Digital Public Space

About Digital Public Spaces

Digital Public Spaces (EPN) have a long history in Normandy. The one in Gonneville en Auge celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019! The EPN network is more recent — the first boxes were deployed in 2010 — and the novelty of this year 2022 is the implementation of the new program “ Normandy connected which includes EPNs on the one hand and third-place entities on the other.
The Normandy Region is working with téïcée for many years on this project. " […] already in 2011 Jérôme Lamache was in charge of the EPN admin platform ”, says Mathilde Anger, in charge of the animation of the network Normandy
Connected within the management of
digital design at the Normandy Region, which took over the network’s animation tasks in 2017.

Single access to workshops throughout the network

The actions implemented by the EPN network include, in particular, animations and workshops for users. In the framework of an agreement between the EPN network and the Normandy Region, certified EPNs have access to equipment lending and a platform to manage their business.

“A single platform to manage all information”

The platform ProxyEPN, a fork of EPN admin, developed and maintained by téïcée, allows each EPN to manage all the information it needs for its proper functioning. The organization of activities, workshop sessions, registrations, self-service access to the various equipment offered on the one hand and user management are the main components of the tool. A user who registers in an EPN, whatever it may be, can access any EPN of the network with his identifiers without any additional steps.

For the Normandy Region, the uniqueness of the platform guarantees a global vision of the use of workshops, services and attendance rates throughout the territory. This software platform has been constantly evolving

« For example, we asked téïcée to be able to manage the equipment acquired by the Normandy Region, more or less innovative, and which is made available to the EPNs of the network ” adds Mathilde Anger.

“Security plays an important role”

Since the EPNs manage information on people, security is an important issue. In addition, by providing internet access to their users, EPNs become de facto operators. The Normandy Region therefore had to have equipment at ‘[…] the purpose of filtering, on the one hand, is to protect the public,
and the preservation of connection traces, on the other hand, to comply with national regulations ” says Mathilde Anger. The filter box proposed by téïcée these various functions are performed in a simple manner and the police services are directly addressed to téïcée in the event of judicial applications

“A local provider and a long-term relationship”

The relationship of nearly fifteen years between téïcée and the Normandy Region shall be carried out in the context of public contracts won by téïcée. «The choice of a local provider was a criterion” recalls Mathilde Anger, “insofar as it was necessary to have a structure capable of intervening with the network, whether for training needs or for deployment needs».

“I always have a contact person when needed”

When asked about the relationship with téïcée, Mathilde Anger replies “Yes, there has been a delay in the delivery of some software improvements, but whether it is on the human relationship, the hotline or the handling of anomalies, I have nothing to say». And to add “sIf I have a concern, a question, whatever, I always have someone to answer questions quickly».

“I would recommend this tool to other structures”

« I would recommend this tool to other structures ” continues Mathilde Anger. “ It meets expectations, téïcée is competent in his field and i have no quarrel with our cooperation. » « If it were up to me, I would continue to work with téïcée ” she concluded.