Vive la liberté: RMLL in Bordeaux

I spent the weekend at the Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre in Bordeaux, France.This is the biggest Free Software meeting in France, and the community is tremendously active. There are lots of groups doing great work, from April via Aful and user-operated ISP French Data Network, and I met many impressive, smart and dedicated people.

Benjamin Bayart, the president of French Data Network, asked me an interesting question: Outside France, are there any other user-operated ISPs in Europe? A quick poll of FSFE’s booth staff didn’t turn up any, so I’m passing the question on to you, the lazyweb. If you know other user-operated ISPs, please tell me in the comments.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t come earlier and attend the talks taking place during the week. But the public show of Free Software projects this weekend was right by the river, bringing in lots of people who just wanted to have a stroll. As is the custom with traditional French villages, it was very well organised and tightly run by a competent and respected village chief:

Celebrating a successful RMLL with village chief Abraracourcix
Celebrating a successful RMLL with village chief Abraracourcix

From here, I’m going on to the Basque country in Spain, where I’ll give a number of talks and we’ll have Fellowship meetings in San Sebastián and Bilbao. Hope to see you there!