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Et ce que je veux vous souhaiter à tous aujourd'hui, à chacun d'entre vous, c'est de trouver si ce n'est déjà fait,  votre ikigaï. Je vous remercie.
 
Et ce que je veux vous souhaiter à tous aujourd'hui, à chacun d'entre vous, c'est de trouver si ce n'est déjà fait,  votre ikigaï. Je vous remercie.
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== Traduction ==
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''trad par marc chauvet''
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'''Frédéric Couchet''': [In English]Hello everybody, I am pleased to be here today to spend some time with you, to speak about something very interesting. [Switching to French] Well, normally there should have been a video in English. But rest assured, I will not speak in English, because as you can see I'm very bad at it.
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And for a long time, I thought this huge weakness would prevent me from realizing one of my dearest dreams: to change the world. It's a beautiful project, to change the world! Besides, I have a question: how many of you have one day wanted to change the world? Or simply to change society a little? If so, raise your hand. Great! I see that there are many of us, and it was to be expected as we are at TEDx.
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So I'll tell you how I have tried, as some of you, to change a bit the world at my own level. Ever since I was little, I always wanted to do politics, in order to have an impact on society. So at high school, I thought of applying to Sciences Po [''French school preparing for politics'']. But at Sciences Po, there is a minimum pass mark in English, and my English grades ensured me that I wouldn't reach that threshold. So I could already strike out Sciences Po of my plans, and maybe also my desire to do politics.
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Yet 20 years later, I do not regret anything. By chance, I enrolled for a computing degree at the Paris 8 university. While Paris 8 sounds appealing, in fact the "8" doesn't stand for Paris' 8th district [''a rich district of Paris'']. If I tell you that Paris 8 is in fact in Saint-Denis in the poor suburbs, all of a sudden it's much less sexy. And one wonders how to change the world from there? Yet it is there, in Paris 8, that I met for the first time people who have changed the course of my life and who have told me that we could have an impact on society through computer sciences.
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Paris 8 is a poor university. By poor, I mean that it had little money, and very few computers available. So rather than come in the morning to try to book a machine, and I assure you we tried that with friends but it was just really too early for us, what could do we do? We decided to spend nights working on our projects and also on those of others.
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I remember very well the first night, it was a Thursday in November. I apologize: it was on the day of the arrival of Beaulojais [''a French wine''] that the adventure began for us. So imagine a dozen computer scientists, geeks, around a table in a room, each working on his projects but also those of others. When one of us found an interesting thing, he shared it. It could be for instance a nice way of fixing a bug or it could a new functionality. We were in a real sharing process.
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Paris 8 is somewhat special. It's not just the students who spent their night there. There were also teachers, lecturers. I know that in the public imagery, the geek is stuck on his computer all day long ... or in our case all night long. And yet, I assure you every once in a while we made breaks, and especially with a teacher I will always remember. His name is Marc Detienne.
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He radically changed my life and my friends' lives. He was the first who explained that the practices we had in Paris 8 were not at all standard. The pieces of software that we downloaded 20 years ago were software free to use. But such pieces of software were not standard. We also had their source code, that is their recipe. Thus we could study how they worked, possibly add features or correct errors. But this way of offering software was not dominant at the time, nor is it today. Instead, the dominant way of offering software is proprietary software. That is to say, software for which you do not know the inner working, for which you do not have the recipe, and that only the publisher can control.
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As for us, our software was and still is Free Software. It was also he who told us that among those who dedicated their lives to Free Software, there was an American computer scientist called Richard Stallman. He conceived Free Software, and he had also created a foundation dedicated to its promotion.
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One day, Stallman comes to Paris 8. You have to imagine that for us, computer science students, Stallman was an icon. He was one of the best Free Software developers around the world, one of those who developed the pieces of software we used at the time. I could perhaps compare him to the Zinedine Zidane or the Mozart of Free Software. And he was coming to Paris 8 in Saint Denis! Of course, we went to see his lecture. There were lots of people. We expected Stallman would talk about technical topics, but in fact not at all. He told us about society, sharing, cooperation. He spoke very little about computer themselves. Or rather, he explained how Free Software can have an impact on society.
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According to him, Free Software is the incarnation within the computing world of the French Republican motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity [''Brotherhood'']".
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Liberty because we have the right to use the software, we have the right to study the way it works, we have the right to change it, and we have the right to redistribute it.
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Equality because everyone shares the same right, regardless of their condition.
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And Fraternity because such pieces of software promote sharing and cooperation.
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Let's just make a short break here to explain the importance of computing today. You will agree with me in saying that computers are everywhere in our daily lives: social networking, banking services, public administrations ... It is therefore essential that we keep these tools under control. Free Software is not just a technical alternative to proprietary software. It is much more importantly fundamental to our freedom. And it is a philosophy based on sharing and openness.
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We just mentioned the Internet: Free Software and the Internet have grown harmoniously together. The software architecture of the Internet is Free Software. And conversely the Internet has fostered the development of Free Software. If anybody in this the room believes he has never used Free Software, remember that every time you surf on the Internet, Free Software is part of your ride. Without Free Software, there would be no Internet as we know it. And Internet is a primarily tool to facilitate the contact and linking of billions of people, thus encouraging sharing practices and especially for Free Software.
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Others have followed that path. A decade ago, could we have just imagined that the main on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia, would be freely accessible and freely editable.
