Hello readers, 

It is with great excitement and humility that I tread into the shoes that Jean Parpaillon has so wonderfully worn over the last several years as OW2 President. I want to thank Jean for his support, and you, the OW2 community, for electing me to the board. And I would like to thank the OW2 board for naming me as Board President. What an honour.

It seems that open source has been standing repeatedly at one crossroads or another over the last few years, and 2023 is no different. The proposed EU CRA text shows that despite the near-ubiquitous reach of open source into every nook and cranny of government, education, industry and innovation, we must continue to stand up and make our voices heard. OW2 was a co-signatory to an open letter about this.

And the issues of open source community resilience and sustainability, not to mention code and digital supply chain security, continue to be growing concerns.
OW2 has always been a bastion of open source ideals, support and education. Seeing the weight and respect our "small" organisation commands in the European arena is truly impressive. And this is very much due to the energy, efforts, trust, and support that you, the community and the fantastic management team, provide.

Over the coming months, OW2 will be present at events in Spain and France, not to mention organising OW2con'23 in Paris! I hope you're already spreading the word far and wide (attracting new members is always good), and I look forward to seeing you there in June.

In the framework of the Documation conference, several OW2 project and members will be represented in the Digital Workshop area and will showcase their collaborative solutions: 

- The BlueMind messaging system
- Xwiki collaborative editing solution
- The FactorFX collaborative suite

Find more information about Documation: https://www.documation.fr/
Find more information about the Hob Open Source village organized by Systematic cluster: https://www.documation.fr/info_societe/545/systematic.html

At its new campus in Nice, the Centrale Méditerranée school is launching a new Bachelor's degree course in responsible engineering and digital transformations. Carole Deumié, Director General, confirms the guidelines.

What jobs will have the future graduates of the Bachelor's degree starting in September 2023 ?

Carole Deumié: The jobs targeted on graduation from the Bachelor in Responsible Engineering and Digital Transformations are project managers and assistant engineers, with a broad culture and specialisation in digital transformation, sustainable development or cybersecurity, the latter being developed in cooperation with the SCS (Secured Communicating Solutions) cluster. The best students will be able to apply for the engineering degree course. The others will enter a company and may join us later for lifelong learning.

What innovation efforts do you plan to carry out in Nice and with which partners?

Carole Deumié: We have carried out our project, in terms of research, with the Université Côte d'Azur. We have recruited three teacher-researchers who will be working on the University's premises. We are also working in partnership with the Mediterranean Institute of Risk and Sustainable Development, with whom we already have a joint training course; with the 3IA institute (Interdisciplinary Institute of Artificial Intelligence) and the I3S laboratory (Computer Science, Signals and Systems Laboratory of Sophia Antipolis), which are very connected to the companies in the region.
In terms of students, we are starting with the Bachelor's degree in Nice. But we're going to quickly accompany engineers, and go to a higher scale with a rise in numbers from 2025, as soon as we can develop platforms in conjonction with the University and the institutes.  

Will open science and open source software be encouraged?

Carole Deumié: Laboratories naturally use open source tools. This practice of researchers will be disseminated in the training courses that we provide for our students. We provide training based on open source codes and on the commercial tools that they will encounter in the business. But whenever we can, both internally and in the context of teleworking, we encourage and propagate the open source culture. For example, to make our students' skills visible on digital résumé, we use badges with the Open Badge Factory application.  

Faced with the frantic pace of digital innovation and private sector profits from automation, AI and robotics, how could digital frugality win over businesses?

Carole Deumié: The message we want to convey is that we need to evolve, to find solutions. But we need to use technology and digital technology wisely. Talking about sobriety is not contradictory with science, technology and digital technology. Each company will find its own way. Centralians will contribute, in their own way, to help companies and organisations evolve.

In the framework of our participation to DINUM's Free Software Council (and the partnership between OW2 and DINUM), we have been asked to contribute in a report on the possible impact of open source on the durability of digital equipment.

As a follow-up on the report and other studies led by the DINUM, we are very happy and proud to see that DINUM started to communicate with a first positive response to the question: is the durability of digital equipment increased if it is possible to install free systems?

Link to the report published by the French administration, or local copy on OW2 web site (in French).

