Brazil keeps up the push for open source

Created by Stuart Yeates (University of Oxford) on November 8, 2005

Gilberto Gil, the serving culture minister of Brazil, has been in London talking about open source and intellectual property. In an interview with the Guardian, he talks about music, politics and IPR.

The kernel of the issue is that in less developed countries the economics of software production are completely altered by the significantly lower costs of labour, which is made significantly worse by the move to selling software as a service and licensing it on a per-individual basis. Coupled with this are the facts that very little of the money is spent locally and that local independent companies are frequently caught in the cross fire by incumbent monopolies' efforts to strengthen their monopolies using closed formats and limited interoperability.

As a result, Brazil and Peru but have policies supporting open source, and Ubuntu has exploded out of Africa.

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Brazil is one of the shining

Submitted by Anonymous on November 8, 2005 - 4:06pm.

Brazil is one of the shining examples of government embrace of open source computing. Gilberto Gil's collaboration on the Adelphi Charter is another example of Brazil's progressive push for openness in the digital age.

And there are other pioneers who should be mentioned in this discussion. The government of Venezuela, for example, adopted open source in December 2004, and movements towards open source can be seen in many other South American countries.

Dually important is the resolve of developed countries to adopt open source. Norway has committed to open source by 2009: Computer systems in the public sector will be based on open standards. "Proprietary formats will no longer be acceptable in communication between citizens and government." -Norway Minister of Modernisation Morten Andreas Meyer.

In regards to the cost of software in developing countries, It's interesting to note the move taken by Microsoft to ease tensions created by Indonesia's governmental use of pirated software. $1 for Windows? Not too bad.

		Brazil keeps up the push for open source Created by Stuart Yeates (University of Oxford) on November 8, 2005 Gilberto Gil, the serving culture minister of Brazil, has been in London talking about open source and intellectual property. In an interview with the Guardian, he talks about music, politics and IPR. The kernel of the issue is that in less developed countries the economics of software production are completely altered by the significantly lower costs of labour, which is made significantly worse by the move to selling software as a service and licensing it on a per-individual basis. Coupled with this are the facts that very little of the money is spent locally and that local independent companies are frequently caught in the cross fire by incumbent monopolies' efforts to strengthen their monopolies using closed formats and limited interoperability. As a result, Brazil and Peru but have policies supporting open source, and Ubuntu has exploded out of Africa. Brazil \| developing contries \| intellectual property rights \| Open Source \| Open Source Policy \| Peru Stuart's blog Login or register to post comments 3569 reads Brazil is one of the shining Submitted by Anonymous on November 8, 2005 - 4:06pm. Brazil is one of the shining examples of government embrace of open source computing. Gilberto Gil's collaboration on the Adelphi Charter is another example of Brazil's progressive push for openness in the digital age. And there are other pioneers who should be mentioned in this discussion. The government of Venezuela, for example, adopted open source in December 2004, and movements towards open source can be seen in many other South American countries. Dually important is the resolve of developed countries to adopt open source. Norway has committed to open source by 2009: Computer systems in the public sector will be based on open standards. "Proprietary formats will no longer be acceptable in communication between citizens and government." -Norway Minister of Modernisation Morten Andreas Meyer. In regards to the cost of software in developing countries, It's interesting to note the move taken by Microsoft to ease tensions created by Indonesia's governmental use of pirated software. $1 for Windows? Not too bad. Login or register to post comments
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