First, we should disclose that this weblog is operated by the northxsouth group — we’re a for-profit free software consultancy. We have done free software migration work in Brazil and other places in Latin America and we want to continue doing that! That said, we are also free software activists. We are active with the San Francisco Community Colo as well as numerous non-profit tech groups working in North & South America, like the birosca server collective and techmeet summit. We encourage you to get in touch with us just to say hello — we’re interested in meeting everyone who is involved with free software projects in Latin America.

The topic of this website is free software in Latin America. Free software refers to a type of computer program that meets certainly qualifications which are listed in this definition from the Free Software Foundation. In general, free software is available at no cost and comes with rights not normally granted to the user: the right to inspect the source code, the right to redistribute the code and the right to run it however the user wishes. Compare this to Microsoft Windows Vista which costs over $200, does not come with the source code and must be registered and can only run on certain computers used by certain people.

In Latin America, a social and political phenomenon has been occurring for the last 10 years or so. After decades of being ruled by repressive military dictatorships, Latin Americans have overthrown almost all of them and instituted radical forms of democracy that go beyond even what exists in the United States. These new democratic initiatives have swept in a new type of Latin American leader who defies the stereotypes of the corrupt “banana republic” despots of the past. As part of these sweeping social changes, many Latin American governments have challenged the notion that their computer networks should be subjugated to expensive licenses which give them no control over the software that runs them. Could you imagine the United States Secret Service, for example, running their operations with software purchased from a foreign country? Software which they could never really know what its doing because the source code is secret?

Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba have been the leaders in a movement to ban Microsoft products on government sector and public industry systems. Movements in Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Mexico are quickly growing. And free software is rapidly becoming popular throughout all of Latin America. Please continue reading: “Why Free Software Makes Sense for Latin America“.