[SWLUG] Re: OSS in Brazil

[Rhys Sage]

Brazzil - Software - August 2004 
  

Linux Friendly Brazil 
Twenty percent of all computers used by the Brazilian
ministries 
are running Linux and other open source software. In a
few months 
this number should grow to 100 percent. Through its
Digital 
Inclusion Program Brazil wishes to democratize the use
of computers. 
Government telecenters are being created throughout
Brazil. 
Leonardo Stavale

 The Brazilian government wants to expand the use of
free source software in public service because it has
lower costs and can be an important tool in the effort
to achieve digital inclusion (close the digital gap)
and boost technological development. 

According to Gustavo Noronha, who coordinates
informatics at Brazil's Ministry of Cities, a fifth of
all the ministry's computers now run Linux and other
free source software and all of them should be doing
so by 2005. 

The executive secretary of the Presidential Staff,
Swedenberger Barbosa, says that the government is
working on its Digital Inclusion Program (PBID) which
has already got 58 government units using free source
software and will use it to deliver computer knowledge
to low-income families. 

The PBID has three structural levels: so-called
telecenters where free internet access is available,
community management of telecenters and the use of
free source software in telecenters to keep them
economically viable. 

The use of free source software is central to the
PBID. Besides lowering costs (licenses and royalties),
it gives users an incentive to develop their own
technology and the country has an opportunity to
achieve independence in information technology. 

Comdex 

Approximately 80 thousand qualified professionals in
the informatics sector are gathered at the 13th IT
(Information Technology) Brazil Comdex/Sucesu-SP 2004,
which runs through August 20 in São Paulo. 

Company representatives from 80 countries, including
the United States, Spain, Singapore, Canada, the
Netherlands, South Korea, China, and Taiwan, are
participating in the event, which brings together
exhibitors and buyers to do business. 

The meeting also offers an excellent opportunity to
become acquainted with and discuss new technologies. 

The IT Brazil Comdex is one of the most important
corporate encounters in the technology field in Latin
America, under the international aegis of Comdex,
which holds similar events in the U.S., Europe, and
Asia. 

In Brazil the event is co-sponsored by the Computer
and Telecommunications Users Society (Sucesu). 

The commercial director of the IT Brazil Comdex,
Marcus Faria, believes that more deals will be
concluded this year than in 2003. "Despite the
recessive market we face, we are optimistic that more
business will be done than last year." 

This year's fair occupies an area of 47,000 square
meters (505,903 square feet), with 420 exhibitors,
including 80 foreign exhibitors who seek partnerships
in Brazil. 

At this forum representatives of IT and
telecommunications industries are discussing the next
Internet generation (Internet Protocol - IP - version
6), to prepare the country for this new technology. 

Industry Upgrade  

Brazil is making a concentrated effort to upgrade its
computer industry. The effort seeks to generate more
jobs requiring more skills, improving commercial
relations with the international market and turning
the sector trade deficit into a surplus. 

According to Artur Nunes, at the Ministry of Science
and Technology's Informatics Policy secretariat,
Brazil remains a net importer of computer technology
and pays US$ 1 billion in royalties annually for
software use. 

The international software market is worth US$ 257
billion annually. Brazil's presence in that market is
modest. In 2000, while India exported software worth
US$ 4 billion, Brazil exported a mere US$ 81 million. 

Even so, today the sector employs 180,000 skilled
workers and has enormous skilled-job generating
potential. Nunes says there is a high level of
excellence in Brazilian software programs, citing the
country's electronic voting system, and income tax
declaration collection, which takes place via
Internet. 

Annually some 20,000 students in Brazil finish
technical or university level courses in informatics. 

Free Software 

Last November, Brazil's Ministry of Science and
Technology announced that it had set up a pioneer work
group with the objective of developing free software
for use in the government. 

This first group, consisting of twenty employees who
underwent special training, is part of a broad effort
by the Brazilian government to reduce costs by
developing its own, free, software. 

The project will reduce costs of licensing and
updating privately owned software, as well as
strengthen domestic Information Technology. 

According to Paulo Sergio Bonfim, who is a system
development coordinator at the ministry, savings will
reach US$ 430 per workstation. As the ministry has 950
computers, that works out to an economy of US$
405.500. 

Digital Culture 

The Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, spoke recently
about the theme, Digital Culture and Development, in a
welcoming lecture (aula magna) at the University of
São Paulo (USP). 

According to Gil, "digital culture is a new concept
stemming from the idea that the digital technologies
revolution is essentially cultural. What is implied
here is that the use of digital technologies modifies
behaviors; full use of the internet and free software
creates fantastic possibilities for democratizing
access to information and knowledge." 

In the Minister's assessment, Brazil already possesses
vast experience in the field of free software and
digital inclusion, with hundreds of projects and even
profound speculation in academic circles. 

Gil sees the issue of free software, as well as the
production and distribution of audiovisual materials,
as a matter of national sovereignty. 

"It is preeminently a cultural question and thus has
to do with the projected nation we are constructing
and with the appreciation of cultural diversity,
citizenship, and the generation of income and jobs
through creative and clean industries. 

"Brazil has the opportunity to undertake a massive
national movement in favor of digital freedom and
become a world reference in the fight for free
software." 

The Minister affirmed that his Ministry is making
efforts to guarantee, in its policies, strategic
recognition of access to digital culture. 

"We are developing projects that offer the possibility
of universal access to information and knowledge
through the full employment of telematic networks,
such as the culture points and the new libraries that
are part of the Hunger for Books program." 


Leonardo Stavale works for Agência Brasil (AB), the
official press agency of the Brazilian government.
Comments are welcome at lia at radiobras.gov.br. 
Translated from the Portuguese by David Silberstein.


	
	
		
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