digital dutch
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16 | access | winter
From the invention of the electrocar-
diograph (ECG), the audio cassette and
compact disc, and the introduction of
the world’s first traffic enforcement
camera (not so popular that one),
the Dutch have cottoned on to digital
opportunities faster than most.
However, with CDs now being replaced
by MP3s and streamed music channels,
and the Dutch multinational, Philips,
pulling back from the production of
televisions due to competition from
the far East – is the Netherlands still
a pioneering digital force? The answer
is “yes”, of course.
Digitisation is one of the most
useful and popular innovations
in recent years – taking real
world images, sounds and
scenarios and turning them into
electronic representations – and
the netherlands has been at the
forefront from the start.
Cover story
BY CAthY Leung
the Digital
Dutch
access | winter | 17
Mobile Dutch
The Dutch don’t sit still for long, that
we know; nipping about on bicycles,
playing lots of sports, circumnavigating
the globe, etc. And mobile people
demand mobile digital productivity so
it’s no wonder that the Netherlands
has more than its fair share of mobile
developers. Is it odd that a country
with comparatively short road dis-
tances boasts one of the worlds’ most
popular satellite navigation brands,
TomTom? Not once you take into
account that old Dutch knack of foster-
ing creative, technical applications.
Augmented reality
One of the newest areas of mobile devel-
opment, augmented reality (AR), has
been the source of many global firsts for
Dutch innovators. Described as “a way
viewing digital information which has
been superimposed – or augmented –
onto a live view of the physical, real-
world environment around you”, AR
buffs are often pointed to the Netherlands
for the latest news, such as:
• the world’s first AR architecture app
from, UAR by the Netherlands
Architecture Institute, with 3D
models showing past, unrealised and »
18 | access | winter
Cover story | the Digital Dutch
tions. Use a real estate geo layar, for
example, if you’re walking along a nice
street in the The Hague’s Archipelbuurt
and wouldn’t mind moving there, or
NUwerk.nl’s geo layar for job vacancies
near the very spot you’re standing in.
There’s even a Lost-and-Found Pets
geo layar (a lizard was recently found
in IJselbuurt, by the way).
Digital infrastructure
Just think, of all the Internet activity
that goes on across the world, a dis-
proportionately high percentage of
that data could well be processed on
servers in the Netherlands. The non-
profit Internet hub AMS-IX, for exam-
ple, is one of the world’s largest and
most stable digital exchange platforms.
Interestingly, geography is cited as one
reason for the Dutch dominance in
this sector with UK internet hosting
provider, Host1plus, referring to the
Netherlands’ coastline as an advantage;
its “sea borders and ... several tubes of
fibre optics”. Whereas, the American
data centre company Equinix recently
lauded the “green hosting” credentials
of the region as a factor for locating
their new data centre in Amsterdam’s
Science Park. (That and the fact that
80% of European customers can be
reached within 50 milliseconds.)
future buildings in the urban land-
scape (2009)
• the world’s first AR flashmob which
turned the crowd into superheroes,
zombies, etc (2010)
• the world’s first postage stamps
utilising AR (2011).
Indeed, the global market leader in AR
is the Amsterdam-based start-up Layar
– creator of the world’s first mobile
augmented reality browser. Layar’s
mobile app displays digital “layers”
on your smartphone’s camera view,
enhancing your view of the real world
with links, videos and useful informa-
tion. This could be a scanned link from
printed media that leads you to extra
digital goodies, or a “geo layar” – a
geographical scanning of your current
environment with all sorts of applica-
Digital Dutch facts
• The Netherlands has the highest number of Internet users in the EU, and 94% of Dutch households have broadband Internet access.
• The Netherlands is at the top of the EU for online banking. 79% of the Dutch aged 16-75 engaged in Internet banking in 2011 and nearly 4 in 5 Dutch people aged 16-75 do their banking online.
• Twitter: Every day, more tweets are sent in Dutch than in Chinese, Arabic and Korean.
• Almost half of all Dutch patent applications originate in Brainport, Eindhoven.
access | winter | 19
Feature header
Serious games
Besides such silliness, a significant
portion of the sector concerns ‘serious
games’, where entertainment is sec-
ondary to another purpose, for example,
educational, social or commercial.
Rotterdam company Ranj are known
for their business game Sharkworld,
which tests players’ project manage-
ment skills as they oversee the con-
Video games
One of the fastest growing industries
in the Netherlands, computer games
contribute about €1 billion a year to the
Dutch economy, with Utrecht emerging
as the central hub and the base for
Dutch Game Garden, a business centre,
network and games industry event
organiser. (See our Utrecht travel article,
page 28.) Popular Dutch-developed
games include Awesomenauts (Ronimo
Games), and Killzone (Guerrilla Games),
but the cheekiest by far has to be the
new release, Save Harry (MijnGame.nl) –
in which players have to help a naked
Prince Harry escape a Las Vegas party.
“ games stimulate the learning of facts and skills, strategic thinking and creativity”
Did you know... Children who play computer games are quicker learners
»
20 | access | winter
Cover story | the Digital Dutch
to the emergency room, complete with
different player levels – let’s just hope
that they all made it to the top level.
