Image: “Keep calm and use open source” (MedithIT/CC by)
Lyon will switch to Free
The municipal councilors of the City of Lyon chose on July 7 to gradually abandon its Microsoft tools to switch to free software in “”the digital environment of the agent”: Intranet, office file editing, electronic messaging, unified communication (chat, instant messaging, video)”, reports the Tribune de Lyon.
“A problem of digital sovereignty, especially for community agents”, for the IT assistant Bertrand Maes. The cost of this migration has been estimated at 3.4 million euros in investments and 6.5 million euros in operation by 2026.
Lyon Mag indicates that “by 2027, agents will have more OnlyOffice-type solutions but also free Zimbra-type messaging. At the end of the mandate, Grégory Doucet [le maire de Lyon] and its teams will have moved to 80% free office automation and 20% Microsoft office automation.”
Free software for local authorities
The Gazette des communes published a great article with the explicit title, “Free software, a committed choice… and engaging!”.
Observing that the choice of free software, “it is often less comfortable than a solution bought off the shelf from a publisher”, Emmanuel Chopot, DSI of La Roche-sur-Yon agglomeration (13 municipalities, 97,000 inhabitants in Vendée ), explains that “for each case of use, the interco is required to check the existence of a free solution referenced on the interministerial base of free software, a PDF updated by Dinum and available on commons. numeric.gouv.fr.
When this is the case, we also look at who is behind the project. Does this seem reliable? Is the project well documented? Do we have partners who master these software? We try to reassure ourselves, because free software has its limits. With a publisher, there is a roadmap. We can discuss future developments with him. With the free, it is necessary to check that an active community exists, that it is not a free base with many paid plug-ins, like WordPress. And ensure that the standard version does not need to be adapted to our needs. When these conditions are met, you should not hesitate to turn to free software.”
The article mentions the case of Lutèce and CitéLibre at the City of Paris, and the links between Dinum and Adullact. “The problem is that the Dinum is an IT development service and that it is not intended to animate a community bringing together thousands of communities, each with their own needs. She therefore contacted the Adullact to animate the community and raise the needs. “They told us: I only want to see one head, remembers Pascal Kuczynski, general delegate of Adullact. a classic publisher, these are called user groups. The difference is that the Adullact has nothing to sell, except a membership.”
Another mention in this article, the case of La Rochelle:
“Doing open source is an additional cost, but it is also a quality requirement”, thinks David Berthiaud, within the direction of the digital transformation of La Rochelle agglo (28 municipalities, 171,800 inhabitants). In its flagship project “La Rochelle zero carbon”, the agglomeration felt the need for a data platform to reference the indicators necessary for the realization of a global carbon balance, on the scale of the territory. The development of this tool is carried out by providers who have the obligation to distribute their productions free of charge. “We have imposed an Apache 2.0 license in our public market as a non-negotiable reason,” explains David Berthiaud.
Last but not least, the Gazette interviewed Philippe Bareille, digital project manager and “open source officer” at the City of Paris.
SFC vs. GitHub
The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) is leaving GitHub to mark its disagreement with project leaders who use open source to achieve proprietary solutions, reports Developpez.com. “Copilot, GitHub’s commercial artificial intelligence, is at the center of this decision for which the Software Freedom Conservancy explains the reasons.”
The explanatory memorandum of the SFC – which put the GiveUpGitHub.org site online – begins as follows:
“Those who forget history often inadvertently repeat it. Some of us remember that twenty-one years ago the most popular code hosting site, a completely free and open source (FOSS) site called SourceForge, made all of its code proprietary and only never again opened to the community. The main free and open source projects gradually left SourceForge because it was now a proprietary system, contrary to the spirit of openness that characterizes the community. Free software communities learned that it was a mistake to allow a for-profit proprietary software company to become the dominant free collaborative development site.
SourceForge slowly crumbled after the DotCom crash, and today SourceForge is more ad link bait than code hosting. We learned a valuable lesson that was a little too easy to forget, especially when companies manipulate Free Software communities for their own ends. We must now relearn the lesson of SourceForge with Microsoft’s GitHub.”
Open source prosthesis: “My life was meant to make my hand”
Le Trois, online media dedicated to northern Franche-Comté, publishes a nice article on Nicolas Huchet, co-founder of My Human Kit. This former mechanic in the industry became a drummer, and the artist, who played at the Eurockéennes, “fought to make what did not yet exist. A prosthesis adapted to play this instrument”. He first struggled with prostheses that always broke down, and not always reimbursed. And in 2012, at the digital fair in Rennes, it was the click when discovering 3D printers.
“Fab Lab, creation, serial prototype, rebound, shock absorber from industrial parts. The artist discovers this very particular jargon which allows him to develop his art. “In 2012, there was only one hand prototype that existed in open source (free data) on the internet.” Then he discovers colleagues in Japan, in England. Designs increasingly advanced prostheses. Created his association “My human kit” in 2014 accompanied by those who helped him in the Fab Lab. They are now seven employees, in Rennes, and travel around the world to discuss this work. (…)
“When I succeeded in creating my prosthesis, something happened. I realized that I was able to act on myself.” And his ability to help others. He states that he never wanted to file a patent. Its core project is based on sharing. It was, for him, out of the question to privatize this creation: it must benefit all the musicians who would like to use it. (…) “that’s when I discovered that my life was destined to make my hand.”
Read also
Local authorities and free software: the Adullact is twenty years old – June 19, 2022
Free software, a catalyst for responsible projects – April 20, 2022
GitHub recruits its VP Security, an open source specialist, at the NSA – July 25, 2021
Libre express: anti-disability tech, hand prosthesis, space observatory, beware of licenses – October 30, 2020