Free Software in Brazil:
Analysis & Interview with Marcos Mazoni

by Ryan & Isabela Bagueros, May 5 2008, San Francisco, California
Read in English: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4
Leia em Português: Página 1, Página 2, Página 3, Página 4

Brazil made an impression on the free software world during the past five years of President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva's administration by promoting a policy of migration to open source software for the government and state-owned industry. Initial press coverage of this policy change away from proprietary software was celebrated in many mainstream media outlets¹. Since then, the mainstream media hasn't really given much time to the actual policy implementation and English-language bloggers have started to question whether there is anything for open source advocates to be excited about: "Interest in FOSS still exists throughout Brazil, but signs of progress are hard to see in 2007," asserts an article at Linux.com² and repeated in the open source blogosphere³.

This outlook is a significant departure from the reality on the ground. Brazil's commitment to free software is demonstrated in a number of impressive initiatives, any one of which would be unprecedented by themselves. Collectively, these programs comprise an enormous contribution to the open source community in the form of both code and real-life experience in deploying free software as a solution for large and complex organizations, if not society as a whole.

Marcos Mazoni, new president of Brazil's free software implementation

In an effort to provide information about the Brazilian free software effort to the English-speaking world, we recently spoke on the record with Marcos Mazoni, currently president of the state-owned data processing firm SERPRO (Latin America's largest IT company). Mr Mazoni was appointed, in April, as the new head of the Technical Committee for the Implementation of Free Software, a group operating on the federal level in Brazil to co-ordinate all aspects of Brazil's policy of using free software. Mr Mazoni's prior managerial successes in implementing free software solutions for some of Brazil's largest organizations has people talking⁴ about the remaining two years of Lula's term in office and the momentum that Mr Mazoni brings to their open source effort.

Marcos Mazoni: Background

Mr Mazoni was one of the first public officials in Brazil to begin advocating for the use of free software. His initial work in this area was within PROCERGS, the data processing firm for the state of Rio Grande do Sul. He then moved on to head up CELEPAR, the IT firm which serves the entire state of Parana. Mr Mazoni then went to SERPRO where he continued to deploy free software until his current appointment to lead the federal committee on free software implementation.

Mr Mazoni: "The truth is that I first had contact with free software when I was the president of PROCERGS in Rio Grande do Sul in the 90's. We started to use free software inside of the government of Rio Grande do Sul, which focused on social activities like education, health, even the public security. This project, which started in Rio Grande do Sul, was solidified in Parana in 2003, with CELEPAR. What we had wasn't a very good experience, we went through an experience that wasn't so good. The important part is to build the communities around the organization. It's when a new logic of knowledge management comes in, where the knowledge isn't only inside of the organization but is shared with lots of people, without any control from the organization itself."

"We were able to create tools based on this community logic, it wasn't only to develop free software but to use what was around, make it better and be able to give it back to society and keep this process active. We created tools for office management inside of the Parana government, we developed important and strategic systems in the public security area, in the area of automobile management and so on ... And we started to work with the private economy as well, the entrepreneurial area, with high risks for the government. Because of this, the project in Parana was bigger than the one in Rio Grande do Sul."

"When I arrived at SERPRO, SERPRO already had its own culture, it is the largest IT company in the southern hemisphere. Therefore, it has a lot of ties to the free software world but also to traditional software. But, it has been working, in the first four years of this government period, with free software. What we try to demonstrate is the aspect of integration with the community, integration with the external environment, of understanding that the use of free software is important but to adopt its philosophy is even more important. This is the innovation that we want."

Next: Practical contributions of Brazil's free software development >>

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