Stichting WO2Net

What Stichting WO2Net does

Stichting WO2Net is a Dutch non-profit foundation (Stichting) established in September 2023 that operates as the national knowledge and innovation center for public outreach about World War II. The foundation was formed by consolidating the former Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen (NOB) and parts of Stichting Musea & Herinneringscentra '40-'45 (SMH), bringing together approximately 14 staff in Amsterdam. Its core mission is to help Dutch WW2 story-tellers — museums, remembrance centers, archives, documentary and theatre makers, writers, journalists, educators, and municipalities — reach broader and younger audiences, while providing policymakers with insight into sector coverage and public usage gaps.

WO2Net's core products are three interconnected digital platforms built on a Linked Open Data architecture. Oorlogsbronnen.nl serves as the national digital infrastructure for discovering WW2 sources across Dutch institutions; Onsland.nl (launched October 4, 2024) hosts 250,000+ sources on the shared history of the Netherlands and Indonesia from 65+ institutions and 200,000+ person records; and Oorlog voor de Rechter makes the Centraal Archief Bijzondere Rechtspleging (CABR) publicly accessible. Supporting programs include Programma Indisch Erfgoed Digitaal (PIED) — a multi-year co-development with KB Nationale Bibliotheek and Indisch Herinneringscentrum — plus Deltaplan, CollectieOverleg, CollectieLoket, and the annual WO2Netwerkdag. Technical capabilities include LLM-assisted oral history interview segmentation (developed with VU Amsterdam students), Named Entity Recognition for AVG/GDPR-compliant anonymization, geo-referenced timelines and maps, and the domain-specialized Indisch Erfgoed Thesaurus distributed via Termennetwerk.

WO2Net operates as a community-led, non-commercial organization funded primarily by a structural grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), with additional project-specific funding from Mondriaanfonds, the ministries of OCW and J&V, and other public sources. The foundation holds ANBI (Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling) status. All services — network facilitation, knowledge sharing, CollectieLoket guidance, and public access to platforms — are provided free of charge; there is no commercial pricing model. Its go-to-market is relationship-driven, operating as initiator, co-producer, project leader, or co-developer in joint projects with heritage institutions and government partners. The organization is GDPR/AVG compliant, with hosting by Rootnet/Total Design and newsletter distribution by La Posta.

Name

Stichting WO2Net

Legal name

Stichting WO2Net

Website

https://wo2net.nl

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Stichting WO2Net is a Dutch non-profit foundation and national knowledge center for World War II public outreach, serving museums, remembrance centers, archives, educators, and policymakers. It operates the Oorlogsbronnen.nl and Onsland.nl digital platforms, built on Linked Open Data, connecting 65+ heritage institutions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Heritage Services

NAICS

Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Open Educational Resources (OER) & Curriculum Repositories (EDAFACAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Open Multimedia OER (video, audio, podcasts, animations) (EDAGAJAF)

Keywords

• Digital heritage platform
• Linked open data
• Cultural heritage digitization
• Knowledge networking
• Public outreach services

Headquarters

HQ city

Amsterdam

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Government grant (Ministerie van VWS): WO2Net is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). This constitutes the primary funding source for the foundation's operations, projects, and staff. Additional project-specific funding comes from other ministries (OCW, J&V) for initiatives such as Oorlog voor de Rechter.
2. Project-based government and foundation grants: WO2Net participates in funded programs such as Programma Indisch Erfgoed Digitaal (PIED), a collaboration with KB and Indisch Herinneringscentrum financed by VWS, which provides financial contributions to heritage institutions for digitizing and enriching collections on Onsland.nl. Additional support from Mondriaanfonds for digitization projects.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Stichting WO2Net operates as a Dutch knowledge and innovation center for public outreach on World War II, connecting and supporting heritage institutions, museums, remembrance centers, media makers, and educators. It manages national digital platforms (Oorlogsbronnen.nl, Onsland.nl, Oorlogvoorderechter.nl) built on Linked Open Data to make fragmented WW2 collections discoverable, while facilitating sector-wide projects, thematic meetings, and digitization programs.

