[Savannah-hackers] FYI CooxFr project started

[Olivier Berger]

Hi.

Just wanted to let you know that we're trying to push the coopx
project a bit further through a french R&D funding program proposal
(RNTL program) called coopxfr.

I hope that interested savannah contributors in France will be
interested.

More details at : http://picolibre.int-evry.fr/projects/coopxfr/

More details about Coopx : http://coopx.eu.org/

Attached is a draft of decription of the project.

Best regards,

============================
Short Name:  coopxfr 
Long Name:   coopx France 
Short Description:  RNTL [1] coopx project 
Long Description:  

The goals of this project are:  

1. To constitute a national workgroup bringing together the French
   actors who already develop Free/OpenSource collaborative software
   development platforms (PureSource, PicoLibre, Savannah, TuxFamily,
   French contributors to SourceForge...);

2. To contribute to the elaboration of an interiperability standard
   between collaborative software development platforms, validated by
   implementations in the various platforms of the participants.  This
   standardization will apply to the definition of data structures
   representing the projects, and of the mechanisms making it possible
   to exchange a whole or part of these data between the heterogeneous
   platforms.  The first functionality targeted being the possibility
   of import and export of projects between the platforms of the
   participants.  We will build on top of preliminary work already
   undertaken in the coopx initiative (http://coopx.eu.org/);

3. To promote the diffusion of the best practices in software
   ingineering that have been elaborated in the free software
   development communities. The availability of collaborative
   development platforms is a necessary requirement for the adoption
   of these practices. This present project thus contributes to the
   diffusion this know-how, allowing each higher educational
   establishment and research or industrial actor to deploy a
   collaborative software development platform which will fit to the
   diversity of its needs and its budgetary constraints;

4. To guarantee the independence of the actors of software
   development, allowing them to completely control their project's
   infrastructure.  By supporting the diffusion of several
   inter-operable platforms, one avoids the appearance of monopolistic
   actors, as well on the level of technologies available, as of the
   deployed infrastructures, and one allows the projects to migrate
   according to their constraints, with a minimized impact.  The users
   of these platforms will then eventually be able to use an
   autonomous or mutualized infrastructure depending on
   circumstances. Moreover, the geographical diffusion of these
   platforms will also protect them better against disasters.  This
   broad diffusion will be carried out with help of the existing
   university networks (CRU [2]?)  and of interested service
   providers;

5. To improve the state of the art and the functionalities of each
   environment of collaborative development, by capitalizing on the
   feedbacks related to this broad diffusion, and through the
   emulation made possible by the exchanges between the teams taking
   part in the project;


The partners that have been fore-thought for the project:  
- Loria and/or Artenum for a connection with the PureSource project (RNTL 2001) 
and Toxic Farm
- GET with the Picolibre platform
- CRU for the diffusion aspect and/or setup of common resources
- TuxFamily for an implementation in VHFFS
- FSF France to realise evolutions in Savannah
- MandrakeSoft for an integration of picolibre in a distribution

Other possible partners but that seems to make too much for the
coordination of the project:  
- DEBIAN developers of the sourceforge package
- the phpgroupware project
- ADULLACT

The points/projets about which it is necessary to discuss:   
- e-COTS INRIA (RNTL?)  
- Oasis-open.org?  

The topics of the RNTL call to which it corresponds:  
Topic 2  :  
New applications of the information systems -   
# Workgroup, knowledge and group decision, Community applications, peer-to-peer 
applications;  Management, supervision, optimization of the business processes 
(Workflow);  

Topic 4:  
Stakes:  " to naturally accomodate phases of Re-design and Co-design, incolving 
several actors into multiple site.  " 
Priorities:    
  # co-operative Design of product and process.    
  # Information systems for the support of the customer relationship during all 
the life cycle of the products and systems (from the design to maintenance).  


[1] RNTL stands for "Réseau National des Technologies Logicielles",
which translates as "National Network for Software Technologies"

[2] CRU is the "Centre Réseau des Universités", the developper of the
free software Sympa, a renowned mailing-list manager

-- 
Olivier BERGER (OpenPGP: 1024D/B4C5F37F)
APRIL (http://www.april.org) - Vive python (http://www.python.org)
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