Auto-generated description: A colorful webpage features text promoting La Suite, a collection of free tools for organizations, with icons and sections for personalized space, sovereign data, and secure applications.

In the wake of Big Tech propping up Trump’s increasingly authoritarian regime, European countries and organisations are taking seriously the issue of digital sovereignty.

This initiative from the French didn’t spring out of nowhere — their Open Source Docs offering was something I experimented with last year — but they’ve now got ‘La Suite’ which offers more. The site is, probably entirely intentionally only in French (of which I only have a schoolboy understanding) so I translated their About page.

It’s pretty awesome that they’re a co-op, that they see digital technology as political (which of course it is), and that they want to contribute to the digital commons 🤘

A political ambition

Digital technology is political. The choice of our creation and collaboration tools can either perpetuate the captive income of proprietary publishers or support open source alternatives that set us free. This choice comes at a price: most organisations do not have the means to design tailor-made tools or manage their own free software instances.

With LaSuite.coop, we are creating a modular offering to enable associations, cooperatives, social and solidarity economy enterprises, institutions and universities to equip themselves with the best open source solutions and be supported by dedicated teams. A world is dying, and this project is our contribution to the future that is being built thanks to the actions of all these organisations.

A model for contributing to the commons

To compete in the long term with proprietary software financed by venture capital and its quest for hegemony and profitability, we want every LaSuite.coop application to be based on a true digital commons. That is to say, free software developed, financed and governed in an open and transparent manner by a plurality of public and private actors. The Decidim project and the French government’s digital suite are among our main sources of inspiration.

With LaSuite.coop, we donate a portion of our revenue to the communities that maintain and develop the software we offer. In this way, we contribute directly to a virtuous and resilient circle of mutualisation and collective decision-making.

A cooperative venture

The organisations behind LaSuite.coop have been committed to promoting free and democratic digital technology since their inception. We pool our years of complementary experience in hosting, development, technical project management, training and strategic consulting.

Source: La Suite