The Collaborative Network for Free and Open Software Latin American and Carib (RCSLA) is a network created at the end of 2005 by the United Nations Development Program and UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil) to increase sharing of practical knowledge and experience in deploying free software governance plans in Latin America. Given the nature of free software, as the community grows, so does both the supply and demand of open source solutions in the region.

The network offers experts available to adapt free software to the particular needs of specific governments. The project is getting started with a contribution of $200k USD by the UNDP and UFMG. The network currently includes representatives from Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela and NGOs from Uruguay and Colombia.

Brazil’s Software Público website was created as part of this initiative. At the beginning of 2009, they started Phase One of the process to internationalize the free software available at the portal. A poll will facilitate a vote on the available software, with the top two being the first ones to be translated.

The poll was launched on February 13th at the XIII Informatics Convention and Fair in Havana, Cuba. During this meeting of government officials, Cuba and Brazil agreed to start a partnership on developing free software together.

Cuba will be the first country to formally receive implementation assistance using the Brazilian experience. Fausto Alvim, an official from UNDP who is responsible for the replication of the Brazilian model in other countries, highlighted that “the first country to utilize the Public Software Portal project will be the one that demonstrates identity with the replication of the model,” in that their experience in using Brazil’s experience will be further shared as more countries adopt the model.

The RCSLA is also studying an agreement with Cuba to make available the Nova Linux OS in a new portal which will be created by Brazil for all of Latin America. The portal, scheduled to be launched in June, will be the extension that internationalizes the Public Software site with translations in Spanish, Portuguese and English.