researResearch - Télécom Bretagne

h Research
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RESEARCH
Main achievements of the project
Understanding and promotion of the
Free software paradigm
Setting up a continuing education course
introducing the free software paradigm
One of the major assets of LICIP concerning free
software is its global approach to the paradigm.
2008 was the opportunity to promote this
knowledge by holding a one-day course
specifically designed to introduce this subject to
the general public.
Bureau Libre Free-EOS : participation in
the creation of a new version (June 2008)
« Bureau Libre Free-EOS » (cf.
http://www.bureau-libre-free-eos.info) is a
project to spread the concept and tools of free
software among people living in and around
Brest, targeting high schools in particular.
Initiated by the town council in 2004-2005, the
work group is made up of some institutions (town
council, AFPA Rennes, Telecom Bretagne,
secondary schools and adult learning centres in
Brest) and some associations such as l’Archipel
du Libre. For 2008, the LICIP project has
contributed to the launch of the second version
2.1, which is essentially an update of the first
version, and to the preparation of its move to
GNU/Linux (Ubuntu distribution, i.e. free, no-fee
GNU/Linux distribution) scheduled for 2009.
Free software in the 2.0 Web
As mentioned in the summary of our activities in
“Social networks », we are concerned by the
stranglehold of certain major parties of Web2.0
concerning personal and inter-personal
information. While the advantages of free
software are becoming better known in the work
place, on-line services represent a fresh danger
for individual liberties. We aim to increase
awareness of the problem and to propose
solutions (free software solutions, of course).
Knowledge and use of groupware
Software forges
Although we continue to promote the use of
collaborative platforms of software development
or « software forges » among our students and
colleagues, we stopped contributing to their
technical development two years ago. As users,
however, we remain in contact with the French
software forges community, a community which
shows promise.
Social networks
Social network platforms (Myspace, Facebook,
LinkedIn, ...) are undergoing huge expansion and
have to wage serious war on each other to obtain
new users. They are based on the stocking of
personal information (profiles), the establishment
of favorite links (« friends ») and the availability of
specific services (widgets). So, a few major parties
have total control of all this personal and interpersonal
information. In order to restore the
control that each one should have on his/her own
data, we want to promote new decentralised
social network tools allowing each individual to
store his/her information as s/he wishes. A paper
was given at the « 9 e Rencontres Mondiales du
Logiciel Libre » - (9th LSM). Several studies, tools
and prototypes have been developed within the
framework of student projects ; they deal with
how to share information between Web sites (site
federation) and control of access to information.
Uses of Web2.0 tools
Alongside the prodigious boom in what is called
Web2.0, there has been an explosion of means of
interaction available on the web. As a continuation
of our work on the uses of collaborative tools, we
also perform technological monitoring of all uses
engendered by these new tools and services. This
action is at the heart of the community of users
which met in Autrans (Meetings and internet
parties http://autrans.net/spip/), where we
organised a pleniary session and in Brest (“Forum
des usages coopératifs”) where we organised a
workshop.
Engineering
Risk management
The CRE with France Telecom (Capitalisation aid
for decision making for risk management in work
processes) ended in May 2008. Deliverables
include a set of reports and a software model
offering decision taking support to a process
manager.
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