Digital tools charter

Charter adopted by RIPESS Europe GA on 10 September 2021 at the Bergerie de Villarceaux.

RIPESS Europe and its members are working on the development of digital tools for the promotion of SSE and cooperation between actors, respect of personality and digital democracy: office automation and publication tools, mapping, documentation and data storage centre, platform for the exchange of goods and services, etc.

Through this charter, we affirm that the development of digital technology is a full part of the economy and that we must adopt the same SSE values and principles in this sector as we do for other sectors of the economy. Furthermore, in the face of the development of new IT giants such as GAFAM, which are constantly increasing their influence on our lives and appropriating our data for their own benefit, it is necessary to support and contribute to a free, democratic digital sector that respects everyone, serves the general interest and is in line with SSE values and principles.

To this end, this charter defines the principles that underpin the digital practice of RIPESS as an international network. Furthermore, RIPESS encourages its members, and members of its members, to adopt the following principles :

Development in open-source and in the logic of free software;
Pooling of resources and skills, in a logic of co-construction, based on all the developments already available;
Aggregation logic and non-competition between tools, especially for data;
Transparent management of personal data, allowing the user to have sovereignty over it;
Tools favouring the ecological and social transition, inspiring trust, not subject to speculative platforms, and promoting democratic governance.
Decentralised infrastructures (increase resilience);
Mutualisation of security ;
Software designed to be available on both mobile (Android, Apple and .apk) and web.
Architecture allowing for “scaling up” and “custom” replicability, at lower cost in each region of the world.
Technical universality (semantic web);
Energy efficiency;
Ease of use: ergonomics, rapid access to functionalities