1. How did the Ututo project started?

The first thing called “ututo” was a initiative of the University of Salta by Luis and Diego Saravia. This happened because in this university there is a class on solar energy and they use free software to execute the calculations system of solar circuits. The students during this time, the year of 2000, they only had non-free operation system in their homes so they decided to build an operation system that could executed from a cdrom that would allow them excise and resolve problems related to their assignments. Lo primero que se llamo “ututo” fue una iniciativa de la Universidad de Salta por parte de Luis y Diego Saravia. In 2003 I joined the Ututo and I decide to change the idea of only make an operation system, building apart the Project UTUTO, dedicaded to the management and development of free software and the operation system is renamed UTUTO XS. Nowadasy the Project UTUTO works together with the Special Network Foundation of Spain in the management of projects we have together using free software. We developed over 20 projects in the past years and some are still bing the operation system that is more developed.

2. From your point of view, as an user and from Latin America, what differences solutions like Ututo brings to Latinos users?

The main difference is that we develops according to the reality that we live. The free software is global but the solutions are always local. So we speak Spanish in Spain and chile, but it is not the same Spanish. We were born as a project in it’s own reality like other projects but Ututo is born and grow mainly in Latin America. Maybe it can serve other people but it would be required some adaption as well. We see the globalization as a way to learn from many, to not impose to many what we have learned.
3. Is there other countries, beside Argentina, which is using Ututo? How the cooperation between these countries happened? And in Argentina, the distribution is used by any sector of the government? And what about in the education sector, like in the universities?

It is used in many countries, we know this because we can see through the packages server and it’s statics but we don’t keep numbers of it. We have collaboration agreements with organizations from Cuba, Bolivia and Spain. The objective of the Project UTUTO is not the market. The project of our efforts isn’t the operation system but the free software itself, is to learn how solutions are build with free software and to teach others how we do it. Not to only learn it but for their ideas and visions to also be part of the creative process. The goal is to learn, not to impose a product in the market. We believe that maybe this necessity to learn and to see what we do as part of a social solution that perhaps have made so many people to use it but we also want this people to learn and to participate on the creative process. But we won’t deny that we have ideas to solve economically the project and it’s developments. We can work perfectly with companies, and we do it with companies from Argentina and Spain but always understanding that UTUTO as a project it doesn’t pursue an economic goal. We also work with organisms from the government and the army.

4. Is there work on these projects with focus on the inclusion of more people to the digital world? If there is, tell me a little bit about it, how they are organized, what are the actions promoted by these projects.

The construction is done through a cooperative process inside the project as well as from outside. Since we don’t pursue an economic end as our only goal, Ututo is transformed into an area of development and learning. The users in the forum build and look for their own solutions. Who develops the projects are organized, the team UTUTO is organized by projects and inside these project they are organized by tasks. So we try to not duplicate work optimizing the personal time of each one. We are efficients and when we can’t do it we try to find a solution that allows us to produce more and better in less time of work. This is also part of our knowledge learned as professionals.

5. What are the other projects besides UTUTO that the group is promoting?

When you say UTUTO you mean UTUTO XS the operation system. We promote our own projects like Xynapx which is a multimedia system for the web but we also develops conference systems, an OS to the XO of OLPC, and others that you can find in our project section at our site. We also promote projects of third parts. We support the development of Musix which is an operation system oriented to the music production and the Condorlinux which is an OS oriented to the users use.

6. What do you consider important for a digital inclusion project is successful?

To ask those who has the problems about how to build the solutions. The reality sometimes defines the success. If I invent a solution from the outside of a reality the success is fleeting because the reality becomes the judge of this solution. If the idea is to create the solution starting from the problem, is more viable a long term effective solution. There aren’t global solutions 100% effective and we know that. But the local adaptation will define the success or failure of an idea.