Short description: Common Ground is a concept and an environment developed under the umbrella of the Association of Dutch Municipalities to provide local administrations with a joint information facility for the exchange of data. This is disconnected from work processes and applications and queried at the source, instead of copying and storing it frequently.

The environment is based on five layers, from bottom to top:

1. Data: Components that store or archive data, e.g. data from national key registers, sectoral registrations, municipal core registrations, process-specific data storage;
2. Service: Components that offer APIs enabling access to data from the data layer;
3. Integration: A nationwide data exchange facility, called the “Common Ground data landscape”;
4. Process: The services and business processes with which municipalities ultimately serve their residents. Processes generally include:
   • processing user input;
   • consulting, checking and storing data;
   • process status tracking;
5. Interaction: Websites and apps interacting with end users.

Location data and services are important components of this environment. An example is “Signalen” (Signals), a solution enabling residents to report about public space conditions and municipalities to deal with these reports in a structured manner. “Signalen” uses AI to automatically categorise and route notifications based on information from previous notifications, for processing by the appropriate handler.

The solution was initially developed for Amsterdam and was then made available to all municipalities as open source through Common Ground. The team currently maintaining the solution is composed of the municipalities of 's-Hertogenbosch, Amsterdam, Almere and of the Foundation for Public Code.

Recommendations: Policy and Strategy Alignment (2); Digital Government Integration (8); Return on Investment (16); Governance, Partnerships and Capabilities (18)