École Hexagone is delighted to join the Open Internet Project (OIP) association. This is the first time that a higher education institution training future computer engineers and developers has joined the OIP, in order to actively participate in the association’s work and actions, aimed at denouncing and correcting abuses of dominant position.

Indeed, many French schools that train graduates in digital professions work in close collaboration with the American giants of tech, thus “locking” their students into American software ecosystems, who later on in their professional careers often become natural ambassadors of these solutions in the companies that will hire them. At the end of their training, many graduates leave France or the European Union to be hired by American tech giants.

École Hexagone, the College of French digital sovereignty, currently has two campuses in France, in Clermont-Ferrand and Versailles, and will have nearly 200 students at the start of the 2022-23 academic year. The academic programmes of the 4 courses; Bachelor in Computer Science, Masters in Information Systems Architecture , Artificial Intelligence and Cyberdefense, are built around and with the French publishers and industrialists; Stormshield, 3DS Outscale, Scaleway, HarfangLab, Olvid, etc.

“I am very happy that the OIP is expanding the list of its members. Thanks to the membership of École Hexagone, we will be able to highlight all the fundamental issues that arise from the organization of digital training in France, often too closely linked to American software and companies. We must train our future developers in French and European tools, and make them aware of issues of technological and digital sovereignty. For example, in terms of cyber defense and artificial intelligence, it is fundamental to realize that dependence on American companies and their software poses serious problems in many very sensitive areas. I am therefore very happy to attack this new angle, together with our new member! rejoices Quentin ADAM, CEO of Clever Cloud and President of the OIP.

“I am honored by the trust granted by the Open Internet Project, which rewards our vision and our work. We train the next IT technicians and engineers for French companies and industries. Our role is to acculturate them to sovereign technologies to collectively break out of the straitjacket imposed by American players in particular. We are delighted to join the OIP, because we want to work as a team, with the various sovereign digital players. We believe that it is as a team that we will succeed in leading and winning the various battles” says Sébastien DHÉRINES, President of École Hexagone.

Joint press release from the Open Internet Project and École Hexagone