March 2025 Newsletter

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[OW2 Newsletter - March 2025 - From the OW2 Management Office]

Dear OW2 Members, dear All,

Just coming back from MWC Barcelona, at the invite of our member Huawei whom I would like to thank warmly: should I say that I was very impressed by what they showcase, and the way they get involved in European and worldwide ecosystems? And this is not just Huawei, but China as a whole, that clearly leads the race now.

Such a technology global event makes more clear why America gets protectionist: they are behind, already, and of course are aware of it and nervous. A few outsiders are still competitive, like South Korea on the mobile, telco and image processing fields, in a landscape where India is slowly catching up and Europe can still count on its strong technical background - but how long if we don't react to keep our engineers and researchers home, and maintain a strong research, education and business ecosystem?

Whatever, indiscriminate protectionism is a dead end. Sovereignty and partnerships are intertwined, and open source is key for both: those who don't cooperate will definitely lose any opportunity of leadership or even social progress. Economy at large will have to admit that cooperation is in general more efficient than competition - and this is similar to bicycle races, where winner-takes-all attitudes are the worst bet: cooperate with your fellows, and keep doing it as close as possible to the finish line! The best still keep a short advantage, but all good racers take benefit from it, and Europe is one of them, in a world where being 1st is not as important as maintaining a good ranking.

In that landscape, OW2 has its own proposal of discussion and exchange: now OW2con is getting close, more than ever focused on cutting-edge problematics for society and the IT at large (this year's main theme being AI, but filtering out the AI buzz without hiding issues - we are much more a think-tank than a marketing agency!).
Registrations will open soon (keep tuned, attending will remain free as ever), and we still look for sponsors who make the magic possible: discover our various and very affordable sponsor packages.

And, last but not least, a word about our governance: OW2 now has a new elected Board of Directors, and we are running the Chairman election process - to be finished this month, prior to our General Assembly (open to all members) in April. Of course our democratic governance is a strength, and we are proud of it!

Looking forward to meet you all again at OW2con'25,

The OW2 Management Office

PS: Project leaders: Please use your project dashboard to publish your updates. Your news will appear on our Project Marketplace home page and in this newsletter.

Project News

Project Updates

A new release of Open-BPMN is available! Version 2.3 brings several new features and improvements such as Data Objects support, improved routing, an update to VS Code Extension and of course the compatibility with Imixs-Workflow.
XWiki version 17.1.0 is out! This release adds support for uploading pasted images and improves the performance and security of XWiki, among other minor improvements and bug fixes. This release contains security fixes.
Sympa version 6.2.76 is a bug fix version that resolved amon others issues related to the bulk moderation of messages and also fix the broken "distribute" confirmation.
The long awaited PrestaShop version 9.0 is now available in beta! This version includes many new features and improvements, a new Hummingbird theme, a new Admin API, PHP 8.4 and Symfony 6.4 support, many bug fixes, and a significant codebase cleanup.
DeviceFarmer version 3.7.2 improved in various area related to security fixing some vulnerabilities and updating some dependencies.
Jeka keep up with its fast pace release with non less than 5 release in February. Take a look at the list of releases to get the full change list.
Rocket.Chat version 7.4.0 add new API endpoints, include new settings for end user and a bunch of user experience improvements.

Project of the month

Waarp (MRL: 8) is modernizing and unifying its ecosystem. With the first open source implementation of the PeSit protocol, it improves the reliability and security of file exchanges in banking environments. More.

Community News

Open Source by OW2 Webinar Series, Episode #4, April 3

During the next webinar on April 3, Simon Descarpentries will present Meta Presses, a project funded by NGI Search. Didier Barzin, CISO at Emile Mayrisch's Hospital will detail OW2 Mercator. More.

OSPO Alliance OnRamp webinar, March 21, 10:30am CET

Discover OSSKB, a new open source tool provided by the Software Transparency Foundation to create SBOMs presented by Agustin Benito Behencourt from Scanoss. Join the webinar and enjoy live demos! More

The Digital Actors Night, 13 May, French Riviera

Let's meet together with several OW2 members and open source software designers during the Digital Actors Night (Nuit des Acteurs du Numérique Azuréens) at Inria in Sophia-Antipolis on Tuesday 13 May. More.

OW2con'25, June 17-18, 2025, Paris

The CFP is now closed, thanks for your submission. The final programme will be online end of March. Check out the international keynote speakers. Sponsoring is still open, including demo pods from the Silver option. More.

Feedback on recent events

AlpOSS, February 20, Echirolles (Grenoble, France)

With more than 300 participants, 40 speakers and 16 sponsors, AlpOSS 2025 was a large success this year again. Presentation slides and replay are available. More.

Job Corner

We are glad to share with you several dozens of jobs offered by OW2 members at alter way, Belledonne Communications, BlueMind, CEA List, Engineering Group (jobs mostly located in Italy), INRIA, FactorFX, Linagora, OpenStudio, Orange, Prestashop, XWiki, and Worteks.

In the OW2 Ecosystem

Join Bluemind Summit, this week March 13th in Paris. Learn more about latest developments and features in BlueMind, the open source sovereign alternative in collaborative messaging. Do not forget to register. More.

OW2 is Community Partner of Open Expo Europe 2025, taking place on May 8 in Madrid, with the main theme: «HUMAINS» – Humans Beyond AI. More.

The Free Software Professionnal meeting "RPLL" organized every year in Lyon will take place on May 15. Conferences in French, free event, registration needed. More.

OW2 does endorse the definition of open source artificial intelligence proposed by the Open Source Initiative. More.

Some interesting reading (in French) in the IT news recap proposed by eXo Platform: AI revolution and impact on work, on RSE, launch of European Center of Excellence in AI in Paris, and much more. More.

Test and give your feedback on Fediverse Discovery Providers, a project supported by NGI Search. This pluggable, decentralized, and privacy-friendy service offers a better search and discovery experience. More.

In our Research and Funding Projects

Apply to the current open call by April 1st 2025 12:00 CET. Check out multiple services dedicated to beneficiary projects.

TrustSearch and AALLM projects presented their recent developments during the latest standup meeting. More.

The beta-testing platform remains open to OW2 members, research projects and SMEs wishing to collect feedback for their latest beta release or use cases. More.

Disclaimer: The OW2 newsletter is intended for general informational purposes only. The contents may not be comprehensive or up-to-date. OW2 makes no representation and gives no warranty as to the accuracy of the information in this document and accepts no liability for any errors, misprints or omission herein (whether negligent or otherwise).

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