The Netherlands Embraces Open Innovation with National OI Festival
This week open innovation fever is spreading throughout the Netherlands as the Dutch hold their Open Innovation Festival.
It is a fantastic opportunity for public sector organizations to learn about the fundamentals and possibilities of this key business strategy.
The festival has been running successfully for a few years now. Its origins lie with a single civil servant who wanted to expose her colleagues to the opportunities afforded by social media, open government, open data, and changing patterns of working for the public sector.
Humble Beginnings
It started in 2009 in Amsterdam and has grown significantly. This year, a total of 27 cities, municipalities and provinces have joined the festival and all of the speakers and workshop organizers are providing their services for free. It is a huge volunteer effort to spread the word, and answer questions about open innovation.
The festival takes place from 26 till 30 November and involves forty government institutions that will work on issues with civil servants, citizens and local businesses. This will involve hackathons and other fun activities.
Taking center stage at the festive is open data.
The northern city of Leeuwarden saw the first open data release, and a hackcamp has been set up for coders to work with the available data.
Significant Support
Crucially the entire festival is supported by mayors and key public decision makers who see it as a source of inspiration to make changes to the public sector in the Netherlands.
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