As previously noted on this website, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has been an open supporter of free software for a while. But, within the last week, the news has been spreading that Ecuador has now officially passed a law, Decreto 1014 (pdf here), mandating a switch to open source, similar to laws in Brazil and Venezuela. This officially makes yet another Latin American country which is completely switching to free software! Ubuntu is ahead of the game with their Ecuador team already assembled. :)

Although this article isn’t translated very well, it provides insight into a rural program in Cuba which gives children educational access to open source, free software. According to the Cuban vice-minister of Informatics and Communication, more than one million people have participated in this youth computer club over the 20 years it has existed. Cuba has been one of the most vocal Latin American countries supporting the shift to free software in the region.

This is an interesting story because it provides a direct link between San Francisco and Sao Paulo. For North-by-South, our two main hubs are in SF and SP. In Brazil, Inclusao Digital is a project initiated by the administration of President “Lula” da Silva in 2005. Its intended goal is to bring technology and training to the poorest sectors of Brazilian society in a country with some of the sharpest contrasts between rich and poor. Combined with Brazil’s commitment to open source software, this program has done amazing things like build media centers in urban favelas (basically, huge ghettos that encircle Rio and Sao Paulo and other major cities) but also in remote regions of the country (like the Amazon) where many indigenous populations live. The entire program is built on open source, free software so not only has this program helped bridge the digital divide but it has also provided state-funded employment and experience for open source programmers.

But, this isn’t really news. The program in Brazil has been active for over 3 years and many of the developers working with North-by-South have experience working at Inclusão Digital. What led me to bring this up is a recent story in PC World about a digital inclusion program beginning in San Francisco. While SF is the center of the internet world, there is an enormous gap between the high-paid technology workers and the poorest sectors of San Francisco:

Access to technology is substantially below average for San Franciscans earning less than $10,000 up to $25,000 per year, the study said. There is also a big technology gap for the large numbers of residents who speak only Spanish or Chinese.

And, like in Brazil, open source is playing a key role in San Francisco’s digital inclusion program:

The PCs were ill-equipped with old operating systems like Windows NT and Windows 2000, Griffiths said. “They were a wreck, there were pop-up ads and spyware and most of them didn’t load Internet Explorer because no one took care of the lab.” Griffiths got to work, replenishing the lab with 15 donated computers and getting volunteers to load up Edubuntu OS, a version of Linux for the classroom. Now the training center offers free classes to teach basic computing skills to individuals.

The task force for a digital inclusion program in San Francisco was joined by the mayor’s office last year. However, a local non-profit, Media Alliance, has indicated that San Francisco needs a more comprehensive program, similar to the one in Brazil. In an area which has generated so much wealth from the technology industry, it seems like we could at least do as much as Brazil has. That said, this link between San Francisco and Sao Paulo is compelling and highlights the real world impact of open source software. It isn’t just a serious option for enterprise-level business, free software is a critical part of closing the digital divide. When you support free software, you’re helping to change the world for the common good.

Here is a lengthy and detailed description of the Third International Forum on Free Knowledge, a conference held in Maracaibo, Venezuela and focusing on open source software, worker co-operatives, intellectual property and more. From this person’s description, it seems like it was an exciting event. Venezuela passed a law in 2006 mandating that all government systems migrate to open source software and the government there has been one of the leading voices in the open source phenomenon happening throughout Latin America.

Brazil has recently announced that they’ll be using Linux as the basis for their electronic voting machines, away from Windows CE. In addition, open source software will be used in the auditing process as well as digitally signed verification of the code. This is a significantly different process than used in the United States where a closed source, proprietary system for voting machines was developed by Diebold, a company in North Canton, Ohio which was exposed by a whistle-blower to be lying about the security of their voting machines, which led to a lawsuit against them led by the EFF because of a DMCA takedown order received by none other than your local community colo! Did we forget to mention that Walden O’Dell, then CEO of Diebold, had said that he was committed to delivering votes to Bush in a Republican fund-raising letter for the 2004 election? Things that make you go hmmmm!