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Back to Stallman and his conference. After those nights spent with Marc Detienne, this conference was a kind of revelation for us. The revelation of a fundamental issue relative to society for which some should spend time. It was only waiting for us. We realized that even as computer scientists, we could have an impact on society by using and distributing Free Software.
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At the end of that year, I think it was '96, with some friends who also had just finished their studies, we asked ourselves what we were going to do. We concluded that "naturally, as we had learned computer sciences using Free Software, we would continue making Free Software". We decided that we would increase awareness in France about it, just like Stallman was already doing in the United States. So we created an association, whose objective was simple: to promote Free Software.
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So we embarked on an adventure from scratch, without any predefined road-map or business model. We invited people to join us, we created a website (remember that it was fifteen years ago) to publicize our activities. For 15 years, we have acted so as to promote and defend Free Software, gradually changing society a little and changing us as well.
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Doing so, we learned many new things and we have had to step outside our comfort zone. Together, we learned how to defend a project, a cause. For example, we spoke publicly of HADOPI [''a French law "to control and regulate Internet access and encourage compliance with copyright laws" (source: Wikipedia)''], and in the process we learned to analyze bills and laws. For computer scientists such as ourselves, we tend to study computer code, but if you come to think about it, a bill is just a code written in a different language. It can be studied, you can read it and possibly correct it, suggest improvements. In our computer jargon, we would call such improvements "patches".
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Of course, we also have to defend our cause, so we went to see politicians. We learned to speak their language; and we hope that, perhaps, over the years, they learned to speak our language. We studied and acted on these bills, because they had an impact on society, and so it was essential for us to act on these projects.
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And fundamentally, beyond all these activities, why do I find the Free Software cause so appealing? Why I am here today talking about it? Because it is intrinsically a cause that we cannot lead alone. There are plenty of causes that can be led alone, just requiring an exceptional individual. But the Free Software cause is one that needs to be led together.
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Free Software is written by people together, and within our association, we work together to promote Free Software. Over the years, we have matured and we have grown. We have known successes, such as the adoption of amendments in draft legislation, our participation in the rebuttal of a European directive on software patents. But more than that, we built a "micro-society association" in which people can act. Had we been alone, even the greatest willingness would not have brought such results. If everyone had acted on there side, we would not have had the same impact. But together, we have successfully dealt with the legislative processes, the communication material as well as our presence and visibility.
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In '96 there were 5 of us ... 5 computer scientists ... 5 geeks. Today we are thousands, over 5000 in fact and most are not computer scientists. Most are from the general public, they use Free Software and they have understood it's importance. Our work is now recognized and relayed by the press and it is recognized as well by the government. We succeeded simply because we managed to build together and to gather energy. What we have built is primarily a framework in which those who want to create and share can feel at ease and can contribute to this project.
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In this adventure, I also learned a lot personally. I have evolved. For instance, I learned to trust people. I learned to delegate objectives but not the way to reach it. For example, to ask for a communication document, without requiring a given way to achieve it. It is fundamental when we work together to learn to be tolerant, and to accept that people are different. We must make room for others' initiative, to allow them to invest and improve themselves. When working together, it is fundamental to trust others' ability and also to promote their work.
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The association contains all kinds of members: young one, retirees, lawyers, translators, graphic designers. There are even people who come from Sciences Po, like one of my colleagues. As you can see, this is everybody's cause.
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Today, we often tend to think that money is what motivates people, and that it is their main driver. It's a flaw of our current society to consider that the best way to increase someone's motivation is to give him more money. Obviously people need money to live. But what they need above all in order to be motivated and to feel recognized, is to feel useful for something, and to participate in a larger project. That is perhaps the most extraordinary part of this adventure I lived within the microcosm of associations: via Free Software, we are changing a bit society. But it also allows people throughout the organization - members, volunteers or even just people wishing to participate - to make their own small contribution to this broader project. These people can express their talents, their desires, in a kind environment where their work is recognized.
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What is fundamental within associations is that there are no obligations. People join them because they want to contribute.
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Without extending too much on my allocated time, the idea that I want you to keep from this is that Free Software is just a human adventure. Those were the words of Eben Moglen, who is another important figure of the Free Software cause. And in this adventure, the person who plays meets the person who builds. It's a game because we have a lot of fun, and so in that way we "play", but at the time we are also "building" something. Thanks to Free Software, we have an impact on society. Free Software allows people to express their creativity. And you know what? When you give a place for people to express their creativity, they do so.
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I have less than 30 seconds for my last message. If I wanted to sum up my career in a nutshell, I would say: "I participated in creating a community. I learned to work with this community. We have taken action and we have fought, because a few years ago I found my driving cause. It makes me get up enthusiastically in the morning, it allows my wife and children to endure my long hours behind a keyboard or out of home. It is what the Japanese call my "ikigai", my reason for being. My purpose in life is simple: to have an impact on society, to be useful to others and to interact with others. Thanks to Free Software, I feel I enrich society, I interact with and for others."
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And today, I can only wish to each one of you that you find your ikigai, if it's not already the case. Thank you.

