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not a real info :P * Brazilian government is well known for use FOSS (here, some links for you: http://serpro.gov.br/ / http://ccsl.ime.usp.br/ / http://softwarelivre.org/ / http://www.ufrgs.br/soft-livre... [sorry: all in pt_BR...])

Their president knows what free software is,

We had to choose: either we could go to the kitchen to prepare the dish that we wanted to eat with the flavors that we wanted to add and we could put a little Brazilian flavor into the food, or we could go eat what Microsoft wanted to sell us. Simply speaking, the idea of freedom won.

Lula, at FISL 10 (10th International Free Software Forum)

That might be a good pointer, but, IIRC, his term will end in some months.

I'm surprised to see this topic on slashdot, since it is also the subject of a project I worked during the last half of 2006.

I was/am working on a platform and network schema involving social and collaborative network. As I see, the problem of social network is tight coupled with the digital identity (and I recommend watching the identity 2.0 presentation about this), specially when it comes to decentralization and interdependency. And that's something the big players are realizing in slow motion (if realizing at all). It's tiresome to setup an account in a closed service that offers X features, building your digital persona (linking interests, friends, communities, data, etc) and then, watch another service with X+1 interesting features, and not been able to use all the ground (interests, friend networks, photo album, etc) previously crafted. It's tiresome to be locked up by such services as well. Of course, this is just a glimpse on the burden of the present configuration and in the way those services are offered and used (at least, the ones that don't offer appropriated API's or other interoperability mechanisms). Not to mention the focus on features rather than people.

While working on this project, I've found that is more interesting to have a powerful communication standard that could structure people and information rather than create Another Social Network Service. For now, it seems less interesting to focus on application features and services than to focus on human identity, the information that surround it, and the way it is organized, related and published in the network.

I mean...how odd is to have a fragmented identity as we have now, spread along diverse systems that simply refuse to talk with each other? I feel ashamed when remembering I used to take this for granted.

Also, not long time ago, I heard about the project open-croquet. Personally, I fell that this project captures most of the essence I look for when thinking about social/collaborative network and personal computer usage.

Anyway, about the big players approach and inspired by (and quoting, in someway) a friend's affirmation: as long as they (big companies) try to model the user identity in it's own private space, social networking is not going to happen in all it's power. It's simply not good enough. In the same way, it doesn't make sense to have those myriads of social networks as isolated islands.

Our approach for the project, OTOH is an open one. We are looking for something more natural and organic, but still, using the web architecture (as opposed to open-croquet's approach). A better way to express ourselves, to experiment and use the network in social activities. A better way to structure and publish people and information for heterogeneous consumption. And we are working on it, using open standard all the way (such as Jabber, Atom, etc). Not really focusing on developing an application (like the parent), but on a communication model that applications can use (and, of course, proof of concept, prototypes and product implementations). We have made some presentations on free software events, and we will (possibly) go to FISL 8 to give a talk about this subject and our project as well.

Unfortunately we're still moving our project code (mostly prototypes and betas) to a project repository, so we don't have an official (and international) home page yet. But anyone interested in this subject and willing to share ideas (or directly contribute) to create something better in terms of social network is welcome (my contact is on my personal webpage)

Well when I read it I understood that as the name of the event - names don't necessarily have to be translated.
But then I checked and it looks like it was half translated from the original name "7 Fórum Internacional Software Livre". Well, whatever.

Your portrayal of the situation in Brazil is at the very least unfair.

The Brazilian government is spending on developing the code base that will save them millions, but I'm sure government management software does not make Slashdot headlines like "a tool for hacking GTK+". Migrating to a Free Software platform does not involve only installing Linux distros; migrating the actual systems that run on top of the platform is the most substantial work.

Brazilian involvement with Free Software started in my home state, Rio Grande do Sul, where the state government started a big push for free software in its IT agency. The systems of the state's public bank were migrated to free software, and its very pleasant sight to see Tux in the ATM's wallpapers. Incidentally, it is also in Rio Grande do Sul that the International Forum on Free Software takes place (and where the World Social Forum was created). The party who was in state government when these initiatives took place has now won the federal elections, so these developments are now starting to take place in national scale. Brazil spends billions every year in proprietary software licenses -- yes, spend money installing free software is a great move, especially in the long run.

In my personal experience as a Brazilian from Rio Grande do Sul, I can say that the development of a culture of Free Software there is as important as funding coding. The Forums served as a great incentive to the FS project I'm involved with, the GoboLinux distribution, a project born in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It was also in the Forums that I was exposed to another Brazilian Free Software project, the Lua language, which I now took part in my MsC project, funded by -- you guess -- the Brazilian government. So there's your "big project the Brazilian government funded on FOSS". Of course, we could use more research grants, but that's a more general problem of low incentive to science R&D (a recurring problem in the so-called Third World). At least, now, the grants are given by the government with the explicit condition that research results are made available under an OSI-approved license. To me, that's a great thing.

