Mastodawn

WOW - The French government announced a new OSS project simply called Docs:

“A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation that scales. Built with Django and React. Opensource alternative to Notion or Outline."

It’s even offline-first, using the CRDTs under the hood (Y.js).

LOL, does this mean I get to roll out the

"Liberté, Egalité, CRDTé”

Dad joke?

I think it does. Link below:

https://docs.numerique.gouv.fr/

V interesting joint project between DINUM (🇫🇷) and Zendis (🇩🇪)

Docs

Docs: Your new companion to collaborate on documents efficiently, intuitively, and securely.

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Chris Adams Mar 16, 2025

Here's the project on Github too.
https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs

(whoops! Added the wrong tab I had open to this post before. original post showed this link instead - https://github.com/suitenumerique/meet)

GitHub - suitenumerique/docs: A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React.

A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React. - suitenumerique/docs

GitHub

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Jan Lehnardt

Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams thet’s meet, not docs, another cool project :)

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matt wilkie Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams here's the right repo https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs

GitHub - suitenumerique/docs: A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React.

A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React. - suitenumerique/docs

GitHub

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David Brochart Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams This is the repo for Meet, here is the one for Docs:
https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs

GitHub - suitenumerique/docs: A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React.

A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React. - suitenumerique/docs

GitHub

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Mike Anderson Mar 17, 2025

@mrchrisadams does github allow to specify that it is hosted in the EU for open source projects?

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Sven Neuhaus Mar 18, 2025

@mspcommentary @mrchrisadams given that github itself isn‘t, better use an alternative that is like #OpenCode

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Jan Lehnardt

Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams CRDTs are for real time collab, less for offline-first. But Insaw a demo the other day and this is way cool.

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Chris Adams Mar 16, 2025

@janl TBH, I haven't looked into the code to see how it's implemented, but my exposure to CRDTs came from this “local first" paper here a few years back

https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/

I understood Y.js to be another implementation of these ideas using CRDTs with an offline/local first bias. This isn't my area of expertise tho 😅.

I'm just glad to see OSS that offers plausible ways out from everyone living in the same SaaS monoculture that's developed around us.

Local-first software: You own your data, in spite of the cloud

A new generation of collaborative software that allows users to retain ownership of their data.

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Jan Lehnardt

Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams you might not know but that area has been my ~hobby~professional horse for 15+ years, so I have capital-O Opinions :)

Docs is fantastic and I love seeing it.

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Svante Mar 16, 2025

@janl @mrchrisadams Real-time collaboration and offline-first have one thing in common: potential order dependency of independent edits. This is what CRDTs solve.

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Jan Lehnardt

Mar 17, 2025

@Ardubal @mrchrisadams yeah, but “indefinite” replay is rather expensive. I’d say, roughly, that CRDTs are good at intermittent connectivity (think a train coming in and out of cell coverage), while offline-first tech would allow for “laptop is offline for a week while collecting data in the jungle”.

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haywirez Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams with django and react 😫 the 2010s should be over by now

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Cjen1 Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams

Having recently fiddled with Yjs, the gap between the promise of CRDTs and the practical experience of using them is currently vast.

Optimally you'd just annotate several variables as being replicated and then the backend would 'just work' but in practice the boilerplate and opportunities for footguns is substantial.

#crdts #yjs

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Evan Light Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams @trendytoots Super programmer-specific dad joke.

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JesseBot Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams Neat! I wonder if this will compete with Appflowy or if they'll keep at it

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Abendpost Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams They put it on GitHub (yet)

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Spring Jo 🥚

🍀Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams django...

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Toni Aittoniemi Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams States can do a lot. Don’t believe the capitalist hype!

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Dominic Hopton Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams do you happen to know if its possible to use this without being a french professional or associated with a french educational establishment?

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Khleedril Mar 16, 2025

@grork @mrchrisadams It is MIT licensed OSS available on GitHub, so, yes.

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Gilberto Ruiz Mar 16, 2025

@grork @mrchrisadams Yes, but you have to self-host it. If you just want to try it out first, there's a test environnement that you can use, it's described on their GitHub here: https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs?tab=readme-ov-file#test-it

GitHub - suitenumerique/docs: A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React.

A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React. - suitenumerique/docs

GitHub

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Susan Calvin Mar 16, 2025

@grork @mrchrisadams installation instructions look a bit hairy but if you ever booted Linux off a floppy you compiled it's probably no worse https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs/blob/main/docs/installation.md

docs/docs/installation.md at main · suitenumerique/docs

A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React. Opensource alternative to Notion or Outline. - suitenumerique/docs

GitHub

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Dominic Hopton Mar 16, 2025

@Susan_calvin @mrchrisadams I mean, sure, but… I just want to try it out. And then be able to recommend it to others if it’s good.

Even in france you have to have a job to be able to use this — which feels weird?

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Susan Calvin Mar 16, 2025

@grork @mrchrisadams ah fair enough so all the deployments are by the government, no independent ones yet. That needs fixing :)

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Richard K

Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams Oi. I thought "Office of Strategic Services" before I thought "Open Source Software".

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CubeOfCheese Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams so who has access to the data? Feels like something that should be e2ee

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Powen Shiah Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams is it a joke that I don’t get or just a copy paste error in the 7th word of the quote? “documentationZendisorm”

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Chris Adams Mar 16, 2025

@polexa oh cripes. that’s a typo. lemme fix it

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Veza85UE Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams Love the publicly funded Hetalia fanart.

