Geek

I define myself as a network geek, in the sense of being passionate and sometimes obsessive...

Here are some elements of my geek journey.

Computer Networks, Multidisciplinary Studies

Interested in computers from a young age, it became a passion during my higher education when I discovered the concept of networks, the Internet, and the birth of the Web in the 90s. I thought to myself: "This is going to change the world! I want to be a part of it." And it happened!

Indeed, I studied computer science and networks at the National Institute of Telecommunications, now an engineering school (Télécom SudParis) and a business school (Institut Mines-Télécom Business School). I navigated between the two schools by entering the business school through a competitive examination after scientific preparatory classes and then spending the last year in the engineering school to study corporate networks in detail.

Waxtaan, One of the First Social Networks

After networking machines and computer networks themselves, amazed by the potential of the Internet and the emerging Web, I wanted to network people this time.

Thus, shortly after my higher education, I created a website with a childhood friend to (re)connect former students of French high schools in Senegal, named Waxtaan (to chat in Wolof language).

Waxtaan was a tremendous adventure of creating a social network before its time (in 1999, 4 years before Facebook), a hand-sewn mix of mailing lists, forums, private messages, polls, chats and discussion rooms, photo galleries, interactive class photos, and an alumni directory. The site had many years of glory until 2016. It even earned my friend and me the opportunity to testify at the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE).

Open Source, Collective Creativity in Networks

At the INT, I also discovered, at the same time as the Internet, free and open-source software. I thought to myself: "This is going to change the world! I want to be part of it." And it happened!

Garous, Free Role-Playing Game

Motivated by the values of sharing, reuse, and collective creativity, I wanted to adapt the concept of free software to role-playing games (tabletop!). Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I met a Canadian who had the same idea and had already created a license for it (I think it's one of the very first licenses of this kind, created in 2000 just before the Open Gaming License by Wizards of the Coast).

I adopted it to publish Garous (French), the role-playing game I created and played during my adolescence.

QSOS, Free Community Monitoring Project

I then contributed to the translation or proofreading of HOWTOs within the traduc.org project, extensively used open source for Waxtaan, contributed to various projects, released JavaScript libraries, and finally created and dedicated many years to my main free project in the context of my professional activities.

Indeed, in 2004, while working at the Open Source Center of Atos, I created a method to assist in the qualification, comparison, and selection of open-source software, named QSOS (Qualification and Selection of Opensource Software).

The method was then itself published under a free license and gave birth to the QSOS project for community technological monitoring. After more than 10 years of regular activity and development, the project lost its initial dynamism when I changed professional activities and had less time to dedicate to it. However, the method is still recognized and used, and I look forward to finding the time and collective energy to relaunch the associated project!