24C3 - 1.01
24th Chaos Communication Congress
Volldampf voraus!
Arjen Kamphuis
From one angry e-mail to writing national policy on opensource
On January 1st 2002 I tried to use the website of the Dutch national railway (www.ns.nl) using Linux. The site refused me access, it was IE-only. This sparked a conversation with members of parliament about the need for open standards. Over a five year period I progressed from talking to opposition-MP's to meeting the economics minister directly and was able to significantly influence national policy despite total lack of funding or any specific mandate.
Arjen Kamphuis (1972) studied Science & Policy at Utrecht University and worked for IBM as Unix specialist, Tivoli consultant and software instructor. As IT-strategy consultant at Twynstra Gudde he was involved in starting up Kennisnet, the Dutch educational network. Since 2001 he is operating as an independent adviser of companies and governments. In 2002 he co-authored the unanimously accepted parliament motion to mandate open standards for all government IT. In 2007 the motion became policy and the Netherlands became he first western country to make the use of open standards in public-sector IT mandatory. Arjen is now working to export this set of policies to other European countries with the help of local political parties and businesspartners.
Arjen divides his attention between IT-policy and the convergence of IT, bio- and nanotechnology and it's social and economic implications. His customers include: Shell, Unilever, Pfizer, Stork, and various hospitals, governmental institutions and insurance companies. Arjen guest lectures on technology policy at Nyenrode University and various other places
When not consulting Arjen is actively involved in (digital) civil liberties, the Opensource movement and criticizing the war on terror.
Contact
arjen at gendo dot nl