Hi,
I have been going down to Brazil (and other South American Countries) for over
eight years talking about the use of Free and Open Source Software in their
economies.
Especially in Brazil, where the government works with private industry and the
FOSS groups to solve problems, they know that the issue is not just how much
the software does and does not cost in money. That is why they call the
movement "Software Livre!" instead of "Software Gratis!" (sorry about the
exclamation points, but they are not mine).
There have been times when companies in Brazil could not even get started,
not because the software was really expensive, which it was, but because it
was not available in Portuguese. Would you believe that not everyone in the
world speaks English? And because it was "not in the best interest" of the
large company based in the United States to generate a Portuguese version
of the software, a company in Brazil almost did not exist....almost did not
employ eighteen Brazilians.
Or the fact that the software could not be changed to meet Brazil's exact needs,
but fit only seventy per cent of what they needed.
I have sat in "Digital Divide" discussions (not on this list, by the way) where
the only thing discussed was how to make countries safe for a company's
IP so they could try to sell their product to people who could not afford it.
Nothing was said about creating an industry or business in that country
so the people could generate the revenue to buy the software. It made me sick.
Lula is smart. He sees what is happening with FOSS and the Telecentros. He
can see that companies who want to "talk to him" only want to get their
software in, and have no real interest in his country. He knows that he
may get "a good deal" today, but later on they will figure out a way to
wring the money out of his country. He sees where his country can innovate
with FOSS and develop a real information age economy, not dependent upon some
other nation.
He sees what has happened to Cuba, isolated from computer technology for 40
years, and knows that it could happen to Brazil.
Lula has met the kids in Brazil that work on FOSS, and he can see that they are
three or four times more knowledgeable than the ones that work on closed source,
proprietary software. He has been told where the real innovations have come
from:
o TCP/IP
o WWW
o Distributed file systems
o Windowing systems
o Distributed security (Kerberos)
The United States sees things in a unique way. Imagine how the US military
would feel if they were asked to put an operating system into their tanks
and planes that was written in China, and where they could now have access and
control over the creation of that software. Imagine how the USA would feel if
all 1.6 Billion Chinese started generating Software Patents, and the money
for IP started flowing out of the USA instead of into it. How long would
the USA be supporting the concept of Software Patents?
If Bill thinks that Lula and Brazil are his biggest worries, he should take
a look at Malaysia.
Finally, as a resident of the small country of New Hampshire, I must say that
we have a lot of out-of-work software people here, and I am tired of sending
my money to the small country of Redmond, Washington. I want to keep it in
New Hampshire, and pay our software people money to help me tailor the
FOSS software exactly to my needs. There is only so much maple syrup that
Bill can eat. But those software people buy local food, local housing and
pay local taxes, and that is good enough to slow down my "Digital Divide".
md
--
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director Linux International(R)
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St.
Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org
Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association
(R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries.
(R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant
to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus
Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis
(R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other
countries.
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