Projects supported by SIDN Fund

"Knowing something about programming helps you to understand how technology impacts our privacy and our society." Hedy is a low-threshold platform where schoolchildren can learn about programming in 57 languages. SIDN Fund is supporting professionalisation of the open-source platform.

How do you ensure that an algorithm is fair, without bias or discrimination? That is what Algorithm Audit is concerned with on a daily basis. SIDN Fund supports the foundation.

The internet offers endless possibilities and opportunities. However, uploading, downloading and saving the huge volumes of associated data usually results in CO2 emissions. So SIDN Fund is supporting a project by The Green Web Foundation to show how the internet impacts the environment and climate.

Filterbubbel.nl offers vmbo pupils a platform that plays on digital skills, with lessons on filter bubbles, disinformation and algorithms that connect to the world of young people and lead to more understanding. SIDN Fund supports the initiative.

What do media users need in order to understand and navigate their media networks, so that they are able to combat disinformation? With support from SIDN Fund, a research team at HvA has investigated.

Online platform users have more rights and better protection since the Digital Services Act came in. So, with SIDN fonds support, Bits of Freedom is running a campaign to give people practical advice on exercising their rights.

The current generation of children is the first who will live their whole lives with AI. So a popular Dutch children's TV programme has produced a 4-part series to prepare children for a future with ever more intelligent devices. SIDN Fund helped support development of a teaching pack and the AI Studio.

With support from SIDN Fund, the DIVD Academy is working to boost the digital resilience of young people aged 8 to 18. "Our aim is to keep young hackers the right side of the law," says co-founder Astrid Oosenbrug.

How do you tell children about a complex topic like polarisation, in a way that they can understand? With support from SIDN fonds, online education platform Skillsdojo is aiming to do that by developing an interactive game for youngsters.

With the support of SIDN Fund, Platform Internet Standards published a new version of the Internet.nl software. The most important innovation is that the entire software suite is now available as a Docker package. This makes it possible to test large numbers of domain names at once.

The Lees Simpel app uses artificial intelligence (AI) to explain formal letters say in everyday language. Hester Benedictus came up with the idea of the app and helped to develop it with support from SIDN Fund.

At the recent Dutch Design Week, design agency Moeilijke Dingen exhibited an installation called Packet Run. Created with support from SIDN Fund, Packet Run draws on PathVis, the visualisation tool developed by SIDN Labs, to enable people without a technical background to see the pathways across the internet taken by data packets.

SIDN Fund is supporting a project by artist Julia Janssen that promotes awareness of AI and data. What's our relationship with data collection, technology and artificial intelligence (AI)? And where should the line be drawn? Julia talks about this complex topic and her plans for the future.

The internet is completely intertwined in our lives and at the same time it is invisible and intangible for many people. That is why NEMO Kennislink launched the theme page 'We are the web' to give people more insight into the world of the web. SIDN Fund and SIDN Labs supports the initiative.

Libraries are good places to learn about disinformation because they are a public source of knowledge. But library staff often find it difficult to find and use the right materials and activities. Open source platform RETINA now helps with this. SIDN Fund supports the initiative.

Young people with mild intellectual disabilities are regularly targeted by criminals who recruit so-called money mules. SIDN Fund supports a project by Saxion, Windesheim and Mediajungle to make young people more resilient to criminal influences.

Accessibility options in apps are used by many people, not only those with disabilities. Yet many apps simply don't offer such options. With support from SIDN Fund, Q42 and the Appt Foundation have therefore set up the appt.org platform to help app builders develop accessible apps.

With support from SIDN Fund, Wetzoek has developed a case information system for use in the Netherlands' legal advice centres. The system simplifies the management and consultation of case records, so that people who turn to the centres for help get faster, better service.

Interest in decentralised alternatives to the mainstream social media has increased sharply since Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022. One of the alternatives is Mastodon, whose Dutch servers include Mastodon.nl. Created in 2017, its ongoing development is supported by SIDN Fund.

With support from SIDN Fund, the Accessibility Foundation is working to get digital accessibility onto Dutch high school and college curriculums. So, when future generations of website and app designers and developers join the workforce, they'll understand the need to build in accessibility.

Deepfake technology is developing rapidly. Computers are now able to synthesise photos, videos, audio clips and even voices that are almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing. Synthetic material can be found in the media, and in the context of digital identity verification. DuckDuckGoose is therefore developing tools for identifying deepfakes and spotting synthesised material.

Some young people find it harder than most to access digital public services. Digisterker therefore offers help for youngsters with special educational needs. SIDN Fund is supporting Digisterker's development of teaching resources.

Children enjoy reading less and less. As a result, they devote less time to reading books, with major implications for their literacy skills. Supported by SIDN Fund, the What's Next Junior project plans to make reading more fun with a playful, low-threshold online tool.

Launched in 2018, the National AI Course brought a wide range of ethical questions to the fore. How can we tell whether AI is being used in a fair, trustworthy and transparent way, for example? National AI Course creator Jim Stolze therefore decided to develop a follow-up course: AI and Ethics. Jim: "AI is too important to be left entirely to governments and large organisations."

People make use of open Wi-Fi networks on trains, at airports, in restaurants and at countless other places. However, public Wi-Fi networks are often unsecured and therefore potentially unsafe. With support from SIDN Fund, publicroam is making good progress rolling out a solution.

Earlier this year, Bellingcat launched its Global Authentication Project: a vehicle for the further formalisation of its investigations. A feature of the project is a global collaboration platform for volunteers and investigators. The Bellingcat Volunteer Hub is co-enabled by SIDN Fund.