Dernière version du 10 juillet 2011 à 16:53


Présentation[modifier]


Transcription publiée[modifier]

Frédéric Couchet : Hello everybody, I am pleased to be here today to spend some time with you, to speak about something very interesting. Bon, normalement il devait y avoir une vidéo en anglais, mais rassurez-vous je ne vais pas parler en anglais parce que comme vous le voyez je suis très mauvais en anglais.

Et pendant longtemps j'ai pensé que cette très grosse faiblesse allait m'empêcher de mettre en œuvre un de mes rêves les plus chers : changer le monde. C'est un beau projet, changer le monde ! D'ailleurs j'ai une question, qui ici parmi vous a eu envie un jour de changer le monde ? Ou de faire simplement évoluer un petit peu la société ? Si c'est le cas, vous levez la main. Génial ! Je vois que nous sommes nombreux et nous sommes à TEDx c'est normal.

Alors je vais vous raconter comment moi aussi j'ai essayé un petit peu de changer le monde à mon niveau. Depuis que je suis tout petit j'ai toujours voulu faire de la politique, pour avoir un impact sur la société. Et donc mon bac en poche, j'envisage de « candidater » à Sciences Po. Mais à Sciences Po, il y a une note éliminatoire, en anglais et avec un minimum de 7 que j'étais absolument sûr de ne pas pouvoir avoir, je pouvais faire une croix sur Sciences Po et donc peut-être mon envie de faire de la politique.

Et pourtant 20 ans plus tard, je ne regrette absolument rien. Je me suis donc inscrit par hasard dans une fac d'informatique, à Paris 8. Alors Paris 8 comme ça, ça sonne bien, mais 8 c'est pas le 8ème arrondissement de Paris. Si je vous dis Paris 8 c'est à Saint Denis dans le 9-3, tout d'un coup c'est beaucoup moins sexy, on se dit comment changer le monde à partir de là ? Et pourtant c'est là, à Paris 8 que j'ai rencontré pour la première fois des gens qui ont changé le cours de ma vie et qui m'ont expliqué qu'on pouvait avoir un impact sur la société à travers l'informatique.

Mais Paris 8 c'est une fac pauvre. Par pauvre, j'entends peu de moyens, donc très peu d'ordinateurs disponibles. Alors plutôt que de venir le matin pour essayer de réserver une machine et je vous assure avec des amis on a essayé mais c'était vraiment trop tôt pour nous, qu'est ce qu'on fait ? On décide d'y passer des nuits pour travailler sur nos projets et aussi pour ceux des autres.

Je me souviens très bien de la première soirée, c'était un jeudi de novembre. Alors je suis désolé, c'était un soir de Beaulojais nouveau que l'aventure a commencé pour nous. Alors imaginez, une dizaine d'informaticiens, de geeks, autour d'une table dans une salle, chacun travaillant sur ses projets mais également sur ceux des autres. Dès que l'un de nous trouvait une chose intéressante, il la partageait. Ça pouvait être par exemple une jolie façon par exemple de corriger un bug, une erreur de programmation ou de rajouter une fonctionnalité. Donc nous étions dans une réelle dynamique de partage.

