‘You need to get the technical basics right before you can start innovating’
Bas Tuinenga has been a member of RINIS’s Supervisory Committee for the past two years. He works as an Innovation portfolio manager at the Information Bureau, the information exchange for municipal authorities. As a supervisor, his main focus goes out to sensible management. “That is the touchstone.”
Why did you join the Supervisory Committee?
Bas Tuinenga: "I was quite familiar with RINIS, as I’ve been with the Information Bureau for the past seventeen years. RINIS always had a positive resonance for me, especially because of what they do within government: promoting efficiency, encouraging the reuse of data and acting as a spider in the web when it comes to data flows. When a post became vacant on the Supervisory Committee, I took this as a wonderful challenge. I hadn't previously served in a governance role, where you watch if things are going well from a distance, without actually being in the driving seat. To me this was an opportunity to contribute my understanding of the ins and outs of the sector and my know-how in IT, to be critical where needed and supportive where possible. As it turns out, I'm quite suited to this role.”
Which elements of RINIS’s annual plan appeal to you?
"As the Supervisory Committee, we look at the annual plan that has been prepared by management and the board from a certain distance. My focus mainly goes out to the message exchanges, something which RINIS has been excelling in for ages. It is crucial that these message exchanges continue to meet the wishes and requirements of all participants. That is the very bedrock of it all.”
What are your pet focus areas serving in this post? Which aspects get your undivided attention?
“At the Information Bureau, I review all new requests we get in from municipal authorities and ministries, asking myself: are we able to respond to and deliver on these requests in a technical and functional sense and will this still enable us to properly organise the governance aspect? In other words, we shouldn't just blindly chase every single innovation going. I look at what RINIS is doing in much the same way. The basics need to be in order, which is why my outlook is always highly management-led. It is important that we make sure that what is already in place continues to run properly and is properly tested and controlled. You need to get the technical basics right before you can start innovating. Take message exchanges for instance: they’re at the heart of what RINIS does, but the way in which we run these message exchanges is changing. Things which organisations used to outsource back in the day, such as secure data sharing for example, is now something they can deal with themselves by way of a simple implementation. Which is why I think it is also important for RINIS to stay in close contact with participants and other clients, so that they can continue to properly articulate their wishes and improvements can be put in place. Thankfully this is something that is running the way it should, courtesy of our user consultation meetings and other frequent forms of contacts.”
At the Information Bureau, your focus is innovation. How do you rate RINIS in that respect?
“I never cease to be amazed at RINIS’s innovative proclivities. I know the organisation to be an efficient data exchanger, but I now see they go way beyond that. As just one example, RINIS is currently working on a project on quantum exchanges which remains fairly abstract and complex for now. Yet there is a great deal of enthusiasm and potential within the organisation to implement this type of innovations on a broad basis. The way I see it, this should be a requirement in order to take up a specific new technology or innovation: it needs to be useful to a large portion of the participants and clients. Which is why I’m also excited about RINIS’s trailblazing role at a European level.”
As a supervisor, which societal or technological developments do you monitor with particular interest?
“I’m fascinated by new technologies. They are being rolled out at breakneck speed and the important thing is to continue to examine whether they can actually deliver added value for the kind of work we do at the Information Bureau and at RINIS. In the years ahead, information security is another topic that is set to become even more important than it is already. Data sharing between sectors and organisations is intensifying hand over fist in frequency and in volume and it is something that citizens are increasingly expecting more from. By the same token however, the threat to data integrity is also rising. It takes know-how, skill and money to maintain security. This too is a challenge which RINIS will need to keep its focus on in the years to come.”