About the Author
I’ve been a software and system engineer since 2000, when I joined Capgemini. I worked on space ground segment and air traffic control systems: designing, developing, migrating, supporting — across postings in Toulouse, Paris, Darmstadt, and today Bochum, with an earlier stint in Reykjavik.
I later joined SCISYS Deutschland as a project manager and software engineer. SCISYS was acquired by CGI in December 2019. Since April 2020, I’ve led the Earth Observation and Science (EOS) at CGI, a team of around ten working on weather forecasting and space observation. Along the way I founded and led an internal Space Infrastructure team: Linux servers, virtualisation, containers, automation. Given my habit of tinkering with infrastructure, I could .
Outside of work, I write. Often in French, and also in English, and I sometimes add a German translation: a small ritual that forces me to notice what a word carries in one language and loses in another, and for my own practice of that language. Writing is where I think slowly: poetry, short essays, the occasional attempt to say something true without saying too much of it.
I also enjoy my family, travelling or cycling. A few years back I cycled 3,500 km through Patagonia, another 1,800 km across New Zealand or more than a 1,000 km along fjords in Iceland. I’m interested in learning about History and Astronomy, reading Bandes Dessinées (European-style graphic novels), watching films (especially introspective ones), I’m happy around friends, and I like hacking with a computer.
One of these hacking projects is OpenPorte, a free WordPress plugin I develop and maintain solo. It adds anti-spam protection to WordPress forms, built on the open-source ALTCHA widget. I handle everything from the code to the documentation to user support — it’s become a nice outlet for the parts of software engineering I don’t get to touch as much at work: PHP, JavaScript, and the WordPress ecosystem, all a bit outside my usual C/C++ and Java comfort zone.
Another thread is local LLMs: benchmarking models, building agentic coding setups, and generally trying to understand what these tools are actually good for versus what the hype claims. I write up the findings — successes and failures alike — on this blog. And without LLMs or frontier AI tools, I wouldn’t be able to support the OpenPorte project as I would lack the time.
You can also find me elsewhere on:
- GitHub: github.com/jcberthon
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jcberthon
- Xing: xing.com/profile/JeanChristophe_Berthon
The views expressed on this site are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.
This bio is based on my old bio, my resume and my input, and it was summarised by an AI.
The outcome was reworked and then published by me.
The photo is an artistic view representing the Ruhr area, designed by me, generated by AI.