Mais Paris 8 c'est une fac un peu particulière, il n'y a pas que les étudiants qui passaient leur nuit. Il y avait aussi des enseignants, des chargés de cours. Alors je sais bien que dans l'imaginaire du grand public, le geek, il est scotché sur son ordinateur toute la journée ou dans notre cas toute la nuit. Et pourtant, non, je vous assure de temps en temps nous faisions des pauses et notamment avec un enseignant dont je me souviendrais toujours. Son nom : Marc Detienne.

Il a radicalement changé ma vie et nos vies, celle de mes amis. C'est le premier qui nous a expliqué que les pratiques que nous avions à Paris 8 n'étaient pas du tout naturelles. Les logiciels que nous téléchargions à l'époque, c'était il y a 20 ans, c'était des logiciels libres d'utilisation, mais ce n'était pas du tout un processus naturel. Nous avions également le code source du logiciel, c'est à dire la recette de cuisine, nous pouvions donc étudier son fonctionnement, éventuellement rajouter des fonctionnalités ou corriger des erreurs. Mais cette pratique n'était pas dominante, à l'époque et d'ailleurs aujourd'hui encore encore la pratique dominante de l'informatique, c'est plutôt le logiciel propriétaire, ou également appelé privateur. C'est-à-dire des logiciels dont on ne connaît pas le mode de fonctionnement, dont on n'a pas la recette de cuisine, et que seul l'éditeur peut contrôler.

Nous, nos logiciels étaient et sont encore aujourd'hui des logiciels libres. C'est lui aussi qui nous a expliqué que parmi les gens qui dédiaient leur vie aux logiciels libres, il y avait un informaticien américain, nommé Richard Stallman, qui concevait des logiciels libres, et qui avait créé aussi une fondation dédiée à leur promotion.

Et un jour, Stallman va à Paris 8. alors imaginez pour nous étudiants en informatique, Stallman c'est une icône. L'un des meilleurs développeurs de logiciels libres dans le monde, l'un de ceux qui développaient les logiciels que nous utilisions à l'époque. Je pourrais peut-être dire en gros que c'était le Zinedine Zidane ou le Mozart du Logiciel Libre, à Paris 8, à Saint Denis. Donc qu'est-ce qu'on fait, bien sûr on va voir sa conférence. Il y a plein de monde. On s'attend à ce que Stallman nous parle de technique, mais en fait pas du tout. Il nous parle de société, de partage, de coopération. Il nous parle très peu d'informatique. Ou plutôt il nous explique comment le Logiciel Libre peut avoir un impact sur la société.

Pour lui le Logiciel Libre c'est l'incarnation informatique de notre devise républicaine, « Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité ».

Liberté parce qu'on a le droit d'utiliser le logiciel, on a le droit d'étudier son fonctionnement, on a le droit de le modifier, et on a le droit de le redistribuer.

Egalité parce que tout le monde a le même droit, quelque soit son statut.

Et fraternité parce que le libre favorise le partage et la coopération.

Accordons-nous juste une petite pause pour expliquer l'importance de l'informatique aujourd'hui. Vous serez d'accord avec moi que les ordinateurs sont omniprésents dans notre quotidien : réseaux sociaux, services bancaires, services publics... il est donc essentiel que nous gardions le contrôle sur nos outils. Le Logiciel Libre n'est pas simplement une alternative technique au logiciel propriétaire. C'est avant tout un socle pour nos libertés. Et c'est une philosophie basée sur le partage et l'ouverture.

Tout à l'heure on a parlé d'Internet. Logiciel Libre et Internet se sont développés de concert et en harmonie. L'architecture logicielle d'Internet, c'est des logiciels libres. Et Internet a favorisé le développement du Logiciel Libre. Si vous pensez dans la salle n'avoir jamais utilisé de logiciels libres, sachez qu'à chaque fois que vous vous baladez sur Internet, des logiciels libres accompagnent votre voyage. Sans logiciels libres, il n'y aurait pas d'Internet, tel que nous le connaissons. Et Internet qui est un outil avant tout de contact et de mise en relation de milliards d'êtres humains, a favorisé les pratiques de partage. Et la première est celle des logiciels libres.

Mais d'autres ont suivis. Pouvions-nous ne serait-ce imaginer qu'il y a dix ans, que la principale encyclopédie en ligne Wikipédia, serait une encyclopédie libre d'accès et libre de modifications.