See the tweet published by code.gouv.fr: https://twitter.com/codegouvfr/status/1622548453590007809

FOSDEM

 
Date : February 4 - 5, 2023
Venue: ULB Solbosch Campus, Brussels  

If you have planned to be at FOSDEM, do not miss the opportunities below to meet with the OW2 community: 

In the exhibition

OW2 will be represented in the exhibition by XWiki corporate member on its stand. 

In the conferences

Two lightning talks will showcase the community. 

- On Saturday at 3pm:  
Open Source Good Governance – GGI Framework presentation & deployment
A quick introduction to the OSPO Alliance handbook and resources
More information: https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/open_source_good_governance/

- On Sunday at 3:20pm:
NGI Search and OpenWebSearch.EU projects:
Two sister initiatives for a paradigm change in open search and discovery on the internet
More information: https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/ngi_search_and_openwebsearch/

Next instalment of the webinar series we launched in cooperation with the Eclipse Foundation to introduce european software research projects that help shape the future of open source software and the IT industry. The detailed agenda will come soon, stay tuned!

We are pleased to announce that we signed a partnership agreement with the French DINUM (interministerial digital department) for the year 2023. 

With this agreement signed for 2023, we will provide French government's DINUM  and public actors with the tools and methodological approaches recommended by OW2 in the context of the professionalization of free software: the MRL tool and the GGI methodology.

Market Readiness Levels

MRL stands for Market Readiness Levels and provides an indicator of professional usability of open source software.
To find more information about MRL, please go to: https://www.ow2.org/view/MRL/

Good Governance Initiative

GGI stands for Good Governance Initiative and is a methodology which helps to set up an Open Source Program Office. This methodology is developed within the OSPO Alliance. 

To find more information about GGI and the OSPO Alliance, please go to: https://ospo.zone/

To read the convention (PDF, in French) : OW2/ DINUM Convention

The contest "Acteurs du Libre" is organized every year by the CNLL (French Union of open digital and open source software companies) along with the Open Source Experience event, with the aim to reward open source companies in five categories: best open source strategy, best business success, best responsible and ethical company, best engaged public service, jury special prize. 

We are proud to announce that Orange, OW2 Strategic Member, won the "Best Open Source Strategy" prize in the 2022 edition of the contest. See below the extract of the Press release announcing the prize results. 

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The prize for the best open source strategy 2022 is awarded to ORANGE FRANCE for the significant resources deployed since 2017 and results obtained through its "community open source program". Attached to the IT Department, this program implements, in conjunction with the entity managing software purchases from open source companies, a guideline for the "Community Open Source First" software acquisition policy. To support the development of partnerships with the open source ecosystem (e.g. with the open source division of ATOS, with Smile, or even with certain publishers), a real financial engineering is put in place, with specific features such as indicators of performance, an analytical accounting code, a tracing of the gains made, etc. Since 2022, a new governance has also been put in place at the ORANGE GROUP level with OSPOs in the various subsidiaries.

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More information about the contest: https://lesacteursdulibre.com/
More information about the Orange prize: https://lesacteursdulibre.com/portfolio/prix-meilleure-strategie/

See the full Press Release announcing the 2022 winners (in French) on Open Source Experience website or download the PDF. 

OW2 is Community Sponsor of the upcoming SFScon conference in Bolzano, Italy. 

SFScon : A conference all about Free Software
November 11-12
Bolzano, Italy
More information: https://www.sfscon.it/

This year's SFScon will be held in blend mode, on-site and online. 

OW2 will be visible on a booth run by our colleagues from Knowage Labs (Engineering Group). 

OW2 will also organize a track of conference on Friday November 11 early afternooon, with two presentations to be given by our partners from RIOS in Italy. 

- Title: OW2 and RIOS teaming up to boost the open source impact
Subtitle: Two organizations working together to support the growth of open source ecosystems in Europe
Abstract: Established in 2007 as a non-profit organisation, OW2 is an independent community dedicated to promoting open source software for information systems and fostering their business ecosystems. OW2 federates 50+ organizations and 2500+ IT professionals worldwide. OW2 hosts 50+ technology Projects. RIOS is an Italian network of companies established in 2015 aiming to improve open source adoption and to build sustainable businesses around it
OW2 and RIOS are working together to foster collaboration between European open-source stakeholders.
Speaker Name: Stefano Pampaloni, Seacom
See the slides (PDF).

