Deu no Smartmobs, Junho 7, 2004

by Simon Phipps I'm sitting in a huge hall in Porto Alegre, Brazil, listening to Brazil's Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil (himself a famous musician), talking about his intent to turn Brazil into a hub for the world's free software and a pioneer of the enrichment of the creative commons. The room is full - thousands of software developers are listening. The conference is FISL, the 5th International Forum on Free Software (SL - Software Livre). It's inspiring, entertaining, and most important it is creating policy for Brazil's future. At the end of the session, Gil will sign a document placing his newest song under the newest Creative Commons license, 'Recombo' (granting sampling rights to other musicians).

At the same time, I have just read comments by Microsoft's representative Emilio Umeoka directly criticising the President of Brazil for promoting free software: "I don't know if this is the best way to attract investment into the country. I know this is not the best way to create a base of development from which to export because there's no revenue from something free." The irony (not to mention the arrogance) is striking. As I have commented before, people who say this sort of thing just don't understand where the world is going. Listening to the (many) government speakers at this conference (match that, OSCON) speaking in favour of F/OSS software development, it's become clear to me that the issue for them is not about money.

They understand the real issue - it's about sovereignty. They no longer want to funnel Brazil's wealth abroad when they have a growing and excellent software community of their own. They want local people to provide service and write software for the government and industry. They want local skills to enrich the F/OSS world and build exportable skills. They have a vision for how to both enrich the culture and skills of their country while creating a power-house for the export of services in the future. They get it. Emilio Umeoka doesn't.