Product overview

Stichting WO2Net operates as a knowledge and innovation center focused on public engagement with WWII history, managing a portfolio of interconnected digital platforms and programs. The core offerings include Oorlogsbronnen.nl (national WW2 digital infrastructure), Onsland.nl (Dutch-Indonesian history platform launched October 2024), and Oorlog voor de Rechter (CABR archive accessibility project). Supporting services include the Programma Indisch Erfgoed Digitaal (PIED) for digitization initiatives, Deltaplan for museum collection accessibility, and CollectieOverleg/CollectieLoket for sector support. The organization facilitates public access to over 250,000 sources through Linked Open Data technologies and semantic search capabilities, serving museums, memorial centers, educators, and general audiences.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Oorlogsbronnen.nl: National digital infrastructure for the public, serving as the starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about World War II in the Netherlands.
• Onsland.nl
• Oorlogvoorderechter.nl

Products and services

• Oorlogsbronnen.nl National digital infrastructure and starting point for anyone seeking to learn about WWII events, places, persons, and themes related to the Netherlands. Provides access to digitized collections from museums, archives, and institutions through linked data and semantic search.
• Onsland.nl Digital platform with over 250,000 sources about the shared history of the Netherlands and Indonesia, focusing on WWII and decolonization. Offers educational materials, testimonies, interactive timelines, maps, and family history search capabilities from multiple perspectives (Indisch, Molukse, Papua communities).
• Oorlog voor de Rechter Digital platform making the Centraal Archief Bijzondere Rechtspleging (CABR) accessible to the public — archives of persons suspected of collaboration with German occupiers during 1940-1945.
• Programma Indisch Erfgoed Digitaal (PIED) Multi-year program dedicated to digitizing, enriching, and publishing heritage collections from Dutch Indies/Indonesia, including Moluccan, Peranakan, Papua, and other perspectives.
• CollectieOverleg and CollectieLoket Quarterly meetings (CollectieOverleg) bringing together multiple WO2 heritage institutions to exchange information and share knowledge about collections, presentation, and education topics. Accompanied by CollectieLoket for one-on-one support.
• Publieksbereik en Educatie Educational projects and materials that transmit knowledge about WWII and its relevance for today to broad and young audiences through various channels and innovative approaches.

