Soft launch of open-source code platform for government • Hacker News Board

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#11

Post by oever » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:07 AM UTC

hvb2 wrote: post #6

oever wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government still plans to place the authentication system of all Dutch citizens in USA hands. And interestingly, code.overheid.nl runs from a residential ip address.

> The government still plans to place the authentication system of all Dutch citizens in USA hands. That's not a fair characterization. The company that runs it might be bought. That's not planning to put it in USA hands

The sale could be stopped by government. The ID system might be moved to a different company. The government could by the part of the company that hosts the ID system. None of these measures are being taken.

The result is that the information needed to log in to all the important government systems becomes subject to American jurisdiction. Foreign agents will be able to authenticate themselves as any Dutch citizen and act on their behalf.

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#12

Post by jibbirish » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:15 AM UTC

newsclues wrote: post #8

Is there a network or organization for the coordination of government open source projects? I love the idea of my city, region or nation (or planet) working to solve a problem and releasing the tool to the public. I just don't want every government to duplicate all the same work, some duplication and competition is fine. But the idea that different places have different specialities etc....

In the Netherlands municipalities have been collaborating for years already to build an open source ecosystem: https://commonground.nl/

We have 342 municipalities, all buying the same apps (from 3 or 4 vendors) to deliver basic services to their citizens. Common Ground aims to replace all of those with open source solutions.

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#13

Post by robertlagrant » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:17 AM UTC

UK government has a list[0] of over 17000 OSS projects it has created.

[0] https://govbrowse.uk

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#14

Post by Mashimo » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:18 AM UTC

> https://code.overheid.nl/RegelRecht/regelrecht

> Machine-readable Dutch law execution. regelrecht takes legal texts, encodes them as structured YAML, and runs them as deterministic decision logic. The engine takes a regulation and a set of inputs, evaluates the decision logic, and returns a result with a full explanation trail

Can someone explain this to me? Not the technical aspect, but rather a user story or use case, maybe with example. I can't really wrap my head around it. Thanks in advanced.

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#15

Post by femtozer » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:18 AM UTC

robertlagrant wrote: post #13

UK government has a list[0] of over 17000 OSS projects it has created. [0] https://govbrowse.uk

TIL CyberChef is developed by the UK gov

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#16

Post by michelb » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:21 AM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #7

ivolimmen wrote: post #3

I am Dutch and I am glad they finally started to do some open sourcing. I have worked at different governmental bodies and have been promoting open source for some time now. But as a simple 'added hands for hire' I never got any response to my pleas. I guess it's typical Dutch that we are one of the last to do so.

I am living in Spain, and from my point of view, Netherlands is one of the ones doing the most for FOSS in Europe today! It sees much faster real-world adoption of FOSS in ministries and municipalities than other countries, the government seems eager to fund FOSS (again, compared to other countries) and generally be welcoming to the ecosystem. Browsing around, there seems to be lots of FOSS projects funded by money c…

Not sure. I think Germany and France are way ahead?

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#17

Post by embedding-shape » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:21 AM UTC

moi2388 wrote: post #9

hvb2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The government still plans to place the authentication system of all Dutch citizens in USA hands. That's not a fair characterization. The company that runs it might be bought. That's not planning to put it in USA hands

It is a fair characterisation. They can access the data, as their data protection officer warned about, it hereby falls under US law, they have to give data when requested, and can shut it down at any time.

None of those things make "The government still plans to place the authentication system of all Dutch citizens in USA hands" a fair characterization, it doesn't seem to be true by any measures, the government has no such plans, unless you can point me to some public session/document that shows that this is actually the plan?

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#18

Post by embedding-shape » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:22 AM UTC

michelb wrote: post #16

embedding-shape wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am living in Spain, and from my point of view, Netherlands is one of the ones doing the most for FOSS in Europe today! It sees much faster real-world adoption of FOSS in ministries and municipalities than other countries, the government seems eager to fund FOSS (again, compared to other countries) and generally be welcoming to the ecosystem. Browsing around, there seems to be lots of FOSS projects funded by money c…

Not sure. I think Germany and France are way ahead?

Yeah, probably if you asked me for "Top 3 countries for FOSS in Europe" I'd pretty much say France, Germany and Netherlands, hence me saying "is one of the ones" :) Compared to the rest of the countries, those three probably do way more than all the rest together.

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#19

Post by rglullis » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:23 AM UTC

michelb wrote: post #16

embedding-shape wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am living in Spain, and from my point of view, Netherlands is one of the ones doing the most for FOSS in Europe today! It sees much faster real-world adoption of FOSS in ministries and municipalities than other countries, the government seems eager to fund FOSS (again, compared to other countries) and generally be welcoming to the ecosystem. Browsing around, there seems to be lots of FOSS projects funded by money c…

Not sure. I think Germany and France are way ahead?

NLNet is funding open source projects to the tune of tens of millions of euros per year, and it is Dutch.

Re: Soft launch of open-source code platform for government

#20

Post by embedding-shape » Wed, Apr 29, 2026, 10:25 AM UTC

Mashimo wrote: post #14

> https://code.overheid.nl/RegelRecht/regelrecht > Machine-readable Dutch law execution. regelrecht takes legal texts, encodes them as structured YAML, and runs them as deterministic decision logic. The engine takes a regulation and a set of inputs, evaluates the decision logic, and returns a result with a full explanation trail Can someone explain this to me? Not the technical aspect, but rather a user story or use…

Probably better entry point is https://regelrecht.rijks.app/ and you can see an example of the YAML and outputs here: https://editor.regelrecht.rijks.app/library/afstemmingsveror...

As for the use case, it seems to be an explorative exercise to see if something like that can help provide more transparency and consistency within systems of law, "whether machine-executable legislation can provide an answer" to complex and opaque cases. The websites linked earlier have more information + examples.