Revenons à Stallman et à sa conférence. Pour nous et après les nuits passées avec Marc Detienne, c'est une sorte de révélation. La révélation d'un enjeu fondamental de société dans lequel il faudrait s'investir, et qui nous tendait les bras. Le fait de se rendre compte qu'à notre niveau d'informaticien, ne serait-ce qu'en utilisant et en diffusant des logiciels libres on pouvait avoir un impact sur la société.

A la fin des années, je crois que c'est 96, donc à la fin de nos études, avec quelques amis, on se posait la question de ce qu'on allait faire. On se dit : « Bien écoutez naturellement on a appris l'informatique à base de logiciels libres, qu'est-ce qu'on va faire, on va faire du Logiciel Libre ». Et on se dit qu'on va le faire connaître en France. Un peu comme ce que fait Stallman aux États-Unis. Donc on crée une association, dont l'objectif est tout simple, celle de promouvoir le Logiciel Libre.

Alors on se lance dans l'aventure comme ça, sans feuille de route pré-établie, sans business model. On invite des gens à nous rejoindre, on crée un site Internet, rappelez-vous c'était quand même il y a une quinzaine d'années, pour faire connaître nos activités, et pendant des années on va mener des actions, visant à promouvoir et défendre le Logiciel Libre, qui va petit à petit changer un peu la société et nous changer aussi.

Nous changer aussi parce qu'on va apprendre des tas de choses nouvelles, on va devoir sortir de notre zone de confort,... (excusez-moi, je suis … oui, complètement, … ah oui, excusez-moi).

Donc on va apprendre des tas de choses nouvelles, on va devoir sortir de notre zone de confort. Ensemble, on va apprendre à défendre un projet, une cause. Alors par exemple, on a parlé d'Hadopi, bien, on a appris à étudier des projets de loi. Pour nous à priori informaticiens, on étudie du code, du code informatique, mais finalement un projet de loi, c'est un code écrit dans un langage différent, qu'on peut étudier, qu'on peut déchiffrer, qu'on peut éventuellement corriger, proposer des améliorations, ce qu'on appelle des "patchs" dans notre langage d'informaticien.

Évidemment, il faut aller voir aussi des politiques pour défendre notre cause, donc on est allé les voir. On a appris à parler leur langage et on peut espérer que peut-être au fur et à mesure des années, ils ont appris à parler notre langage. Nous avons étudié, agi sur ces projets de lois, parce que ces projets de lois ont un impact sur la société, alors pour nous c'était essentiel de pouvoir agir sur ces projets.

Et fondamentalement, au delà de toutes ces activités, pourquoi cette cause du Logiciel Libre me fait-elle vibrer ? Pourquoi je viens vous en parler aujourd'hui ? Parce que fondamentalement et par essence, c'est une cause que l'on ne peut pas mener seul. Il y a plein de causes qu'on peut mener seul, que des gens exceptionnels peuvent mener seuls. La cause du Logiciel Libre, on la mène ensemble.

Les logiciels libres sont écrits par des gens ensemble, nous à notre niveau, on essaye de faire connaître les logiciels libres ensemble. Au fur et à mesure des années, on a mûri, on s'est développé, on a obtenu des résultats, des amendements votés dans des projets de lois, la participation au rejet d'une directive européenne sur les brevets logiciels, mais plus que ça, on a construit une micro-société associative dans laquelle les gens peuvent agir. Seul et avec même la plus grande volonté du monde, on n'aurait pas eu les mêmes résultats. Si chacun dans notre coin on avait agi, on n'aurait pas eu le même impact. Mais ensemble on a pu maîtriser à la fois les processus législatifs, les documents de communication, la présence, la visibilité.

En 96 nous étions 5, 5 informaticiens, 5 geeks. Aujourd'hui nous sommes des milliers, plus de 5 000 et la plupart ne sont pas informaticiens. La plupart c'est des gens du grand public qui utilisent quelques logiciels libres mais qui ont compris l'importance du logiciel libre. Notre action est aujourd'hui reconnue par la presse, relayée par la presse, reconnue par les pouvoirs publics. On a réussi, simplement parce que on a réussi à construire, à réunir des énergies. Ce qu'on a construit avant tout c'est un cadre, dans lequel les gens qui ont envie de créer et de partager peuvent se sentir bien et peuvent venir apporter leur pierre à l'édifice.

