Framasoft, it’s also…

Framasoft (that’s us!) is known for maintaining and offering many online services (Framapad, Framaforms, Framadate, etc.). However, our small association leads, pursues or participates in many actions aiming at facilitating emancipation through digital technology.

From PeerTube to the support of the culture of the commons, from Mobilizon to the animation of the collective CHATONS, from mediation tools to popular education projects… All our actions – even our stupid ones! – are financed to more than 93% by your donations (66% deductible for French taxpayers).

Here is an overview of what you will help to achieve if you decide to support Framasoft.

…about people getting together

Framasoft is above all an association under the French law of 1901. This collective of 35, including 10, dreams, imagines, experiments… And above all, it carries out concrete actions!

Read a detailed description of these actions on our blog

How can we work together in confinement, and make collegial decisions without leaving anyone out in the cold? This requires a lot of work and listening, as for example to facilitate a self-managed general assembly of 15 workshop-visits over 3 months!

Creating a donation campaign for Framasoft is a moment that mobilises the whole collective, and not only because your donations make our association! These campaigns are, for us, an opportunity to take stock of our actions and intentions, in order to better present them to you.

Thanks to you, Framasoft has a team of 10 employees. This is an opportunity (maintaining the servers, managing projects…), but also a huge responsibility. In addition to the administrative side, we have to build a happy team where it is good to work.

When we are taken a little too seriously (or when one of us has ankles swell), we remember that Framasoft is also the Framaprout service (gastro-dadaisy revolt), and articles from the 1st April punctuated with nonsense.

…the hosting of online services

Yes: “Frama is not only about pads”, but also a bit! Framasoft offers about fifteen online services. We want these services to be a first step on the road to digital emancipation for those who use them. We estimate that they benefit nearly one million people every month.

Read a detailed description of these actions on our blog

Whether it’s collaboratively determining the best date and time for a meeting, or meeting, or creating a mini-survey very simply, Framadate is the tool you the right tool for you. With over 400 surveys created per day, our alternative to Doodle is very appreciated.

Framapad is used to write a text online, with several people, in real time, with the help of a history, chat, comments… This alternative to Google Docs works without an account or registration. Framasoft hosts an average of 380,000 pads.

Framaforms is used to create online questionnaires, whether they are simple or complex. Framasoft guarantees to host them on a platform that respects everyone’s data and answers. Framaforms hosts approximately 120,000 forms.

Framapad, Framadate, Framaforms… are part of the 16 online services of the De-googl-ify Internet project. From videoconferencing to diaries and discussion lists, Framasoft opens these services to more than a million users every month.

…about mediating the digital commons

Passing on knowledge, sharing experiences, going out to meet different audiences to better tackle this digital world together… At Framasoft, we are experimenting with all sorts of ways to share our expertise with people who offer us theirs.

Read a detailed description of these actions on our blog

Living in the four corners of France, the members of Framasoft members regularly take part in events. From workshops to webinars, from conferences to film-debates, we share our observations, fears and hopes about digital technology and the world it shapes.

Framasoft almost never seeks media attention, because it’s a lot of work! However, we regularly respond to invitations to share our views on the centralisation of the web, emancipatory digital practices, etc.

With more than 10 articles per month, it is on the Framablog that Framasoft expresses itself the most. Press review, announcements of the association, interviews, pamphlets, news from the world of Free Software… We try to open the Framablog to multiple forms of writing, and to various guests.

The Framalang working group translates articles, websites and books into French - in complete self-management… The digital world sometimes excludes non-English speakers, which is why Framalang publishes its translations on the Framablog.

The Framabook publishing house is changing and becoming “Des Livres en Communs”. For several months, Framasoft has been preparing the rebirth of this historic project of the association, with a change of paradigm to better support the creation of cultural commons.

This Free, Open, Autonomous and Decentralised People's University is beginning to germinate in our work. It is prefigured by a podcast and “free courses”. UPLOAD still needs to grow, taking inspiration from the popular education movements, before finding its form.

…people at the service of the services

It’s all very well to offer fifteen or so online services, but they don’t run by themselves! Making a service pleasant, reliable and easy to use requires a lot of work. Indeed, behind the machines, there are always humans, even when it is simply a matter of even when it’s just a matter of highlighting the online tools offered by other trusted hosting providers.

