Element partners with Arawa to bring sovereign, open-standard federated communications to French local authorities
We’re delighted to announce that we’re now working with Arawa to support France's “fédération Matrix des collectivités.”
Arawa has just started working with Adullact, the non-profit coordinating the usage of open source software within local authorities, and Déclic, the federation of OPSN (Public Digital Service Operators), to deliver and support its “Matrix pour les collectivités” project.
The initiative aims to create a “Tchap for the territories” so that French local authorities can collaborate with each other more effectively via interoperable, sovereign and secure communications. The result will be a closed (as in, private) Matrix-based Federation for Local Governments. It also intends to ultimately federate with Tchap to facilitate secure exchanges with government services.
The Matrix-based ecosystem allows local authorities and OPSNs (Public Digital Service Operators) to operate their own servers while communicating within a dedicated closed network. Each organisation retains full sovereignty by relying on its own teams, an OPSN, or a service provider. This federated architecture offers an alternative to centralised, non-sovereign tools and helps strengthen local authorities’ digital sovereignty.
Local authorities can find out more by getting in touch with Arawa.
Element and Arawa
Arawa will use Element Server Suite Pro (ESS Pro) to power the fédération Matrix des collectivités. Under the partnership, Arawa will deploy Element inside its customers' own environments. French authorities will be able to keep their communications data on their own infrastructure, and under their own control, instead of depending on a cloud platform operated in another jurisdiction.
As Element is built on Matrix, the decentralised open standard for real time communications, each deployment is able to federate with other Matrix-based instances - including DINUM’s Tchap and LaSuite - if desired by mutual parties. As a result authorities can communicate securely across organisational boundaries without any form of vendor lock-in, ensuring genuine digital sovereignty for all.
We are delighted to be working with Arawa, a company with a genuine commitment to open source software and to the ecosystem around it. Local authorities have been asking for a messaging tool they actually control, and that means more than self-hosting: because Matrix is an open standard, they can choose their supplier, change their mind later, and still talk to everyone else. We hope this partnership contributes to the decentralisation, interoperability and security of communications in France.
Element has generated a great deal of interest among our customers and prospects. Genuine control, the encryption features, the ability to federate with other instances and our associated support offerings all point to one thing: Element is the best choice for organisations looking for a modern, secure, free and open instant messaging tool.
Matrix adoption across Europe’s public sector
Arawa joins an ecosystem of more than 70 Matrix-based vendors and providers, many of which use Element Server Suite Pro as the basis for their own offering.
European governments and public sector organisations continue to adopt Matrix-based communications in order to ensure sovereign communications, through the use of an interoperable open standard that is supported by a competitive ecosystem. Without the ability to easily switch between vendors, an end-user organisation remains beholden to a specific vendor.
