Legend has it that in wishing to modify the driver of a recalcitrant Xerox printer and discovering that he had no access to the source code that the American computer scientist Richard Stallman has had, in 1980, the trigger that the push to initiate the movement of “free software”: that which anyone can freely use, study, modify and share – which involves opening the code. “It was to reverse the trend which wanted a user has no rights to the software,” says Hugo Roy, member of the legal team of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE ). This approach, he says, “resonates today, when everything turned into computer: we have the perfect example with connected mobile or Volkswagen cars”
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Unlike programs designed as “black boxes”, free software provides sharing, transparency and cooperation. The Firefox browser, office suite LibreOffice, the VLC media player are but a few examples. A countdown of ideas, the ecosystem of the “free” does not live collaboration and fresh water: when the code is a common good, the business models are based on services (including businesses). The model was extended to databases – and in the town hall of Paris she diffuses freely licensed ParisData on the site – and the “open” material (or open hardware ): the “hackers” have adopted electronic circuit boards manufactured by the Italian Arduino, whose plans are freely available.
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