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

(continued from page three)

Co-operation with Other Latin American Countries

Brazil is the largest country in South America (nearly the size of the United States) and its position is an influence on other countries in the region. It probably can be stated that Brazil's commitment to free software has naturally brought along other countries in South America. There are free software movements happening all throughout Latin America but, in particular, in Ecuador, Cuba, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina.

Mr Mazoni: "We do have a strong relationship with all the countries in Latin America and other countries, especially Portugal and Spain. So, Spain has done strong work with us in the free knowledge centers. And we already have some projects underway with other countries in Latin America. For example, Paraguay, where we already have economic projects together, i.e. Itaipu. Software that we perfected in Brazil is already translated to Spanish and being released to all the other countries in South America."

"All this helps to have good relationships with Cuba, Argentina (which has a control system using free software, environmental controls), Chile has a project that is focused more in the private sector. It's a country where free software has advanced in the private sector, more than the government. But we have these relationships and we are organizing an event for the end of August where the Lula Government, the 'Electronic Government' is going to be discussing exclusively free software, where we will be bringing all these actors from our little part of the globe to talk about common projects, because our situations are very similar. Brazil holds half of the gross domestic product in South America. But we have situations here, we have difficulties just like any other country in South America and also modern problems that the others don't have. So, we have a leadership obligation to improve quality of life here in South America. Included is the strong stand of the Lula government for the preservation of peace in our southern hemisphere. These co-operative relationships also help in our mission that the president has today in South America, which is the preservation of peace. So, free software adds the element of liberation of the people."

Future of Free Software Migration in Brazil

There are now only two years left in the administration of President Lula. Given the vast institutional shifts to free software that have occurred, it is hard to imagine an economical way to rollback these projects — not only the changes within state-owned IT firms but the many other projects that Brazil has launched with free software: the massive Digital Inclusion project, the educational Linux projects as well as the general use of open source wikis, project management software, groupware, and so on.

Mr Mazoni: "I think that right now in Brazil, we can already point to the government as a success case, the governmental experience at the federal and state level. With the good amount of community support that emerged in Brazil, we can move forward in all respects of this new ecosystem of free software. I think that we have obligations in these next years to consolidate free software in Brazil as a viable business model, making it more independent from the policies of the current administration, making it a part of the Brazilian state with its different actors: the government, civil society, universities. We should use this great moment that we're living in for digital inclusion, for the re-organization of our country to implant a new philosophy and a new model of business. Our mission here is to create a sustainable business model that each time is more in the hands of society, not in the hands of government. So I think that this rich experience that Brazil had in this period is strong enough for us to work for a change in society where people are going to defend the logic of free software, where [emphasizing] the model is no longer necessary."

There are three fronts to the Brazilian free software commitment: 1) internal migration, 2) digital inclusion and 3) investment from the government into Brazil's IT sector.

"Exactly, that's right, we have three fronts. And we have some other aspects that are important for us to promote and make available for global society, we are not only good software engineers. We can create intelligent information systems, to aggregate systems of information. We don't only work on code development, we work on creating complete IT solutions. I think that the role of Brazil is very important, especially here in South America, to use this richness to include more people in the global economy, in the ecosystem, to create an ecosystem that works. Because the government is a major purchaser ... the Brazilian government, in these three levels, buys half of everything that is used in information technology (which is nothing new because it repeats what the USA does). It makes sense that a major purchaser like this is going to affect the market. It makes decisions that affect the market. So we make a decision as a customer of technology, in truth what we want is this openness, this open knowledge, much more than the technology itself although it also reflects on the technology. We can design a market where people have more value than software licenses, and this is what we believe and it's our task for the second mandate from President Lula."

This is the first in a series of articles which will document the efforts of the Brazilian free software migration within the government. Our next article will explore Brazil's Digital Inclusion initiative.

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