Political games
There’s also strong representation
from the Dutch in digital politics.
In 2008 Dutch liberal
MEP Toine Manders was
responsible for drafting
a pro-video game report
on behalf of a European
parliament’s commit-
tee. In the report, con-
trary to fears about the
violent reputation of
some games, he
extolled the virtues of
video games, saying
that they “can stimulate
learning of facts and
skills such as strategic
thinking, creativity,
cooperation and inno-
vative thinking, which
are important skills in the information
society.” The biggest Dutch name in
digital politics, however, is Steely
Neelie, aka Neelie Kroes. European
Commissioner for the Digital Agenda
since 2010, she is a strong advocate for
open source software and tweets regu-
larly on digital developments.
struction of a shark aquarium in
China. More recently, in 2012 the
Dutch hospital Erasmus MC started
using a serious game to help train staff
in the introduction of a new medical
standard. In ABCDE-Sim players get 15
minutes to stabilise a patient admitted
“ Besides such silliness, a significant portion of the sector concerns ‘serious games’”
access | winter | 21
for tram and bus transport that replaced
the much-loved strippenkaart, is widely
known to be vulnerable to hacking (to
enable free travel).
Indeed the National Cyber Security
Centre admits “it is a challenge to put
into place effective ... measures to
ensure that the Netherlands becomes
more resilient to threats in the digital
world” and admits that a “wide range of
incidents feature in day-to-day reality.”
Holland’s hackers
And so a more controversial breed of
pioneers has thrived in the Netherlands:
hackers. Often judged critically for
malicious disruption to commerce and
communication (see above), it’s per-
haps characteristic of the Netherlands
that the hacker community also dem-
onstrates a benevolent side.
Hacker Ron Gonggrijp, for example,
has used his knowledge of field access
Digital data security
With all of this widespread digitisation
comes some risks. Indeed it can seem
that never a month goes by without a
new digital data security scare. The
Dutch company DigiNotar was bank-
rupted in 2011 when hackers gained
access to the website security certifica-
tion. Several administrative functions
of the Dutch government also used
these systems – including the DigiID,
the Belastingdienst (Department of Tax
& Customs), the RDW (Department of
Road Transport), and the Kadaster
(Land Registry) – leading to a disrup-
tion in access to services.
The security of digital medical records
in the healthcare industry, particularly,
has led to several high-profile news
stories; from a badly protected com-
puter discovered at the Groene Hart
Hospital in Gouda in October 2012 and
the revelation in Februrary 2012 of lax
data storage procedures in the Dutch
pharmacy industry.
Although hackers don’t appear to have
rushed to download all this apparently
accessible healthcare data, they have
acted on another digital data opportu-
nity. The Dutch technology behind the
new OV-Chipkaart, the smart card used
Organisations
• PKIoverheid (Dutch government Public Key Infrastructure): logius.nl/english
• National Cyber Security Centre: ncsc.nl• Ron Gonggrijp, blog (in English): rop.gonggri.jp• The Hague Mobile Academy: thma.nl/en
»
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Cover story | the Digital Dutch
technology to help provide Internet
access at challenging locations such
as the Ter Apel refugee camp in
Groningen, and the Occupy Camp in
Beursplein, Amsterdam, in 2011.
Gonggrijp also founded one of the
earliest Dutch Internet service provid-
ers, XS4ALL (now owned by KPN),
which, in December 1996, enabled
online access to the Belgrade radio
station, B92, after the jamming of its
broadcasts by Slobodan Miloševic,
and more recently in 2011 provided
dial-in Internet access for use by
Libyian civilians cut off by political
developments.
Attracting innovators
It seems that this innovative and cre-
ative environment also attracts digital
pioneers from overseas. Appsterdam,
for example, was a project started by
American and ex Apple employee,
Mike Lee, after he grew frustrated by
expensive healthcare and attitudes in
Silicon Valley. He toured the world
looking for the just the right place to
start a hub for app developers and all
the peripheral skills that they would
need. He chose Amsterdam. (And of
course the culture of financial invest-
ment is here too – his Dutch backer
provided him with the funds.)
At the same time there is noteworthy
investment in the education of the next
generation of digital Dutch developers.
Utrecht University was the first Dutch
university to offer an MSc in Game and
Media Technology, but there are now
several schools and universities here
offering video game development as a
specific study. One municipality has
recognised the need for greater skills
to feed the mobile developers industry
too, and a new initiative, The Hague
Mobile Academy, will welcome its first
students in January 2013. (See page 38)
Let’s keep up
Hopefully you’ll find it exciting to be
living in one of the most technically
advanced and innovative countries in
the world. Maybe you’ll get to know
your neighbourhood better through
one of the many AR applications, or
retrain as a video games developer.
But at least remember to thank the
digital Dutch when you’re streaming
your favourite TV show from back
home on one of the world’s fastest
bandwidths. «
About the author:
Cathy is a freelance writer and radio presenter on www.englishbreakfast.nl. Follow her on Twitter @cathycentral.