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The initiative for the project development began about 2000 when the U.K. government started to initiate a national drive to enable local governments in the U.K. to deliver services online. In the first phase up to about 2007 there was a very lively development in close collaboration with Red Hat on whose Content Management System CCM APLAWS is based. Currently the project is in a vivid development to adapt to recent developments in the technology of Web applications and the development of small, mobile devices.

During 2001/2 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister funded the APLAWS Pathfinder Project to develop web standards and an Open Source Web Content Management System that could be freely adopted by any local authority in the UK. Following the massive interest in the Pathfinder, the APLAWS Project was taken forward as part of the Officer of the Prime Minister's National Projects programme and became the foundation of the Content Management Strand of the Local Authority Websites National Project over the period April 2003 - March 2004.

Apart from the financial and specific support provided by these two central government funded projects, the APLAWS concept has moved forward on its own momentum. There is an established user group which has already made considerable strives in taking the product set forward. Like any Open Source project, the sustainability of these products will evolve as the user group continues to grow.

Currently, the development of APLAWS+ is coordinated and promoted by the London Borough of Camden. The development and promotion of Open Source web software that is available free of charge for all Local Authorities, is part of the Borough policy and laid down in its "Camden Plan 2012-2017". A particular goal is to allow for the migration to Web-based communication the inclusion and full participation of all groups of society, including people with disabilities or precarious social situation.