Common Web Platform awarded for Best Use of Open Source in Government

The New Zealand Open Source Awards recognise and promote the contributions of New Zealanders to open source projects as well as the exemplary use of open source by New Zealand organisations. It's always inspiring to see what exciting projects are emerging from the New Zealand open source community. Winners on the night showcased what is possible through open source with winners including a low-cost 3-D printer and a website that helps people make Official Information Act requests.

We were extremely proud to see The Common Web Platform (CWP) win the "Best Use of Open Source in Government" category. CWP was built in partnership with the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) using the open source SilverStripe CMS and Framework. This achievement recognises the contribution of open source philosophy towards helping government agencies reduce costs (through procurement and code sharing) and improve their digital communications.

From left to right: Patrick Geddes, DIA, Bene Anderson, DIA and Damian Mooyman, SilverStripe

We promote code sharing and reuse on CWP... We don’t want different parts of the Government re-inventing the wheel and wasting money.   ~ Bene Anderson, Senior Product Manager, Government Information Services, The Department of Internal Affairs

DIA is proactively using and promoting open source projects for the benefit of all New Zealanders. The code sharing potential of CWP is still in it's infancy and it's exciting to see how this will develop. We're looking forward to working with DIA and other agencies using CWP to facilitate more code sharing, and in turn gaining greater innovation and cost reductions as duplication is avoided.

We would also like to congratulate our Senior Platform Developer, Damian Mooyman who was also nominated as a finalist in the People's Choice Award for his outstanding contribution to the SilverStripe open source project.