Dans cette aventure aussi personnellement, j'ai appris beaucoup, j'ai beaucoup évolué. Un exemple, j'ai appris qu'il fallait faire confiance aux gens. Déléguer des objectifs mais pas une façon de faire, demander un document de communication, mais pas une façon de le réaliser. C'est fondamental quand on travaille ensemble d'apprendre à être tolérant. Accepter que les gens soient différents. Il faut laisser la place à l'initiative, pour permettre aux gens de s'investir et de s'améliorer. Quand vous travaillez ensemble, avoir confiance dans la capacité des autres est fondamental et valoriser aussi leur travail.

Parmi les gens qui constituent l'association, il y a à la fois des jeunes, des retraités, des juristes, des traducteurs, des graphistes, et il y a même des gens qui comme une de mes collègues viennent de Sciences Po. Voyez, tout le monde se retrouve dans ce combat.

Aujourd'hui, on pense souvent que ce qui motive les gens, ce qui va leur permettre de les faire avancer c'est l'argent. C'est un défaut de conception de notre société actuelle de considérer que la meilleure façon de valoriser les gens c'est de leur donner plus d'argent. Alors bien sûr, les gens ont besoin d'argent pour vivre. Mais ce qu'ils ont avant tout besoin pour être motivés, pour être valorisés, c'est de savoir qu'ils peuvent être utiles à quelque chose. Qu'ils peuvent participer à un projet plus global. Et ça aujourd'hui, c'est peut-être le plus extraordinaire dans l'aventure que j'ai vécue à travers ce monde associatif, c'est qu'à la fois à travers le Logiciel libre on contribue à changer un petit peu la société, mais on permet aussi à des gens à travers l'association, on permet à chaque personne, chaque adhérent, chaque bénévole ou même chaque personne simplement qui veut participer, de pouvoir apporter sa pierre à l'édifice, sa petite contribution qui s'intègre dans un tout plus global. Les personnes peuvent exprimer leurs talents, leurs envies, dans un cadre bienveillant et dans un cadre où leur action est valorisée.

Dans le cadre associatif, ce qui est fondamental, c'est qu'il n'y a aucune obligation. Les gens viennent là parce qu'ils ont envie de contribuer.

L'idée que je veux faire passer par là, sans trop déborder, pour reprendre les propos d'Eben Moglen, qui est une autre figure importante du Logiciel Libre, c'est que le Logiciel Libre c'est juste une aventure humaine. L'homme qui joue rencontre l'homme qui fabrique. C'est un jeu parce qu'effectivement on s'amuse, c'est fun mais on fabrique aussi quelque chose. A travers le Logiciel Libre, on a un impact sur la société, et à travers le Logiciel Libre on permet à des gens d'exprimer leur créativité. Et quand on donne un cadre aux gens pour exprimer leur créativité, ils le font.

Il me reste même pas 30 secondes pour vous faire passer un dernier message. Si je voulais résumer mon parcours en quelques mots, je dirais : « J'ai participé à créer une communauté, j'ai appris à travailler avec cette communauté, nous avons mené des actions, des combats et tout ça parce que j'ai trouvé, il y a quelques années, la cause qui m'anime. Celle qui me fait lever le matin, de façon enthousiaste, celle qui permet à ma femme et mes enfants de supporter mes longues heures derrière un clavier ou d'absence, ce que les japonais appellent leur ikigaï, leur raison d'être. Ma raison d'être est simple, avoir un impact sur la société, être utile aux autres, agir avec les autres. A travers le Logiciel Libre, j'ai le sentiment d'enrichir la société, j'agis avec les autres et pour les autres. »

Et ce que je veux vous souhaiter à tous aujourd'hui, à chacun d'entre vous, c'est de trouver si ce n'est déjà fait, votre ikigaï. Je vous remercie.

Traduction[modifier]

trad par marc chauvet

Frédéric Couchet: [In English]Hello everybody, I am pleased to be here today to spend some time with you, to speak about something very interesting. [Switching to French] Well, normally there should have been a video in English. But rest assured, I will not speak in English, because as you can see I'm very bad at it.

And for a long time, I thought this huge weakness would prevent me from realizing one of my dearest dreams: to change the world. It's a beautiful project, to change the world! Besides, I have a question: how many of you have one day wanted to change the world? Or simply to change society a little? If so, raise your hand. Great! I see that there are many of us, and it was to be expected as we are at TEDx.

So I'll tell you how I have tried, as some of you, to change a bit the world at my own level. Ever since I was little, I always wanted to do politics, in order to have an impact on society. So at high school, I thought of applying to Sciences Po [French school preparing for politics]. But at Sciences Po, there is a minimum pass mark in English, and my English grades ensured me that I wouldn't reach that threshold. So I could already strike out Sciences Po of my plans, and maybe also my desire to do politics.