Read a detailed description of these actions on our blog

We are in the process of re-imagining each homepage of the online services we offer. This page should give a clear picture and direct access to the service, while informing about what it does, its limits, its conditions, its purpose…

Our technical team ensures meticulous maintenance of the servers that make up our infrastructure. Updates, backups on different sites, renewal of ageing equipment, fight against spam… Maintaining the services is a constant task.

Every month, Framasoft receives and processes more than 400 requests. From “I’ve lost my pad” to a workshop request, from a need for help on Framaforms to a radio interview, we do our best to answer you and to empower you in your use of our tools.

Framasoft wanted to take advantage of the closure of some of its services to present you a page that directs you to the same services, maintained by others. These trusted hosts thus help us to facilitate the decentralisation of digital uses.

…tools for emancipation

Sharing knowledge is sharing power. At Framasoft, we make it a point of honour to produce, in various forms, tools to tools to share our knowledge, know-how and skills… We hope to contribute to the empowerment and digital emancipation of the beneficiaries of these tools.

Read a detailed description of these actions on our blog

This online and self-guided course is open to anyone who wants to move towards a digital emancipation. The 1st module “Internet, why and how to take back control” compiles our knowledge about the internet, the toxic hegemony of GAFAM and ways out.

[RÉSOLU] is a guide composed of practical sheets to help social and solidarity economy structures of the social and solidarity economy to adopt free and ethical and ethical digital solutions. Co-constructed with the CÉMÉA movement, this guide can be modified, improved and distributed freely.

Metacards are (physical) card games where each card is augmented by (digital) resources. Framasoft contributed to the production of the game “Numérique Éthique” which facilitates mediation towards healthier and more serene digital practices.

From the general documentation of the services we host to the specific documentation of the software we develop (PeerTube, Mobilizon, Yakforms)… Every year, Framasoft writes, maintains and updates many lines of text!

…contributions in an archipelago

Framasoft sees its network of partnerships as an archipelago. Indeed, we don't need to agree on everything all the time (each partner lives on its own island) to see that we share the same values (that we swim in the same waters).

Read a detailed description of these actions on our blog

Through our actions, meetings, sharing… Framasoft evolves. Our vision of society and the place we wish to take in it also. For a few months now, we have been working on defining our values and intentions in order to elaborate a clear and sincere manifesto.

L. A. Coalition is a collective of associations fighting for progress and social justice. Its objective is to promote and defend Associative Freedom. Framasoft helps and advises the collective on its digital tools and uses.

Software that allows you to create an online petition platform, Pytition is developed by the association Résistance à l’Agression Publicitaire. Framasoft supports Pytition in many ways, with the objective of seeing a general public version born.

Contribateliers are workshops where you are invited to contribute to free projects, even (and especially) if you don’t know how to code. Our association is working to ensure that these Contribateliers develop everywhere in France, and even online with the Confinateliers!

This Collective gathers Alternative Hosting Companies which, everywhere in France (and even beyond), offer online services that can be trusted. Framasoft leads this collective and accompanies its growth in order to make it autonomous.

In order to count volunteer hours in an association under the 1901 law (and open up rights to training, etc.), using proprietary software is out of the question! Framasoft participates in the collective that develops and improves the free software Benévalibre.

In 2020, Framasoft published a directory of free digital support. This “snapshot” lists many profiles, from volunteers in digital integration associations to professionals in free software training.

Framasoft regularly makes its expertise and resources available to other initiatives and collectives. We can mention, for example, Exodus Privacy, Faire École Ensemble, InterHOP, Datagueule, Contribulle, Thunderbird, Entrée Libre, la Bataille du Libre…

…software to free up uses

Ah, the time is long gone when we said “Framasoft promotes free software, and develops (almost) none”. Because we want different tools than those designed by the giants, we develop them ourselves… and we contribute to those of others.

Read a detailed description of these actions on our blog

PeerTube is an open source software that democratises video distribution, as it allows hosts to create YouTube-like video platforms. These platforms can link together to show a wider range of videos while remaining independent.

Mobilizon is a free and federated alternative to Facebook events and groups. Mobilizon is not a social network, and does not promote egos. Groups, on the other hand, can discuss, share resources, publish articles and organise their events.

Yakforms is the software that runs our Framaforms online forms service. Installed on a server, it generates a site where you can publish forms, see the results, etc. Framasoft now wants to give this software to the community.

We often contribute to the code of software we use. We have, among others, worked on Sympa (Framalistes – group emails), Nextcloud (Framadrive and Framagenda – storage, synchronization, contacts calendar…) or Framadate (alternative to Doodle)…