Some numbers:

- Budget on Federal IT spending: R$1,9bi (~US$ 720 mi)

- Budget to spend on hunger and income rdistribuition iniciatives : R$1,1bi(~US$415mi)

- Brazil's GNP in 2003: R$1,5trillion(~US$565bi)

- National Debt/GNP ratio: 58%.

- Money saved from not acquiring licenses: R$28mi(~US$10.5mi)

Some ranting:

- There is way too much hype about this technological policy in Brazil. The largest part of public spending in IT has never been on acquiring office licenses or MS-Windows stations. The largest piece of the pie has always gone to enterprise-wide systems. Unysis and Oracle are everywhere in government servers, and they get the big bucks. 28 million compared to a billionaire budget is pocket change. If they wanted to actually reduce costs, they would have to go after these guys.

- This stupid leftist (real left, not the Democrat Party kinda thing) government decided they should go after Microsoft because they are part of the Evil Empire. As an example, Lula refused to meet Bill Gates at Davos, just to show that they don't need MS anymore. He might get huge support from the open source crowd, but still think it was moronic attitude, politically speaking.

- Famine or hunger has hardly been a real problem in Brazil. Poverty and terrible distribution of wealth certainly are a bigger cause of concern. And the budget shows that: 0,1% of the budget spending hardly makes a "War on Hunger", as our beloved president wanted.

- As someone said above: Brazil is not Sudan. It has a huge, diverse economy, and is not by dictating one particular policy that they are going to solve our bigger issues.

• It gave in the Land: Microsoft clarifies asked for of explanation the director of the ITI

  Editoria: Governments
  18/Jun/2004 - 09:44

  The Microsoft emitted a note today where he clarifies the episode of the explanation order that the company made Sergio Amadeu of the Silveira, president of the National Institute of Technology of Information (ITI). In interview to the magazine Capital Letter in the March month, Amadeu said that the company used "tactics of the gratuitous dealers" when supplying softwares programs of digital inclusion, what it would be a way to accustom the users.

  The explanation order generated rumors of that the Microsoft would be processing managing of the ITI. It reads to follow the complete one of the note of the Microsoft, signed for Rinaldo Zangirolami, General Director of Legal and Corporative Subjects of the Microsoft Brazil:

  Note of clarification

  "we are not processing nobody, and the order of explanations is not related to a personal question.

  The Microsoft continues engaged with a respectful and opened dialogue with the government, customers and the industry to address the necessities of the Brazilian economy and the community.

  The Microsoft is present in the country has 14 years more than. Our commitment with the country is of long stated period. By means of ours 10,000 partners, 45,000 jobs are generated in Brazil and more than R$ 1 billion is collected in taxes annually.

  Rinaldo General Managing Zangirolami of Legal and Corporative Subjects Microsoft Brazil"

  Source: Land Computer science

Many of the comments here see this as the start of something big in
Brazil. In many ways, it is perhaps better to see it as the culmination of
a process that has being going on a long time. There have already been free
software initiatives at many levels in this the fifth largest country in the
world. Most notable of these is in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which
hosts each year a major free software event. I also know that in Brasilia itself they have been
funding free software development to support, for example, information
exchange between all the different legislatures in Brazil.

Moreover, the support for free software would seem to extend across
political parties. A workshop I attended in Sao Paulo last year, to
encourage cooperation between Latin America and the EU in the IT was
explicitly asked to be about free software by the administration preceding
that of Lula da Silva. This means the Brazilians already have a wealth of
experience in using free software and for finding mechanisms to fund its
development. It also means that there are already a lot of firms and
administrations that have committed to this process. Some of the comments
here have suggested that Microsoft must merely flash out its cheque book to
block the push for free software. I think it would have to flash out many
cheque books at many levels and would step on the toes of many local
interests.

Two other aspects of free software in Brazil do not seem to have received
much attention. The first is the wealth of good free software programmers
already in Brazil. Several key Zope developers come from Brazil and the
first language into which the popular content management system Plone was
localised was Brazilian Portuguese. A lot of good work is also going on in
free software GIS systems such as SPRING.

The second aspect is represented by the presence in the congress of the
Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil. I note that the title of the congress
mentions "free software" and not "open source". The interest is not just in
economics or software engineering, it is also cultural and extends into
other areas, such as the support for creative commons
licenses.

Viva Brazil! Viva o software livre!

for-the-people.org

The project that gave birth to the Software Livre Brasil was Software Livre RS, at http://www.softwarelivre.org , and announced in the end of the IV FISL (Miguel de Icaza was there :) ).

This is a great thing; it's our money that was used to buy proprietary software; now it will be used to invest in our knowledge.

And to all guys who are saying this isn't a good thing: f*ck you! You are all envious! HAHAHA!

The project that gave birth to the Software Livre Brasil was Software Livre RS, at http://www.softwarelivre.org , and announced in the end of the IV FISL (Miguel de Icaza was there :) ).

This is a great thing; it's our money that was used to buy proprietary software; now it will be used to invest in our knowledge.

And to all guys who are saying this isn't a good thing: f*ck you! You are all envious! HAHAHA!