The Brasília Protocol (now translated to English) started the process of implementation of the Open Document Format (ODF) within the Brazilian Government. The Protocol was signed during the opening of CONSEGI 2008 by Bank of Brazil, Serpro, Dataprev, Post Office and Telegraph State Company (ECT), INPE (Institute of Spacial Researches), INPI (Institute of Intellectual Property), Ministry of Exterior Relations and others. All the institutions who signed the protocol are assuming the commitment to use the ODF standard, make it available to society-at-large, exchange documents between themselves in this format and to share solutions in open format. The news is on ODF Alliance website.
As the General Director of ODF Alliance Chapter Brazil declared at the debate hosted at CONSEGI 2008: “the citizen must understand that when they open a government website and the file offered is in a format of a proprietary software, it presupposes that he/she is obligated to have the license of that software, what is unacceptable and out of the law.”
This quick action clearly shows how important the choice of ODF format is by the government. It it is a show of respect to the country’s citizens, since the government won’t force them to buy a license in order to view information which is their right to have access to. The implementation process in Brazil will be coordinated by Caixa Econômica Federal (Federal Bank). Clarice Copetti, the vice-president of Technology of Caixa, says: “The Brazilian Government is the biggest buyer of IT. With this decision, the entities who signed the protocol will redirect their investiments to train their teams and to develop new solutions for this format”.
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Vator.tv is a social network for technology start-ups to connect with investors. They also host a newsroom which provides technology industry news & analysis. North by South was recently featured with this article: Developing your technology in Latin America: Near-shoring software engineering in Latin America is a side effect of progressive state policies. The article examines the near-shoring potential of Lain America as an unintentional consequence of the socially liberal initiatives that have been implemented in recent years.
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In returning from CONSEGI 2008, North by South has been extremely busy keeping up with our schedules and lives here in San Francisco. But, tonight, we’ve taken the time to put together the attention due to CONSEGI here on our news site. CONSEGI 2008 was history being made — we spoke with people from the Latin American Free Software Foundation, public officials from Brazil to South Africa, free software activists struggling to convince their governments to adopt the path forged by Brazil and Venezuela. Seeing it all together, in one place, with people from over the Americas — it was dizzying.
We urge you to begin with our English-language translation of Rafael Bonifaz’s own heart-felt summary: The Free Software Brothers (or you can read it in Spanish: Los Hermanos del Software Libre).
We urge you to check out our other coverage of CONSEGI 2008 (more pictures to come soon, we promise):
Even if Slashdot and the North American free software world hasn’t yet caught on to the enormity of what’s happening in Latin America, it doesn’t matter. Because it’s huge, it’s happening and to be a part of what’s going on as a member of the community is an exciting honor and responsibility.
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CONSEGI 2008 is over and North by South was honored and excited to have been a participant in this convergence of public free software initiatives from all over Latin America. We are providing here an English-language update of some of the highlights of what we saw and who we spoke with during CONSEGI.
Between all of the presentations and debates about free software usage and policies within government, one of the most important things that came out of this first annual CONSEGI meeting was the CONSEGI Declaration, signed on the conference’s last day by Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Cuba, Ecuador and Paraguay. This declaration is a letter of protest against the ISO/IEC’s rejection of the formal appeal from Venezuela, South Africa, Brazil and India of the ISO vote that approved Microsoft’s OOXML as an international standard.
North-by-South was happy to have the opportunity to sit and talk with Marcos Mazoni, head of the Technical Committee to Implement Free Software in Brazil, about the many issues involving free software in Latin America. He confirmed that CONSEGI will continue to happen next year and that plans are already underway for CONSEGI 2009. Talking about the topic of transparency in the government, which was expressed in many of the painels, Mr Mazoni explained that creation of IT policies in Brazil will include consideration of participatory democracy, enabling the average citizen to follow the governmental actions as they affect people’s lives by making these actions transparent to the public. You can read more about our discussion with Mr Mazoni on our CONSEGI 2008 Summary Page as well as issues such as licensing government-sponsored code and reports on free software initiatives in Argentina, South Africa, Ecuador and Venezuela.
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