Open.Amsterdam is a project initiated in 2006 that aims to develop an 'open' workstation environment for the City of Amsterdam, as an alternative to the Microsoft-oriented workstation. The so-called Standard Open Workspace(SOW) has been operational on around 70 workspaces within the city for over a year, making Amsterdam only the third major European government organisation to have developed a fully open source desktop (after Munich and Vienna). Currently the SOW is at the end of it's proof of concept-phase. Before the end of this year the Cityboard and council will decide on an implementation strategy.
Manou Chen has been involved in the project from the start. He will elaborate on de political background, the technical and organizational lessons learned and the pioneering role Open.Amsterdam in a(n inter)national context.