Just returning from the LibrePlanet 2009 conference, I had the opportunity to talk to some of the most hardcore software freedom advocates and see their reactions to the single largest regional implementation of free software in the real world anywhere on earth, in Latin America. While the FSF has had extraordinary successes in their campaigns and it should be mentioned that Richard Stallman has played a critical role in much of the free software adoption in Latin America (as happened in Ecuador, to say the least), it is still surprising to me that even the most hardline software freedom advocates still feel a sense of frustration about the lack of mainstream adoption of free software when this best-case scenario has been going on in Latin America for years now. What’s more surprising is that supporting the free software movement in Latin America, using it as a success case in convincing others to adopt free software and understanding the movement enough to prevent it from being stifled is not something even remotely on their radar. How can it be that people who gnash their teeth and curse the ignorant masses for not realizing why their software should be free generally are ambivalent and disinterested in the Latin American example?

That should be tempered with some other facts: LibrePlanet was interested enough to give some time to the Latin American free software movement in their Saturday sessions and Richard Stallman definitely “gets it” and he speaks Spanish and has worked extensively in Latin America to encourage the movement there.

However, this isn’t an opinion I have in isolation. The people participating in the Latin American free software movement every day have voiced this complaint to me and with the connections built between NXS and free software activists in Latin America, we’ve conspired in various ways to make the incredible advances in free software in Latin America more visible to the North American/European free software movement.

A friend of mine from the Free Software Foundation in Latin America believes it boils down to basic US/Euro-centrism and I think I have no choice but to agree. The idea is that in the eyes of most people in the US and Europe, Latin America might as well be on another planet and that what goes on there isn’t really something that’s part of reality, or at least a reality that matters in the Real World, which is comprised of the US and Europe. Of course, Latin America is over half a billion people with some of the most important, emerging markets in the world right now. Out of the top 10 biggest cities in the world, there are more cities from Latin America than any other region in the world.

Regardless, I spoke several times about the free software movement in Latin America at the FSF conference and a number of people sought me out and spoke to me one-on-one with questions. But still, I felt that same sense of ambivalence about a phenomenon which should give any free software advocate an infinite amount of hope & optimism from the concrete example of how free software can transform society, given a large enough movement. The question that remains is why this movement is so often ignored outside of Latin America and why it isn’t the flagship example of free software adoption for anyone who wants to encourage the mainstreaming of free software in, well, I guess the parts of the world that matter. End rant!