One opportunity available to free software projects is the ability to right the wrongs that has made free-market modes of production so likely to institutionalize sexism. PBS has just published a great list of organizations and individual efforts related to this opportunity, like LinuxChix and devchix, which many people are already familiar with.

The women who work in the Northxsouth Developers Network also spend their time volunteering for groups that help the free software movement to grab this opportunity, like Birosca (which is mostly initiated by women from Latin America) and Gender Changers.

Now this is a cool site! I haven’t had a chance to fully sink my teeth into it yet but this thing has enormous potential to be a great resource for all of us out here who are finished with the archaic old way this whirling globe has been run by a few people only looking out for themselves. I can’t wait to go through this site because I’m all about Open Source Living!

For free software folks, gnupg has become the encryption tool that everyone uses. Well, December 20th is the 10-year anniversary of the launch of GNU Privacy Guard and an interesting post about its history was posted in honor of this day.

northxsouth has strong connections in Chile and with the free software movement in Chile. But, as this article ponders, Chile is hardly ever talked about when the topic of open source in Latin America comes up.

Although Chile has the most advanced telecommunications infrastructure in Latin America, enjoys unequalled economic and political stability and boasts the highest personal computer and Internet usage rates in the region, investment in technology and its use as a management tool do not show the same dynamism.

This essay would be a little too philosophical for my tastes, normally, but it talks about government adoption of open source software, decentralization of corporations (large and small) and in many places it gives you a good strong whiff of the future. It’s called Structuring a Decentralized World.