- Title: OSPO Alliance and the Good Governance Initiative
Abstract: The Good Governance Initiative (GGI) proposes a methodological framework to assess open-source awareness, compliance and governance in any kind of organizations, helping them to structure and improve the use of FOSS towards an OSPO. The GGI was initiated by OW2 and is developed by the OSPO Alliance. This presentation will give an overview of the initiative, its organization, roadmap, first achievements and next steps.
Speaker Name: Valentina Del Prette, Seacom
See the slides (PDF)

Watch out the replay of the OW2 track at SFScon. 

Please contact us if you would like a speaking slot in this track. 

Open Source Experience
November 8-9, 2022
Venue: Paris Palais des Congrès Porte Maillot
Website: https://www.opensource-experience.com/event/

Following the success of last year's OW2 participation at Open Source Experience (OSXP), we will renew our participation this year again. 

OW2 Community Booth

Come and meet with community members and projects on booth #C16.
We will have a shared community booth with 5 individuals exhibition pods.
Confirmed pods include: 

Project	Main capabilities
	The OSS Good Governance initiative is a joint effort led by OW2 and gathering OW2 members and non-members to grow awareness and expertise on how to properly use and contribute to open source software. It is supported by the OSPO Alliance.
	XWiki is a professional wiki that has powerful extensibility features such as scripting in pages, plugins and a highly modular architecture.
	Fusion Directory is an Identity Management Solution (IAM). Now with its own marketplace, the software simplifies and harmonizes identity management while focusing on security.
	MORPHEMIC is a unique way of adapting and optimizing Cloud computing applications. The project is an extension of MELODIC which is a multi-cloud platform developed in the H2020 project.
	NGI Search funds and supports the next innovative software for searching, discovering and exploiting data and resources in general on the internet and the web.

OW2 in three round tables

(Find more information in the "OW2 at OSXP" French Press Release).

1/ Développer les OSPO avec 
l’initiative de bonne gouvernance
Developing OSPOs with the Good Governance Initiative
Date : November 8, 11:10 - 11:55
Abstract: As the software engineering field matures, properly managing open source software and culture within organisations has become more important than ever. And this goes far beyond license or IP compliance, to reach to sustainability, training, caring, funding, and thinking big with open source. In this context, the Good Governance Initiative offers a much-needed set of actionnable guidelines to help frame, build and develop OSPOs, both for the organisation itself and for the whole ecosystem.
Speakers:

• Silona BONEWALD - Executive Director - IEEE SA Open
• Pierre-Yves GIBELLO - CEO - OW2
• Gaël BLONDELLE - VP Ecosystem Development - Eclipse Foundation
• Christian PATERSON - Open Source Strategy Expert - Open Up
• Boris BALDASSARI - Moderator - Eclipse Foundation

2/ Gouvernance open source 
dans les grandes organisations
Open source governance in large organisations
Date : November 8, 17:45 - 18:15,  dans l'Open CIO Summit 

Speakers:

• Catherine NUEL - Marketing Manager - OW2
• François DESMIER - Architecte solutions - MAIF
• Philippe BAREILLE - Chargé de mission OSS - Ville de PARIS
• Boris BALDASSARI - Consultant - Eclipse Foundation
• Frédéric AATZ - Resp. Marketing AZURE - Microsoft France

3/ Risques et opportunités pour les éditeurs européens open source face aux géants de l’IT
Risks and opportunities for European OSS providers facing IT giants
Date: November 9, from 15:30 to 16:15.
Abstract: European open source publishers are reporting notable growth and turning increasingly to the SaaS model. They explain how their open source approach differentiates them from major international publishers. Does joining together, like in the Euclidia alliance, or communities such as OW2 or Eclipse, make it easier to resist? How do they manage to adapt their business models to cloud subscriptions and managed services?
Speakers:

• Catherine Tillous - Directrice générale - MAKINA CORPUS
• Gilles VITON - Head of Open Source program - Orange France
• Ludovic DUBOST - CEO - XWiki
• Laurent Marie - CEO - Worteks
• Olivier Bouzereau - Community Coordinator - OW2

About Open Source Experience

 
Open Source Experience is collocated with SIDO, the 1st event dedicated to the convergence of IoT, IA, XR & Robotics technologies. Both events brings together members from all industries for two days with nearly 200 exhibitors, 40 conferences and workshops led by 120 speakers. The combination of the two events will help to decompartmentalize the technological worlds. Visit Open Source Experience website: https://www.opensource-experience.com/