Yet 20 years later, I do not regret anything. By chance, I enrolled for a computing degree at the Paris 8 university. While Paris 8 sounds appealing, in fact the "8" doesn't stand for Paris' 8th district [a rich district of Paris]. If I tell you that Paris 8 is in fact in Saint-Denis in the poor suburbs, all of a sudden it's much less sexy. And one wonders how to change the world from there? Yet it is there, in Paris 8, that I met for the first time people who have changed the course of my life and who have told me that we could have an impact on society through computer sciences.

Paris 8 is a poor university. By poor, I mean that it had little money, and very few computers available. So rather than come in the morning to try to book a machine, and I assure you we tried that with friends but it was just really too early for us, what could do we do? We decided to spend nights working on our projects and also on those of others.

I remember very well the first night, it was a Thursday in November. I apologize: it was on the day of the arrival of Beaulojais [a French wine] that the adventure began for us. So imagine a dozen computer scientists, geeks, around a table in a room, each working on his projects but also those of others. When one of us found an interesting thing, he shared it. It could be for instance a nice way of fixing a bug or it could a new functionality. We were in a real sharing process.

Paris 8 is somewhat special. It's not just the students who spent their night there. There were also teachers, lecturers. I know that in the public imagery, the geek is stuck on his computer all day long ... or in our case all night long. And yet, I assure you every once in a while we made breaks, and especially with a teacher I will always remember. His name is Marc Detienne.

He radically changed my life and my friends' lives. He was the first who explained that the practices we had in Paris 8 were not at all standard. The pieces of software that we downloaded 20 years ago were software free to use. But such pieces of software were not standard. We also had their source code, that is their recipe. Thus we could study how they worked, possibly add features or correct errors. But this way of offering software was not dominant at the time, nor is it today. Instead, the dominant way of offering software is proprietary software. That is to say, software for which you do not know the inner working, for which you do not have the recipe, and that only the publisher can control.

As for us, our software was and still is Free Software. It was also he who told us that among those who dedicated their lives to Free Software, there was an American computer scientist called Richard Stallman. He conceived Free Software, and he had also created a foundation dedicated to its promotion.

One day, Stallman comes to Paris 8. You have to imagine that for us, computer science students, Stallman was an icon. He was one of the best Free Software developers around the world, one of those who developed the pieces of software we used at the time. I could perhaps compare him to the Zinedine Zidane or the Mozart of Free Software. And he was coming to Paris 8 in Saint Denis! Of course, we went to see his lecture. There were lots of people. We expected Stallman would talk about technical topics, but in fact not at all. He told us about society, sharing, cooperation. He spoke very little about computer themselves. Or rather, he explained how Free Software can have an impact on society.

According to him, Free Software is the incarnation within the computing world of the French Republican motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity [Brotherhood]".

Liberty because we have the right to use the software, we have the right to study the way it works, we have the right to change it, and we have the right to redistribute it.

Equality because everyone shares the same right, regardless of their condition.

And Fraternity because such pieces of software promote sharing and cooperation.

Let's just make a short break here to explain the importance of computing today. You will agree with me in saying that computers are everywhere in our daily lives: social networking, banking services, public administrations ... It is therefore essential that we keep these tools under control. Free Software is not just a technical alternative to proprietary software. It is much more importantly fundamental to our freedom. And it is a philosophy based on sharing and openness.

We just mentioned the Internet: Free Software and the Internet have grown harmoniously together. The software architecture of the Internet is Free Software. And conversely the Internet has fostered the development of Free Software. If anybody in this the room believes he has never used Free Software, remember that every time you surf on the Internet, Free Software is part of your ride. Without Free Software, there would be no Internet as we know it. And Internet is a primarily tool to facilitate the contact and linking of billions of people, thus encouraging sharing practices and especially for Free Software.

Others have followed that path. A decade ago, could we have just imagined that the main on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia, would be freely accessible and freely editable.

Back to Stallman and his conference. After those nights spent with Marc Detienne, this conference was a kind of revelation for us. The revelation of a fundamental issue relative to society for which some should spend time. It was only waiting for us. We realized that even as computer scientists, we could have an impact on society by using and distributing Free Software.

At the end of that year, I think it was '96, with some friends who also had just finished their studies, we asked ourselves what we were going to do. We concluded that "naturally, as we had learned computer sciences using Free Software, we would continue making Free Software". We decided that we would increase awareness in France about it, just like Stallman was already doing in the United States. So we created an association, whose objective was simple: to promote Free Software.