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Samuel Paccoud Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams Can we use it as a slogan for https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr ?

LaSuite - L'espace de travail ouvert et souverain des agents de l'État

Une suite cohérente d'outils open source, sécurisés et simples d'utilisation, conçus pour aider les agents publics à créer, organiser, décider et collaborer en toute confiance.

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Chris Adams Mar 16, 2025

@sampaccoud You'd be very welcome!

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Samuel Paccoud Mar 22, 2025

@mrchrisadams It will be the name of a track in a big hackathon we are organizing around opensource digital workspaces in Paris on June 2, 3 and 4. 😀

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Andreas Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams this is awesome. Who is currently involved from the Netherlands?

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Paul de Raaij Mar 16, 2025

@andreaswarnaar @mrchrisadams is part of the 'Mijn Bureau' pilot of Min BZK. See https://minbzk.github.io/mijn-bureau/

Over Mijn Bureau, Mijn Bureau

Onderzoek naar open source samenwerksoftware voor, door en met overheden.

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James Seward Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams @kianryan Looks interesting but the install docs open with “Installation on a k8s cluster” :/

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old_school Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams thanks for the link - will definitively give it a try. But wait - there is more: they even have beta versions of spreadsheet, video conf, ...👍

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Amgine Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams

This was a horrible joke. I love it. Thank you.

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Virgile Deville Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams Hey! Thanks for the shoutout :).
I'm the PM at Docs. We're prepping a huge hackathon around Docs and other La Suite products.
Book your 2, 3 and 4th of June for a trip to Paris 😉

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Beldarak Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams

Wow, that's really cool. I've been adficted to Notion for a few years, a free alternative is really welcome :)

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Alex Russell Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams I would ask "why React?", but I know none of the answers will be good.

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Tommi 🤯Mar 17, 2025

@slightlyoff @mrchrisadams !!!!!!!!! +1

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Fait partie des meubles Mar 16, 2025

@francoisa Un nouveau composant pour la malette Ceméa ?

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F Audirac Mar 17, 2025

Coucou @romromrom
C'est un genre d'etherpad amélioré avec images, tableau partageable. Intéressant. Par contre la techno utilisée c'est quand k8. On n'a jamais fait. A suivre.

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Fait partie des meubles Mar 17, 2025

@francoisa Ça répond vraiment à l'usage de type Notion, avec des possibilités de relier des documents entre eux de manière beaucoup plus fluide qu'avec Etherpad. Avoir un wiki avec de l'édition Wysiwig pour tout, c'est quand même tentant.

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Open Risk Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams This is sublime. Public money, public code. Its as simple as that.

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Perrick Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams In 2018, #python was chosen "unofficially" to be taught to all pupils in France (at the Lycée level, for 16 to 18 years old). In 2020 it became official, and not only for mathematics. I guess we're reaping some rewards now !

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farnkraut Mar 17, 2025

@perrick @schmidt_fu @mrchrisadams That’s awesome. It’s a great thought to teach all pupils relevant programming skills. Other countries in the EU should follow the example.

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Perrick Mar 17, 2025

@mrchrisadams The best part is that if you want to become to train as an engineer, you have to carry on learning more Python for two more years (in the "classe préparatoire" system). I'm so glad it replaced Fortran along the way...

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Aiono Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams wow that's so cool! I will check it out. I am sick of overly bloated apps.

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Børge Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams That's fantastic! Do you know if there's a hosted version that's possible for anyone to try, to see how it is?

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🛠️☘️🍯 bug 🍄🧣⚙️Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams j'aime les CRuDiTés 🥕🥬🫑🫛

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Aräjtav Mar 16, 2025

@mrchrisadams omg why do they have an emoji in literally every commit message

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Wintburr Mar 17, 2025

@Arajtav its actually pretty smart bc you know if the commit added a feature or fixed a bug or whatever very easily. it doesnt look too pretty and feels very "trying to appeal to gen z" but I kind of like it, it's useful

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Aräjtav Mar 17, 2025

@wintburr that would be fair explanation if not for the fact that there are commit message conventions like just using "feat:" or "fix:" for features or fixes respectively. and also they do have fix and feature keywords in the messages anyways so it feels redundant

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Wintburr Mar 17, 2025

@Arajtav ik they also dot hat but idk i like it :)

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a very weeny construct 💀Mar 16, 2025

🧵☝️ looks like in terms of frontend France's new open source Notion competitor Docs is built on BlockNote, a wysiwyg in-browser editor

BlockNote is built atop existing wysiwyg in-browser editors ProseMirror and(?) TipTap. Seems like a big feature BlockNote contributes is CRDTs for multiplayer

BlockNote was built for a cool looking project called TypeCell

Docs

Docs: Your new companion to collaborate on documents efficiently, intuitively, and securely.

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a very weeny construct 💀Mar 16, 2025

🧵…
tedious techbros filling the replies on the announcement post complaining about their use of react for this much-needed open source tool developed with public funds in the public interest to compete with expensive silicon valley big tech

but it looks like, if you were of the mind to build your own workalike according to your very particular preferences, BlockNote can be integrated without react, with some effort. go ahead, rewrite the ui with webcomponents!