Many people lack the skills needed to use computers and other digital devices. So Cybersoek has supported people towards digital self-sufficiency for more than twenty years. Development of Cybersoek's Train the Trainer course is supported by SIDN Fund.

The Netherlands has more than 300,000 inhabitants who are blind or partially sighted. This group uses computer voices to “read” digital information. The Dutch computer voices have not changed for 20 years, they sound robotic and the pronunciation, speed and sound are not up to date. Voice of the Netherlands wants to change this.

While our dependence on the internet continues to grow, vulnerabilities and abuses are increasingly common – in the Netherlands, as elsewhere. AbuseIO, Ams-IX, Connect2Trust, DIVD, NBIP and SURFcert have therefore set up the Dutch Security Report Portal, with support from SIDN Fund.

With support from SIDN Fund, FutureNL is helping to build up the digital resilience of future internet entrepreneurs by making teaching resources freely available to schools.

Do you share files containing sensitive information, such as medical records, personal data or commercial intelligence, over the internet? If so, you obviously don't want the files getting into the wrong hands. Cryptify, developed with the support of SIDN fund, makes this possible using IRMA.

Social change leaders and activists who speak out on topics such as climate change, discrimination or more inclusive ways to celebrate Saint Nicholas's Night are often confronted by online hate and intimidation. SIDN Fund is supporting development of the practical toolkit for promoting online and offline safety.

Websites from the internet's early days can be almost invisible to search engines and risk being lost. Support from SIDN Fund has enabled the Dutch National Library to archive very early XS4ALL websites, preserving a unique part of our digital heritage.

The website Basisbeveiliging.nl visualises public service providers' internet security vulnerabilities. By ranking and mapping service providers' basic security provisions, the site aims to make the internet safer.

The Dutch tech sector has a huge shortage of suitably qualified people, with more than 60,000 unfilled vacancies. With support from SIDN Fund, the TechMeUp foundation aims to change that by making the tech ecosystem more diverse and inclusive.

Leer Zelf Online (LZO; 'Teach Yourself Online') makes complex information available to vulnerable people in a way they can understand. Explainers about the pandemic are offered on corona.steffie.nl, where a digital week planner has now been added, thanks to support from SIDN Fund.

Big tech companies have enormous influence over our lives. They control what we see and don't see on the internet, what we can share and what we can't. SIDN Fund is supporting Bits of Freedom's Short Course on Manipulation to defend online freedom of communication.

Not everyone finds it easy to watch online videos or to hear video soundtracks. Assistance from SIDN Fund enabled Scribit.pro to address that problem by developing a video player with built-in subtitling and audio description options.

Every year, a disquieting number of reports are made about child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) on the internet. Reports about CSEM in chat groups are also increasingly common. With support from SIDN Fund, the Reporting Hotline for Internet Child Pornography therefore set up a special report desk for flagging up such material.

Making well-informed voting decisions isn't easy. Election manifestos can be daunting, and rapid technological developments make for a bewildering information landscape. Backed by SIDN Fund, Kieskompas therefore developed an accessible voter support tool that makes political issues and policies easier to understand.

Instagram is an increasingly popular medium for politicians and political parties. However, little is known about the political strategies used on Instagram, or about what types of post are rewarded by the algorithm. SIDN Fund supports research designed to shed light on the Instagram algorithm.

Labour market demand for IT professionals is growing steeply and expected to remain strong for some years to come. However, the flow of IT professionals entering the market isn't very diverse. TechGrounds offers free IT courses and support for people wanting to start their own businesses.

A server security breach could have far-reaching consequences for your organisation. Cyber-crooks might be able to access your hardware, put the information stored there to malicious use, steal and disclose your data, or take your website offline, for example. The Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure is a non-profit foundation that looks for vulnerabilities on the internet and reports them to system operators in order to prevent attacks.

In practice, organisations seeking to facilitate access tend to focus mainly on their websites. The accessibility of apps requires a different approach, and remains a largely neglected field. Jan Jaap de Groot and Paul van Workum are committed to using their knowledge and expertise to change that.

Companies often don't know the exact origins of the products they sell. Who are the producers, and what conditions do they live and work in? Fairfood has developed a platform called Trace. Trace lets businesses map the entire chain from farm to fridge.

Environmental damage may not be the first thing you associate with the internet. But internet use is responsible for 2 per cent of all the world's CO2 emissions. The reason being that data centres and servers guzzle electricity. But how do you know whether your website runs on green power or not? The Green Web Foundation has developed a tool that can tell you.

Large parts of the internet are not accessible to blind people and those with impaired vision. Enrise came up with a tool that enables programmers to check their developed software for access issues during the test phase. SIDN Fund supports the initiative.

A flood of tech apologies made in recent years, ranging from sorry, your data has been leaked, to sorry for the impact that our technology has. In 2020, SETUP is looking to put an end to tech apologies like that. The organisation envisages a world where tech firms and users share responsibility for the impact of technology.

Wi-Fi is an integral part of the modern digital world. There's Wi-Fi wherever you go; the only variable is how you access it. Many places have guest Wi-Fi systems, but they aren't always secure. Publicroam is therefore looking to change the landscape by offering free, automatic and secure Wi-Fi access.

The Netherlands is home to more than 1.5 million people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It can be difficult for such people to negotiate the digital landscape. The AmberScript team developed a Dutch-language speech recognition app that can convert conversation and audio to text in real time.

We all do it sometimes: blithely accept a site's cookies in order to read a particular news article or watch a video. But also not all organisations are entirely transparent about their cookie use, with some adopting a somewhat lax approach. It's against that background that the Cookie-baker of the Year contest was conceived.