Early days In October 1998, Publication in '
Québec Science' magazine of "Comment informatiser intelligemment les écoles" (How to put information technology in schools in a smart way) by
Jean-Claude Guédon. "This article stroke Alexis Kauffmann so much that we can consider it to have led to the creation of Framasoft". November 2001 is the official date of the creation of Framasoft website, which is the first network created by mathematic teacher Alexis Kauffmann. The name comes from "Framanet" (for FRench and MAthematics on an intraNET), an educational project made with Caroline d'Atabekian, a literature teacher, within a
Seine-Saint-Denis middleschool. Framasoft began as a software section of this project, before getting its independence, acting as a free software directory for Windows. In June 2002, Framasoft and
AFUL started the campaign « Libérons les logiciels à l'école » ("Let's free softwares at school"). In September 2002, the website included tutorials and an open forum. In July 2003, the website closed due to bandwidth overload on the shared host Amen. The website receives widespread support and Amen became a partner of Framasoft, offering new hosting possibilities .
As an association In January 2004, Framasoft evolves with the creation of the Framasoft Association. The directory drops
Freeware and is no longer restricted to Windows software. It became a collaborative project written by Thomas Cézard, Simon Leblanc, Paul Lunetta, Rui Nibau and Georges Silva. Subsequently, in February 2004, birth of the Framagora forum administered by Thierry Bernard. In March 2005, a French translation of TheOpenCD 2.0, a CD compilation of free software on Windows was released. Published in a special page of the magazine
:fr:Freelog in June, the CD was also shipped on the Ikarios mail order site of
Nat Makarevitch. August 2005 saw the publication of the first version of Framakey and the creation of an associated site by Pierre-Yves Gosset. In December 2005, Framagora experienced a peak in traffic by becoming the main forum for monitoring enforcement of the law. In February 2007, the second book of the Framabook collection was published: "Simple like Ubuntu 6.10" by Didier Roche, which will later be reedited and updated. In June 2007, Framasoft received the "Lutèce d'Or" for "the best conducted community action" during the event Paris Capitale du Libre. In August 2007, Framasoft added AdSense to its website, after a Framablog post reporting financial difficulties to host the network. In January 2008, a third book in the Framabook's collection was published:
Spip pratique 1.9, by Perline, followed in March 2008 by Change for OpenOffice.org, a translation coordinated by Johann Bulteau (alias Yostral). According to
fr:Wikio in June 2008, the Framablog article
Firefox : and 1, and 2, and 3.0 ! has been the most cited article of the month in the French speaking
blogosphere. In January 2009, Framasoft set up a support website dedicated to collect donations and testimonies. February 2009 saw the start of the Framatube video project. In March 2009, the Framakey added some portable web applications, the « WebApps », to its catalogue. In May 2009, the sixth book of the Framabook collection is published: it is a
comic called
Geekscottes - 1. PATH, le chemin by Nojhan. In the meantime, a booklet Sésamath is distributed in all French high schools, containing a double-spread about free software and Framasoft and the Framadvd DVD. Another distribution the year after was set by masters students in multimedia and communications at
Panthéon-Assas University. In June 2009, Framablog occupies the first position in the Wikio ranking of French blogs in the "Free Software" category. In January 2010, while the Framapack project is online, the documentary
Richard Stallman et la révolution du logiciel libre was published. For the occasion,
éditions Eyrolles organized in Paris a meeting with
Richard Stallman. In May 2010, Framasoft demonstrated to defend free software against the censorship of the exhibition « true exhib talking about the false » about counterfeiting, at
Cité des sciences et de l'Industrie. In October 2010, the association starts supporting financially the campaign « 1000 10 1 » to find 1000 patrons to contribute at 10 euros by month for one year. Framadvd school version was also published during that time, a project led by Cyrille Largillier. In January 2011, a new publication appeared in the Framabook collection called
Produire du logiciel libre by
Karl Fogel, as a collaborative translation. In March 2011, the project Framapad is online, followed in June 2011 by Framadate. In July 2011, publication of the cartoon
GKND tome 2 : Le GNU du risque by Simon Giraudot in the Framabook's collection. Framasoft celebrated its 10 years with a radio show Place de la toile on
France Culture in November 2011. In February 2012, start the support campaign « Liberty Pack » with
April, Framasoft and
La Quadrature du Net. In October 2012, the first novel of the Framabook's collection is out
#Smartarded - Le cycle des NoéNautes, I by Pouhiou. It also sees the release of the projets Framacalc, Framindmap, and Framavectoriel. In November 2012, Framasoft launch its 2013 support campaign and put online the Framazic project. In December 2012, launch of « Liberty Pack 2 », new support campaign shared with April and La quadrature du Net. In January 2013, Framasoft joins other organisations such as
Savoirscom1,
Regards citoyens or the
Open Knowledge Foundation France to refuse privatisation of
domaine public by the
Bibliothèque nationale de France. April 2013 sees an update of Framasoft main welcome page, then in September 2013, Framasoft announces its support to the « Romaine Lubrique »'s project about public domain cultural valuation.
De-google-ify Internet In June 2014, a crowdfunding campaign allowed Framasoft to add new features to Framapad, followed in October 2014 by the launch of the "De-google-ify Internet" campaign ("Dégooglisons Internet" in French). The association has launched its own social media too: Framasphère. In March 2015, a new functionality was added to Framapad to avoid flooding servers with unused text. It became also possible to choose the data conservation time. In the meantime, the association developed a picture sharing tool (FramaPic) and an URL shortener (Huit.re / frama.link). Framasoft also took the opportunity to start their own code body hosting called Forge. In May 2015, Framasoft started a new web search engine service (Framabee), in order to continue demonstrating that alternatives to Google are possible. In October 2016, phase 2 of the De-google-ify campaign started and lead into the release of 6 new services: • Framalistes: managing mailing lists • Framanotes: dealing with all sorts of contents • Framaforms: managing forms • Framatalk: audio/video chat • Framagenda: creating public or private calendars In 2019, they started developing Mobilizon, a project to allow communities to organise events without depending on tech giants' platforms. ==Network organization==