François Letellier
Encyclopedia
François Letellier born 1968, is a French
proponent of free
/open source
software as a major means of innovation in the software industry
. He served as evangelist
and executive director
of ObjectWeb
(European born community for development of open-source middleware
) in 2003-2006 at INRIA. He worked on the inception of OW2 Consortium, was one of the individual co-founders and serves on the board of directors
as elected representative of individuals since then. With several other individuals in the OW2 European Local Chapter, he incepted fOSSa - a conference dedicated to industry/academia collaborations through free/open-source software.
François Letellier first introduced the concept of "third generation" of open-source organizations to describe non profits such as the Eclipse Foundation
, Mozilla Foundation
, ObjectWeb
and the like. The concept is similar to that of "OSS 2.0". He speaks extensively of these notions in the press and at public events. F. Letellier also documented the case against software patent
s in general, and software patents in Europe
, in particular.
François Letellier works as a freelance consultant on open-source business model
s, strategy, community building, open innovation
. He holds a master's degree
in computer science and contributed to several open-source projects (eg. Perl
/CPAN
).
Since mid 2011, F. Letellier is appointed Director of Cluster Edit, a cluster initiative gathering software companies in the Rhône-Alpes
region.
). Third generation (from 2000 on) is the time of "meta-organizations", ie associations of legal entities: Collaboration in an 3G open source organization may not happen at level of single projects - and one may even argue that some projects leaders come from the dark side of open source. But the ultimate goal is to have cross-projects collaboration. To bring back the value of open source at a higher level. And because the parties involved no longer are individuals, but also legal entities, a governance
model that goes beyond meritocracy
is needed.
The case about software patents is 5-fold:
" to date. In F. Letellier's view, the efficiency of this opne innovation process derives from the fact that software is immaterial (hence non rival and indefinitely reproductible at no cost).
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
proponent of free
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
/open source
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
software as a major means of innovation in the software industry
Software industry
The software industry includes businesses involved in the development, maintenance and publication of computer software using any business model...
. He served as evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
and executive director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
of ObjectWeb
ObjectWeb
The OW2 Consortium is a not-for-profit, international consortium mainly devoted to producing open source middleware, EAI, e-business, clustering, grid computing. It was founded by INRIA, Groupe Bull, and France Télécom...
(European born community for development of open-source middleware
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
) in 2003-2006 at INRIA. He worked on the inception of OW2 Consortium, was one of the individual co-founders and serves on the board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
as elected representative of individuals since then. With several other individuals in the OW2 European Local Chapter, he incepted fOSSa - a conference dedicated to industry/academia collaborations through free/open-source software.
François Letellier first introduced the concept of "third generation" of open-source organizations to describe non profits such as the Eclipse Foundation
Eclipse Foundation
The Eclipse Foundation is a not-for-profit, member supported corporation that hosts the open-source Eclipse Projects and helps cultivate both an open source community and an ecosystem of complementary products and services...
, Mozilla Foundation
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
, ObjectWeb
ObjectWeb
The OW2 Consortium is a not-for-profit, international consortium mainly devoted to producing open source middleware, EAI, e-business, clustering, grid computing. It was founded by INRIA, Groupe Bull, and France Télécom...
and the like. The concept is similar to that of "OSS 2.0". He speaks extensively of these notions in the press and at public events. F. Letellier also documented the case against software patent
Software patent
Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program".In 2005, the European Patent Office...
s in general, and software patents in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, in particular.
François Letellier works as a freelance consultant on open-source business model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
s, strategy, community building, open innovation
Open Innovation
Although the idea and discussion about some consequences date back at least to the 60s, open innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, in his book Open Innovation: The new...
. He holds a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in computer science and contributed to several open-source projects (eg. Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
/CPAN
CPAN
CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, is an archive of nearly 100,000 modules of software written in Perl, as well as documentation for it. It has a presence on the World Wide Web at and is mirrored worldwide at more than 200 locations...
).
Since mid 2011, F. Letellier is appointed Director of Cluster Edit, a cluster initiative gathering software companies in the Rhône-Alpes
Rhône-Alpes
Rhône-Alpes is one of the 27 regions of France, located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the Rhône River and the Alps mountain range. Its capital, Lyon, is the second-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris...
region.
"Third Generation" of Open Source
In public presentations and published papers, F. Letellier describes the three "ages" of open-source: first generation is the early times, where it was mainly a story of loosely connected individuals (roughly before 1990). Generation 2 appeared with the worldwide web and was the time of large scale communities federated by associations of individuals (eg. the Apache Software FoundationApache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server. The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and incorporated in Delaware, U.S., in June 1999.The Apache Software Foundation is a decentralized community of developers...
). Third generation (from 2000 on) is the time of "meta-organizations", ie associations of legal entities: Collaboration in an 3G open source organization may not happen at level of single projects - and one may even argue that some projects leaders come from the dark side of open source. But the ultimate goal is to have cross-projects collaboration. To bring back the value of open source at a higher level. And because the parties involved no longer are individuals, but also legal entities, a governance
Governance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
model that goes beyond meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
is needed.
Software Patents
This is a draft - FL position is detailed in a position paper from ObjectWeb, on a wiki whose revision history shows that most of the text is originally written (in French) by FLThe case about software patents is 5-fold:
- Free movement of knowledge
- Economic development and technological innovation
- Political awareness
- Creating common infrastructures for public utility
- Law harmonization
Open Innovation
In numerous articles, François Letellier promotes the idea that open-source should be regarded as an innovation intermediary, therefore making open-source communities de facto practitionners of one of the most advanced form of "open innovationOpen Innovation
Although the idea and discussion about some consequences date back at least to the 60s, open innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, in his book Open Innovation: The new...
" to date. In F. Letellier's view, the efficiency of this opne innovation process derives from the fact that software is immaterial (hence non rival and indefinitely reproductible at no cost).
External links
- François Letellier's web site (FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
) - Presentation on FOSS economics at HollandOpen 2005
- FOSS_Bridge EU funded program
- View on open innovation (FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
) - Position on software patents (FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
) - Interview on the transition from ObjectWeb to OW2 in French
- ComputerWorld paper on the transition from ObjectWeb to OW2 in English
- Interview of François Letellier for the RUNES newsletter
- IDABC event 2007
- F. Letellier's blog covering the ObjectWeb period
- Brevets logiciels : pas de garantie d'infaillibilité !, Silicon, 4 May 2005 (FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
)