Government organisation in the Netherlands uses Joomla

The Netherlands Patent Office has launched it's new website which was created with the Joomla CMS. The site was launched by Frank Heemskerk, minister of Foreign Affairs. This is the first Dutch government organisation who uses Open Source Software for it's website. It is the first step of an action plan called 'Nederland Open in Connection', a plan to switch a large part of the government ICT systems to Open Source Software. Not only their website will be Open Source, but by the end of 2009, their entire office environment will be based on open source software.

The idea behind the plan is of course to cut costs on software licences. But they also want to be less dependent on fixed software suppliers. If new and better software becomes available, then open software allows you to switch easier to the new system as there is no licence cost involved. According to the minister, the Netherlands Patent Office is an important front runner with this plan and serves as an example for other government authorities. He also says that they want to make a contribution to a wider use of open source software and open standards.

For the Joomla community, it should be very pleasing to hear that a government office is using Joomla for it's official website. This shows that Joomla is trusted as a professional system and one of (if not the) best open source CMS. Let's hope this stimulates other governments to concider Joomla as a good option for their official sites also.

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