Logo of the Free Digital Territory label
The Free Digital Territory (TNL) label has been rewarding initiatives and policies in favor of free software in local authorities every year since 2016. Created by the Adullact (Association of Developers and Users of Free Software for Administrations and Territorial Communities) and supported by several associations and library organizations (Aful, April, CNLL, Naos and Déclic), this label “brings together communities who have chosen to favor free, open and collaborative digital uses. This label notably promotes the use and shared development of free software, vectors of independence, digital sovereignty and saving public money. The label is a self-assessment tool, but also an awareness-raising tool for elected officials, agents and citizens.
23 applications
23 applications were submitted this year and studied by a jury of digital and free software professionals. The awarding of the TNL labels took place during the Open Source Experience fair in Paris. The applications were graded from level 1 to level 5. Three candidates obtained level 2, seven candidates succeeded in obtaining level 3 and ten others reached level 4.
Three candidate communities obtained the prize of excellence, i.e. level 5: the city of Abbeville (23,000 inhabitants, Somme) for the second time, the city of Échirolles (37,000 inhabitants, Isère) for its second application and the Sitiv (Intermunicipal Syndicate of Information Technologies for Cities) which went from level 3 (for its first application, in 2021), to level 5 in one year. The Sitiv brings together eight towns in the Rhône and Loire departments (Corbas, Givors, Grigny, Pierre-Bénite, Vaulx-en-Velin, Vénissieux in the Rhône and Rive de Gier and Saint-Chamond in the Loire).
“A very reasonable budget”
The Sitiv gave this testimony on its use of free software:
“The SITIV supports the consistency of the dematerialized procedures implemented by the agents of the communities on a thorough integration of free platforms of collaboration and transverse communication and business tools, because it is essential to guarantee that a dematerialized document is not not intended to be printed at any stage of its life cycle.
SITIV has implemented on the one hand collaborative tools (Zimbra collaborative messaging and Nexcloud collaborative documentary platform), on the other hand free cross-functional tools (signature writer, Third Party Remote Transmission, Secure Mail and Libriciel electronic archiving system), the whole being integrated into a secure SSO portal for access to applications.
The integration of these tools by nature open, between them, and with the solutions of the business editors (finances, human resources, markets, mail, acts) made it possible in 2 years, within a very reasonable budget, to:
• secure digital documents by automatically archiving financial documents, regulatory acts, pay slips and contracts;
• strengthen collaboration by integrating the electronic signature sheet into the collaborative documentary platform and all of the business applications;
• dematerialize the salary slip of the agents in an individual secure space.
“Being also a Free Software actor”
Aurélien Farge, municipal councilor of Echirolles in charge of digital development, computing and free software, answered questions about the labeling of his municipality.
He indicates: “The town of Échirolles intends both to use free software, but also to be an actor in Free Software. This is what it does by devoting 20% of an IT team position to the development of software that it uses of course, but which will benefit the whole community and all communities. territorial. That’s also what being a player in Free Software.
There is also all our will which is to create networks of cities which are actors of the Free software, but also networks of all the digital actors of the territory, in particular on the territory of Échirollois – therefore companies, associations, committed citizens – in order to act together on these digital issues and try to see what synergies we will be able to create.”
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Local authorities and free software: the Adullact is twenty years old – June 19, 2022