Municipalities in the Netherlands must all comply with laws and regulations. This means that their websites must be secure and accessible for citizens. For years, the websites operated separately from each other, even though they were all working on the same digital challenges. This resulted in a chaotic system with high costs and starting over again with every tender. It could be done differently, and that is how the Open Webconcept (OWC) was created. Now with more than forty municipalities and six suppliers. In this article, we explain how this model works in practice for everyone.
Develop together, share and reuse
That was the starting point. The idea began eight years ago when the municipality of Buren decided to do things differently. Instead of buying a new system with every tender, they wanted to build a shared digital foundation. An open and reusable ecosystem; they no longer wanted to be dependent on suppliers. Shock Media played an important role in this together with Yard and Acato.
According to Martin Donk of Yard, the idea behind the initiative was simple:
“Stop reinventing the same digital services over and over again and start developing, sharing and reusing together.”
Open source library as a foundation
The Open Webconcept is a library with reusable components for municipal websites and digital services. Think of forms, product pages, interactive maps, and content modules. Yard and Acato have been actively contributing to this component library from the beginning.
Jeroen Kellerhuis of Acato sees in practice how powerful this works:
“You build on a foundation that continuously improves. Every new component strengthens the whole, every municipality benefits. The approach prevents duplicate work and makes digital services smarter and sustainable.”
Based on existing building blocks, they develop new modules that flow back into the community. As a result, more than forty municipalities already automatically benefit from work that has been done elsewhere.
Hosting as an indispensable link, open source as a foundation
With our Managed App Platform, we provide an infrastructure that is set up openly and flexibly. It complies with the Haven Standard, a guideline from the Common Ground movement. Applications run on a Kubernetes platform with a uniform and secure configuration, allowing municipalities to easily move applications without the involvement of suppliers and technical matters. With this platform, we can offer municipalities a secure and stable environment that also meets requirements such as ISO 27001 and the Baseline Information Security Government (BIO).
“We build applications, but Kubernetes is a field of expertise in itself, which is why you need a hosting partner like Shock Media to safeguard this knowledge.”
Partners, competitors or both?
The OWC works together with six suppliers, while at the same time they encounter each other in tenders. This requires clear agreements and transparency. They build together toward the same goal but also operate in the same market. That means: collaboration where necessary and competition where possible.
Municipalities seek autonomy
For municipalities, this approach means more control. Previously, a new tender meant a new system. The OWC keeps the underlying structure intact; in other words, code, components, and standards form a secure and stable foundation. This continuity reduces risks and accelerates implementations, fully in line with the principles of Common Ground.
A growing movement, but with a challenge
On a structural level, we at Shock Media see strong growth. Haven is not mandatory, but more and more municipalities are joining and consciously choosing the Haven standard.
Despite this growth, all involved parties also see an important point of attention. Municipalities move differently than other consultancy organizations: decision-making takes longer, internal processes are more complex, and legislation plays an important role at every step. The ecosystem sometimes grows faster than the organizations working with it. New components are developed faster than before, public funds are used effectively, and the infrastructure is safer and future-proof.
The community is growing. From WordPress specialists to Kubernetes engineers. The OWC shows what is possible when different parties collaborate and share values such as open source, reusability, and public values. Ultimately, it comes down to one thing: more public control, making the digital government more sustainable, and growing along with the needs of citizens.
With the combined expertise of Shock Media, Yard, and Acato which only strengthen each other further the Open Webconcept has been created in such a way that it is future-proof.
