The Netherlands has soft-launched code.overheid.nl, a new code repository platform for public administrations. The Forgejo-based, self-hosted platform, managed by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations' Open Source Programme Office (OSPO), provides an alternative to major shared code and version control services. It is modelled on the German opencode.de and the European Commission's code.europa.eu.
Driven by data control and digital sovereignty concerns, the initiative aims to create a code platform for Dutch government services and offer a place for public administration to securely host their open source projects.
“We want to create a government code repository. We hope to develop something that can help developments between and within public administrations. Our goal is to offer a comprehensive set of features and functionality to aid open source public administrations,” explains Boris Van Hoytema, Project Manager at the OSPO of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
Security Concerns
The idea for a self-hosted platform for public administration software development projects “was born from the requirement that the ministry has to legally publish [its] source code on a place that [it owns],” according to Van Hoytema. Currently, most institutions in the Netherlands publish their code source on other platforms. Yet, these mostly rely on external services, creating dependencies and lock-in effects.
Forgejo, on the other hand, is a self-hosted lightweight software forge. Therefore, code.overheid.nl is owned by the Dutch government, ensuring long-term reliability.
“We also believe that the roadmap that Forgejo has and our roadmap are way more aligned [than other options},” adds Van Hoytema. “It gives us the opportunity to co-develop it with the rest of the community or support the direction in which the community is moving.”
Community-based Collaboration
Beyond providing an official publication place for public administrations’ source code, the new platform also aims to nurture collaborations within and between agencies and with the broader developer community. Forgejo allows opportunities for the team to federate code developed by the Dutch public sector, due to its independence from a single party or vendor.
“We hope that, in the future, we will grow into a fully-fledged development code, collaboration and development platform,” explains Van Hoytema. “We are working with other Dutch government organisations. At this stage, the users are also the producers. We also really want to develop it together with the community.”
Because expectations are high, the team has opted for a soft-launch, further encouraging collaboration to build the platform based on users’ needs and feedback. “We are going to work with a few parties on the platform to figure out what will really work and support our day-to-day operations, and then build our functionality from there,” details Van Hoytema.
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