Great news today the French government have launched their own Visio video conferencing tool #digitalsovereignty

[jim@social.openrightsgroup.org]

Great news today the French government have launched their own Visio video conferencing tool #digitalsovereignty

But the PR stories, while explaining it is French built, don't mention it is Open Source and based on LiveKit - so any government can reuse what they have done.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/01/27/france-to-ditch-us-platforms-microsoft-teams-zoom-for-sovereign-platform-amid-security-con

https://github.com/suitenumerique/meet

[itsmedave@mstdn.ca]

@jim I hope this gains traction across govts. I would love to see my government pivot from MSFT to something like this.

[cos@fosstodon.org]

@jim any idea why they created a new one instead of using Element Call or Jitsi? Especially Element Call would be more or less compatible with Tchap they are already using. Does Visio have any technological advantages over them?

#visio #elementcall #jitsi

[humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world]

@jim Can any EU citizen or company use this?

[unruhe@mastodon.social]

@jim strange concept of Open Source in France. Why don't they use existing Free Software projects and give some money and help to them to increase the distance from the US? And after them all other EU countries. Moving seriously to Linux using Linux and FreeBSD servers and so on...

[ananas@scicomm.xyz]

@humanhorseshoes @jim
It's MIT licenced, so if you know what you're doing, yeah.

[humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world]

@ananas @jim thank you o wise pineapple

[naomi@theforkiverse.com]

@jim very fediversian of them if I understand it correctly!

[j0ebaldw1n@mastodon.social]

@jim Bold choice of them to choose a name that is trademarked by Microsoft for an existing software package that's been around since 1992...

[gommehammer@mastodon.online]

@jim Both the french Suite Numérique and the german OpenDesk seem to be making steady progress and both claim to have an established userbase. Really interesting to see how quickly they are developing.

[mackaj@mastodon.me.uk]

@j0ebaldw1n @jim

I think they'll be ok as (I believe) Visio is a common french abbreviation for video conference.

[oatmeal@kolektiva.social]

@jim

The repo : Gov supports open source!

First, they should get off fucking #GitHub if they’re serious about digital sovereignty… especially operational control and hosting location. But really, why not #Jitsi?

The original press release in French https://presse.economie.gouv.fr/souverainete-numerique-letat-generalise-visio-sa-solution-de-visioconference-securisee-et-souveraine-a-destination-des-agents-publics

[ronnylam@mastodon.social]

@jim and they publish it on a Microsoft platform. Why not move to Codeberg, Forgejo, or another self-hosted repository?

[avuko@infosec.exchange]

@oatmeal @jim

Jitsi is currently owned by 8x8, Inc., which is headquartered in Campbell, California, USA.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/29/atlassian-sells-jitsi-an-open-source-videoconferencing-tool-it-acquired-in-2015-to-8x8/

[oatmeal@kolektiva.social]

@avuko didn’t know. Thanks.

@jim

[avuko@infosec.exchange]

@oatmeal @jim

I was kinda sad, when I discovered a couple of weeks ago about Atlassian and now 8x8 ownership.

Many good things go to the US to die.

[cstanhope@social.coop]

@jim Interesting, but a little confusing. They created an open source meeting application that requires the use of a proprietary service (one promoting "AI" agents at that)?

https://livekit.io/contact-sales

It seem they replaced one proprietary solution (Zoom) with another (LiveKit). I'm trying to figure out where LiveKit is based and who owns it.

https://livekit.io/about

But it is interesting news...

[oatmeal@kolektiva.social]

@avuko There doesn’t seem to be lots of effort to promote or market Jitsi I’ve noticed. Is it because they’re focused on more niche markets? It seems to be far easier to use than zoom of teams (can you even use teams browser only these days)?

[gfkdsgn@burma.social]

@jim
If it's not even #FOSS where's the advantage compared to videoconferencing with @nextcloud ?

[oantolin@mathstodon.xyz]

@jim @antoinechambertloir Why did they name it after Microsoft's diagramming and flowchart application? I like the power move of just using the name of a piece of Microsoft software unchanged but why not use "Teams" which it can replace instead of "Visio" which it does not replace?