For a long time now, NXS/San Francisco folks have begged, pleaded and cajoled our local government to follow the example set by Latin America to mandate a switch to free software whenever the taxpayers are footing the bill.

After all, this is San Francisco! We have more free software user groups than many small countries!

Well, finally, San Francisco has taken a small step towards our goal of a free software government. It isn’t exactly what we wanted … but it sure does come close.

On January 21, San Francisco adopted a policy that “mandates that city agencies always consider open source options when buying new software.” Ok … there’s not much real enforcement there. But San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom went on the record with: “[T]his is just the beginning. The potential is there for millions of dollars [saved] in software licensing costs. That’s the reality.”

More importantly, for free software advocates, this presents higher ground from which we can continue arguing for a stronger policy in favor of free software.

And, this policy has come out of a larger push called the Open Gov Initiative for the City and County of San Francisco, which validates many of the values of free software.

So, even though the policy lacks teeth and might just be a way to get us to stop calling the city’s IT department and complaining, it is, at least, a step in the right direction. Keep watching this space for more information on a stronger, coordinated effort to push for policies and/or legislation that contains real enforcement. If you are a resident of San Francisco and you’re interested in helping out, please get in touch!

Elastix is a complete GNU/Linux distribution with Asterisk, DHADI, Openfire, Postfix and many other free software packages. It has a user-friendly interface that integrates the best tools available for Asterisk-based PBXs, as well as its own set of utilities which allows the creation of third party modules. The software was created by PaloSanto Solutions, an IT company from Ecuador, and released to the public for the first time in March 2006. Elastix has a good support for telephony hardware … you can see the complete list at their hardware compatibility list. Elastix was used during the last presidential elections in Ecuador and what they have to say about it is very interesting:

… it was decided to optimize the communication system in all the locations where the voting counting was taking place to help monitor the process. Elastix was chosen as the communication platform because of the technical and economic benefits it offered for this project. […] Elastix was able to provide smooth communication between more than eighty (80) locations involved in the vote counting process. Thanks to Elastix it was possible to implement a communication system of this size all over the country in only two (2) weeks!

Elastix made life easier for those who are looking for a VOIP solution, proven out by its rapid popularity growth. The project has been nominated in various categories for Source Forge’s Community Choice Awards (CCAA) in the years of 2007 and 2008. This year they are recommending that the votes go for the following categories:

• Most Likely to Change the Way You Do Everything
• Best Project for the Enterprise
• Best Project

If you want to help this amazing project to win for the first time Sourge Forge CCAA, vote for them at this link (you can select multiple categories). Remember that Friday, May 29, is the last day to vote for nominations!

Reuters is unquestionably part of the mainstream media and they’ve reported on the enterprise trend towards free software as well as free programming languages as businesses are forced by recessionary times to look for alternatives to costly and inefficient proprietary solutions. It is a little strange that they describe free software as a “new technology,” but at least they are publicizing the business advantages of adopting open source strategies. This topic was a major theme at this week’s Open Source Business Conference where long-time free software advocate Matt Asay is becoming known for having declared that, per his conversations with executives, “Open source is now the less-risky investment. This is new reality No. 1.” OStatic has provided a summary of other relevant take-aways from this year’s OSBC.

Meanwhile, free software continues to spread like wildfire across Latin America, positioning the region as a viable, nearby source of experienced free software programmers and sysadmins who can help companies achieve this transition.

KyaPanel is a panel to provide easy management in Gnu/Linux servers. Developed to increase the network administration, it supports mail management, samba management and many other features. The software was adopted by the federal and state government of Brazil and major companies from Latin America. You can find it at the Public Software Portal from Brazil’s government, which promotes the free software used inside of the government, creating a tool for the communities, which are open to the public, to communicate and work on the development of those softwares.

That is not all, last year at Latinoware, one of the biggest Free Software meetings in Latin America, KyaPanel received the Latinoware Free Software prize.  The event took place in October 2008, more than 3,000 people went to Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil to see more than 280 speeches, panels and technical expositions. KyaPanel was elected by a multidisciplinary jury formed with important attendees selected by Latinoware Organization Board to receive the prize of R$ 2,000.00. “KyaPanel development team wants to thanks its community, all resellers, partners and clients. Without them there was no prize at all” said Anahuac the KyaPanel inventor and main developer.

Read the interview conducted by North by South with Anahuac:

1. Original version in Portuguese

2. English Translation

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.