement, programme of the symposium (Dutch)
- Waterschap Zeeuwse-Vlaanderen (Dutch)
- Unie Waterschappen (Dutch/English)
- OSOSS Programme homepage
- Case study published on OSO (English)
Autor: R.A.G.
Quelle: European Communities, 04.11.2004