Quantifiable outcome

• Onsland.nl launched with more than 250,000 sources from 65+ institutions, with information on more than 200,000 persons
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Indisch HerinneringscentrumcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 October 2024Co-developer and manager of Onsland.nl — a digital platform with over 250,000 sources on the shared history of the Netherlands and Indonesia (WW2 and decolonization). Indisch Herinneringscentrum manages the Onsland.nl platform and co-funds the Programma Indisch Erfgoed Digitaal (PIED) with WO2Net and KB.
• KB Nationale BibliotheekcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 October 2024Co-developer of Onsland.nl under the Programma Indisch Erfgoed Digitaal (PIED). KB provides its digital heritage infrastructure expertise and is one of three equal partners (alongside WO2Net and Indisch Herinneringscentrum) in the PIED program.
• Nationaal ArchiefcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCore partner in 'Oorlog voor de Rechter' project, responsible for housing and eventually making the Centraal Archief Bijzondere Rechtspleging (CABR) digitally accessible. Also partner in Onsland.nl and the Engelandvaarders project.
• NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en GenocidestudiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in 'Oorlog voor de Rechter' project and contributor to Onsland.nl. Provides scholarly expertise and archival resources on WWII, Holocaust, and genocide studies.
• Huygens InstituutcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in the 'Oorlog voor de Rechter' project, contributing expertise in historical research and digital humanities to the initiative.
• SpinquecoreTechnology or IntegrationSoftware partner providing search and discovery technology that powers Oorlogsbronnen.nl and Oorlogvoorderechter.nl. Enabled the award-winning data integration and search experience.
• IN10coreTechnology or IntegrationDigital agency that designed and built Oorlogsbronnen.nl. Won the Anthem Award for their work on the platform in 2024, demonstrating high-quality digital heritage design.
• Museum EngelandvaardersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the 'Engelandvaarders' project, which uses Oorlogsbronnen.nl to map and present the journeys of Englandvaarders. The museum contributes content and contextual expertise.
• CBG | Centrum voor FamiliegeschiedenisminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in crowdsourcing the Indisch Oud-Paspoortarchief, hosting approximately 150,000 passport applications from 1950-1959 from inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia. Data made available via Onsland.nl.
• ARQ Kenniscentrum Oorlog, Vervolging en GeweldminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partner in studies related to WWII impact, including the 'Geluiden uit de Stilte' research on children of collaborators and their psychosocial experiences. Collaborates with WO2Net on information sessions around CABR openstelling.
• Stichting Musea en Herinneringscentra '40-45 (SMH)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFormer and ongoing partner. Part of SMH's activities were incorporated into WO2Net in September 2023, bringing 3 additional staff and the CollectieOverleg / CollectieLoket functions. WO2Net and SMH jointly advocated for improved accessibility of WWII archives in a February 2025 letter to the Minister of OCW.
• Liberation Route EuropeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupported the joint advocacy letter from WO2Net and SMH calling for maximum accessibility of WWII archives, representing a network of heritage sites across Europe.
• OorlogsgravenstichtingminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupported the joint advocacy letter from WO2Net and SMH calling for maximum accessibility of WWII archives.
• VU Amsterdam (Digital Humanities and Social Analytics)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic collaboration with VU students as part of a Digital Humanities minor, conducting research to optimize LLM-assisted oral history interview segmentation for WO2Net platforms.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Rijksmuseum: Dutch national museum with substantial digital collection infrastructure (Rijksstudio, LOD-enabled collection data). A much larger established heritage player that overlaps with WO2Net's mission of digital public access but focuses on art and broader Dutch history rather than WW2 specifically.
• KB Nationale Bibliotheek: Dutch National Library providing digital heritage infrastructure (including co-developing Onsland.nl with WO2Net). A larger established player that operates the same kind of national-scale digital infrastructure but across all knowledge domains, not just WW2.
• Wikimedia Foundation: Global non-profit operating Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons — platforms that provide open linked data infrastructure comparable to WO2Net's LOD approach, but at global scale and across all topics rather than focused on WW2.
• Internet Archive: Global non-profit digital library providing universal access to digitized books, audio, video, and web archives. Operates at a vastly larger scale with a similar mission of free public access to historical and cultural content.
• Europeana Foundation: EU-funded platform providing a continent-wide discovery layer over millions of digitized cultural heritage items. Operates the same LOD/aggregation model as Oorlogsbronnen.nl but at much larger scale and across all heritage domains rather than just WW2.

Regional players

• meemoo (Flemish Institute for Archiving): Belgian expertise center supporting cultural heritage organizations with digitization, metadata, and digital infrastructure. Provides an analogous 'knowledge and innovation center' function for Flemish heritage institutions, but focused on Belgium rather than the Netherlands.
• DPLA (Digital Public Library of America): US-based aggregator providing discovery over digitized collections from thousands of libraries, archives, and museums. Uses a similar hub-and-linked-data model to WO2Net's Oorlogsbronnen.nl, but at US/English-language scale and across all domains.

Direct peers

• Kennisland: Dutch foundation that brokers knowledge and innovation across cultural, social, and educational sectors. Functions as a comparable knowledge-innovation intermediary connecting professionals, sharing best practices, and piloting new approaches — closely matching WO2Net's positioning.
• Wikimedia Nederland: Dutch chapter of the Wikimedia movement, supporting open knowledge infrastructure (Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons). Operates with a similar open-knowledge, non-profit, grant-funded model and shares WO2Net's commitment to open data and public accessibility of historical content.
• Digitaal Erfgoed Nederland (DEN): Dutch national knowledge center for digital heritage, providing expertise, training, and standards to heritage institutions — directly analogous to WO2Net's role as a knowledge broker for the WW2 heritage sector. Both operate as sector-wide enablers rather than content owners.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wo2net

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Stichting WO2Net