About me

Bonjour! I am Jérôme Ramette, residing in a charming village in the vicinity of Paris, France 🇫🇷.

Presently, I lead an IT performance team for a French railway company. Additionally, I serve as a consultant on various assignments, offering my expertise in advisory roles, securing information system transformation trajectories, and implementing remediation strategies.

Before that, for as long as I can remember, I have cultivated a profound passion for information technology—a domain where I have consistently immersed myself, particularly through software development and my unwavering support for open-source initiatives.

My journey into artificial intelligence began during the second AI winter of the 1990s—an era characterized by quiet determination in the field. While pursuing my advanced studies in AI, I often encountered raised eyebrows and skeptical glances. Those who questioned the future of AI at that time would scarcely recognize the landscape that unfolds before us today. It is indeed a singular privilege to have witnessed this field’s metamorphosis from a mere academic curiosity into a formidable force reshaping our world.

To provide further insight into my background, allow me to present an overview of my IT career thus far… This offers an opportunity to share a few anecdotes and to make a modest contribution to history 😉

My first times

The first computers

The fist computer I had access to was the famous Sinclair ZX81. We were in early 1980’s (for the youger of us: imagine living in Stranger Things), the Cold War was in full swing and we were facinated by the Wargames film, it seemed like pure fantasy – as distant as flying cars or teleportation. Fast forward to today, and I find myself having actual conversations with AI systems that would make WOPR (the AI computer in Wargames) look like a pocket calculator. The line between yesterday’s science fiction and today’s reality has not just blurred – it’s been completely redrawn.

The first Linux distribution

The first linux distribution I have installed is Yggdrassil Plug And Play Linux Fall 1994. This distribution was one of the first on CD ROM. Previously, Linux distributions were supplied on about fiveten 3 1/2 floppy disks!

I spent about 2 months making my computer totally compatible with this distribution, compiling tons of kernel! I remember how difficult it was to master all the configuration files, especially the X11 configuration file and the screen clocks that we had to calculate ourselves!

The first Internet connection

I had my first Internet connection in 1994. It was a dial-up Internet access with a 56k modem US Robotics “Sportster Flash” (strange as it may seem, this type of modem is still on sale). We had a server at our university that was connected to the Internet (RENATER, the French university network). The game consisted of reaching this server and ask it to engage a connection back to our personal computer. In this way, we could connect to the Internet for as long as we wanted for a single telephone unit! What a luxury!

The first job (and first fail)

My first IT job was in january 1998. I was hired as a software developer in a kind of start up. We had developed a computer in free access in a public place. The computer was connected to the Internet (via 2 ISDN connections, that cost a leg¹!) and we had developed a software that allowed the user to surf the web with telephone card. The business model was based on telephone card selling. The user had to buy a telephone card to be able to surf the web, the phone card was charged according to the time spent. We imagined that all people would use this system to surf the web. We were wrong. The company went bankrup few months later.

The first IA job

In 2001, I developed a natural language SMS interface to cross-reference the content of CityVox², PagesJaunes (a business directory) and the geolocation platform of France Telecom (France’s leading mobile, called Orange nowaday). This work was carried out for Dejima on the basis of its natural language recognition technology (Dejima was acquired by Sybase in 2004). This system was capable of answering questions such as “Find me a good Italian in the area” or “What is the telephone number of the nearest pharmacy?” It was very cool and very useful! This service was used for several years by France Telecom.

Feel free to get in contact via mail or LinkedIn. I’m always up for a chat!