North by South will be presenting at this year’s Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON 2008) about the use of open source software by governments in Latin America: The Latin American Free Software Movement. The presentation will give updates about the latest public sector efforts in Central and South America including Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba, Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay. Having just returned from CONSEGI 2008 and continuing to keep in touch with contacts from all these countries, NXS will be able to provide the latest news about open source in Latin America.

GOSCON was established in 2005 as an annual conference to discuss the use of open standards and open source software in the public sector. The latest that we’ve heard is that Marcos Mazoni, head of the technical committee to implement free software in Brazil, will join a panel discussion through a video link. NXS will provide pictures and further updates from GOSCON 2008 from the conference itself as it goes on.