[GOAL] presentation

Wed Aug 12 16:58:18 BST 2015

Dear,

This is my first mail to this list, so I'll present myself.

My name is Nicolas Pettiaux.

I have a PhD in physics, applied mathematics and operational research
from Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 1995, done in collaboration
with Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris, Politecnico di Torino,
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

After 10 years in research (1988-1998), I have worked in a bank, then as
IT manager in 2 Belgian public administrations, before going back to
teaching physics at secondary school level while being teaching
assistant at the
ULB for 8 years. I have also taught physics at an International School.

Since 2010, I am senior lecturer at Ecole superieure d'informatique
(ESI) in Brussels. I am also a scientific collaborator at the ULB, LISA
laboratory of imagery.

Since 1998, I have been a very active Belgian activist around topics
like free software, anti-software patent, free internet, open access,
open educational research, open science ...

I have organized or lead many conferences on such topics : the 2013
edition of the "Rencontres mondiales des logiciels libres (RMLL)" in
Brussels, the 2012 and 2013 editions of EuroScipy conferences in
Brussels, conferences by Richard Stallman at ULB and ESI, conferences
about OpenStreetMap ...

Since 2009, I have lead the projects http://lepacte.be (see also
http://jesigne.lepacte.be) and https://candidats.be towards candidates
at public elections to have them commit to use free softwares, publish
open data and support a free internet. At least most leading Belgian
French speaking politicians and ministers have signed these commitments.
This does unfortunately not says that they commit to their promises !

In my school, I have lead projects to publish online under the CC-BY-SA
licence all our teaching materials and lectures notes (at least the ones
I am implied in and some more).

I have been invited to the Berlin11 (http://openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin11)
conference on Open Access.

I am now leading to the publication under the CC-BY-SA licence of the
digitized works of 2 leading old Belgian academicians, André Sterling
and Baron Philippe Roberts-Jones whose "digithèques" will be inaugurated
respectively on Saturday October 17 and Sunday October 25, the first and
last days of the Open access week 2015. These inauguration will take
place in the Belgian Academy and the Brussels Museum of Fine Arts with
leading Belgian figures (from Academia, Politics ... ) as well as
foreign guests.

One of my pleasure and success is the fact that all the works of my
grand-father Pierre Gilbert (also an academician, a University
professor, director of the Museum of History and Arts, director of the
Egyptology Foundation) have been published to be freely accessible to
all . See  http://digitheque.ulb.ac.be/fr/digitheque-pierre-gilbert/).
THis is the inspiration for the digitization and soon publication of the
works of André Sterling and Philippe Roberts-Jones.

I am also active in the dissemination of contents and material (based on
a cheap, free software and open hardware, Indian http://Expeyes.in
components) to support physics experiments in the classroom, as well as
producing free contents that could support STEM education and possibly
vocations.

I am an active member of the Belgian OpenStreetMap group (I have
initiated the organization of the SOTM - State of the map conference
2016 that will take place in Brussels in August or September 2016) and
the Open Knowledge Foundation Belgium.

I am in close contacts with Bernard Rentier, one of the leading Belgian
Open Access promoter, former rector of the Université de Liège (ULG) and
Yves Poullet, founder of the CRID (Centre de recherche informatique et
droit) of the University of Namur and now, rector of the University of
Namur.

With Bernard Rentier and Yves Poullet, I'll lead a forum open to
everyone that will most probably run by a monthly 3 hours meeting and 2
days during the 2015-2016 academic year, during which we shall address
topics related to "open access in general". THat is open access, free
software, open educational resources, open science, open data, business
model about these subjects, open innovation, evaluation of scientific
activities, publications ...

You are all invited to these activities which planning will be made
before the end of August for the whole year.

In short, I am a very strong believer that knowledge must be accessible
without barrier to anyone, and that knowledge encompass data, works (of
any kind), publications, softwares ... respectfully though of a balanced
and respectful copyright.

In the next mail, I'll start a discussion I would like to have on this list.

Best regards,

Nicolas

-- 
Nicolas Pettiaux, dr sc
nicolas at pettiaux.be

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