So we embarked on an adventure from scratch, without any predefined road-map or business model. We invited people to join us, we created a website (remember that it was fifteen years ago) to publicize our activities. For 15 years, we have acted so as to promote and defend Free Software, gradually changing society a little and changing us as well.

Doing so, we learned many new things and we have had to step outside our comfort zone. Together, we learned how to defend a project, a cause. For example, we spoke publicly of HADOPI [a French law "to control and regulate Internet access and encourage compliance with copyright laws" (source: Wikipedia)], and in the process we learned to analyze bills and laws. For computer scientists such as ourselves, we tend to study computer code, but if you come to think about it, a bill is just a code written in a different language. It can be studied, you can read it and possibly correct it, suggest improvements. In our computer jargon, we would call such improvements "patches".

Of course, we also have to defend our cause, so we went to see politicians. We learned to speak their language; and we hope that, perhaps, over the years, they learned to speak our language. We studied and acted on these bills, because they had an impact on society, and so it was essential for us to act on these projects.

And fundamentally, beyond all these activities, why do I find the Free Software cause so appealing? Why I am here today talking about it? Because it is intrinsically a cause that we cannot lead alone. There are plenty of causes that can be led alone, just requiring an exceptional individual. But the Free Software cause is one that needs to be led together.

Free Software is written by people together, and within our association, we work together to promote Free Software. Over the years, we have matured and we have grown. We have known successes, such as the adoption of amendments in draft legislation, our participation in the rebuttal of a European directive on software patents. But more than that, we built a "micro-society association" in which people can act. Had we been alone, even the greatest willingness would not have brought such results. If everyone had acted on there side, we would not have had the same impact. But together, we have successfully dealt with the legislative processes, the communication material as well as our presence and visibility.

In '96 there were 5 of us ... 5 computer scientists ... 5 geeks. Today we are thousands, over 5000 in fact and most are not computer scientists. Most are from the general public, they use Free Software and they have understood it's importance. Our work is now recognized and relayed by the press and it is recognized as well by the government. We succeeded simply because we managed to build together and to gather energy. What we have built is primarily a framework in which those who want to create and share can feel at ease and can contribute to this project.

In this adventure, I also learned a lot personally. I have evolved. For instance, I learned to trust people. I learned to delegate objectives but not the way to reach it. For example, to ask for a communication document, without requiring a given way to achieve it. It is fundamental when we work together to learn to be tolerant, and to accept that people are different. We must make room for others' initiative, to allow them to invest and improve themselves. When working together, it is fundamental to trust others' ability and also to promote their work.

The association contains all kinds of members: young one, retirees, lawyers, translators, graphic designers. There are even people who come from Sciences Po, like one of my colleagues. As you can see, this is everybody's cause.

Today, we often tend to think that money is what motivates people, and that it is their main driver. It's a flaw of our current society to consider that the best way to increase someone's motivation is to give him more money. Obviously people need money to live. But what they need above all in order to be motivated and to feel recognized, is to feel useful for something, and to participate in a larger project. That is perhaps the most extraordinary part of this adventure I lived within the microcosm of associations: via Free Software, we are changing a bit society. But it also allows people throughout the organization - members, volunteers or even just people wishing to participate - to make their own small contribution to this broader project. These people can express their talents, their desires, in a kind environment where their work is recognized.

What is fundamental within associations is that there are no obligations. People join them because they want to contribute.

Without extending too much on my allocated time, the idea that I want you to keep from this is that Free Software is just a human adventure. Those were the words of Eben Moglen, who is another important figure of the Free Software cause. And in this adventure, the person who plays meets the person who builds. It's a game because we have a lot of fun, and so in that way we "play", but at the time we are also "building" something. Thanks to Free Software, we have an impact on society. Free Software allows people to express their creativity. And you know what? When you give a place for people to express their creativity, they do so.

I have less than 30 seconds for my last message. If I wanted to sum up my career in a nutshell, I would say: "I participated in creating a community. I learned to work with this community. We have taken action and we have fought, because a few years ago I found my driving cause. It makes me get up enthusiastically in the morning, it allows my wife and children to endure my long hours behind a keyboard or out of home. It is what the Japanese call my "ikigai", my reason for being. My purpose in life is simple: to have an impact on society, to be useful to others and to interact with others. Thanks to Free Software, I feel I enrich society, I interact with and for others."

And today, I can only wish to each one of you that you find your ikigai, if it's not already the case. Thank you.