Why does free software make sense as a policy option for Latin America?

Free software makes sense as a policy option for Latin America for a number of reasons:

1. Cost. In 2000, the government of Brazil spent $200 million on software. In countries that are economically catching up from decades of being on the receiving end of imperialist policies and saddled with enormous debt, spending any amount of money on licensing paperwork seems absurd. People can’t eat software licenses. Open source software is not only normally free but there are lower barriers of access for workers to familiarize themselves with it (for instance, a lot of Oracle training requires you to pay money, it isn’t as freely available on the internet).
2. Skill-building. Latin American countries need to improve the technical training of their workforces. Using open source software brings a participatory, skill-sharing aspect to communities that proprietary software just doesn’t offer. Throughout the region, Linux users groups and skill-share events are springing up everywhere as the free software values spread.
3. Security. A Cuban government official associated with the free software project has raised concerns about using software that they cannot audit, produced by a US-based corporation that has already had “miscommunications” about their relationship to the NSA. Generally, the open source security model is considered to be an improvement over closed security. In addition, while security holes may exist, they can be identified and immediately rectified by anyone. With proprietary software, the user waits until one, monolithic organization issues a patch — once they admit that the problem exists, that is.
4. Digital divide. The digital divide — that is, people who have access to technology and people who don’t — is particularly acute in Latin America. Class divisions in countries like Brazil are dramatic, even with aggressive new measures taken to address the problem. Free software offers to make a contribution to this overall social effort on the technology front. Free software costs nothing and can run on older computers while each new version of Windows requires a new, expensive desktop. To show what is possible, a project at MIT using Linux is developing the “$100 laptop,” designed to proliferate personal computer technology in developing countries.

First, we should disclose that this weblog is operated by the northxsouth group — we’re a for-profit free software consultancy. We have done free software migration work in Brazil and other places in Latin America and we want to continue doing that! That said, we are also free software activists. We are active with the San Francisco Community Colo as well as numerous non-profit tech groups working in North & South America, like the birosca server collective and techmeet summit. We encourage you to get in touch with us just to say hello — we’re interested in meeting everyone who is involved with free software projects in Latin America.

The topic of this website is free software in Latin America. Free software refers to a type of computer program that meets certainly qualifications which are listed in this definition from the Free Software Foundation. In general, free software is available at no cost and comes with rights not normally granted to the user: the right to inspect the source code, the right to redistribute the code and the right to run it however the user wishes. Compare this to Microsoft Windows Vista which costs over $200, does not come with the source code and must be registered and can only run on certain computers used by certain people.

In Latin America, a social and political phenomenon has been occurring for the last 10 years or so. After decades of being ruled by repressive military dictatorships, Latin Americans have overthrown almost all of them and instituted radical forms of democracy that go beyond even what exists in the United States. These new democratic initiatives have swept in a new type of Latin American leader who defies the stereotypes of the corrupt “banana republic” despots of the past. As part of these sweeping social changes, many Latin American governments have challenged the notion that their computer networks should be subjugated to expensive licenses which give them no control over the software that runs them. Could you imagine the United States Secret Service, for example, running their operations with software purchased from a foreign country? Software which they could never really know what its doing because the source code is secret?

Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba have been the leaders in a movement to ban Microsoft products on government sector and public industry systems. Movements in Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Mexico are quickly growing. And free software is rapidly becoming popular throughout all of Latin America. Please continue reading: “Why Free Software Makes Sense for Latin America“.

Continuing the Microsoft theme, Orlando Ayala (head of M$’s Latin America division) has given an interview with Business Week discussing the multinational’s strategy in the region. The interview is lacking in substance and the issue of competing with free software in developing areas isn’t brought up.

In another cue that we’re on to something, Microsoft has made an announcement in which they acknowledge the absurdity of asking poor countries to pay outrageous licensing fees. Bill Gates announced in Beijing a few days ago a new program by Microsoft to offer “stripped-down” versions of Windows and Office to developing countries for as low as $3 each. How “stripped-down” remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the free software movement continues to provide full-featured software including source code to developing countries (and everyone) for much less than $3 :) You can read more details in the New York Times article.

The eighth International Free Software Forum is beginning today in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The forum will go over the next 3 days — you can read more about it here and on their website.