Some Other Reports from Free software Free society: four nationconference on Freedom of computing Development and culture
Anivar
---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Frederick Noronha <[log in to unmask]>Date: May 28, 2005 2:40 AMSubject: [fsug-kochi-discuss] Italian, Venezulean voices favourfreeing knowledgeTo: [log in to unmask]

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, May 28: Publicly-funded content must be openlyavailable, and sharing knowledge only enhances its richness, Italiansenator Fiorello Cortiana told a four-nation international conferenceheld in the Kerala capital this morning.
Eminent economist and former Venezuela minister for planning anddevelopment Dr Filipe Perez-Marti agreed, and stressed that"participation, solidarity and wisdom" would be the key three wordsthat characterise a new global situation.
Amidst praise for Kerala for organising this "first ever"south-to-south contact in the world of free software and freeknowledge, speakers from Latin America (Venezuela, and  Brazil), Italyand India explored ways of understanding their respective situationsand possibilities for collaboration across the oceans.
The Latin Americans were keen to hear about Kerala's attempts to lookat take Free Software solutions to schools, through their IT@Schoolproject which aims to train about 200 master trainers, who will thentrain at least one teacher from each school in the state in the use offree software.
Free Software Foundation of India director Prof G Nagarjuna stressedhow India was able to fight-back attempts to make software apatentable item. He said help for this endeavour had come fromenlightened politicians, the peoples' science movement, media andothers.
Latin American delegates spoke of how their firms – including theVenezualan oil giant – had opted for free software, both for morecontrol over their work and avoid possibilities of sabotage in acrucial sector of the economy.
Government of Brazil special advisor in the ministry of communicationsAntonio Bezerra de Albquerque Neto said Brazil was keen to build linkswith countries like India and China, and stressed that Free Softwareis a key means of in building a fairer society.
SPACE executive secretary Satish Babu called this a "fairly uniqueevent" and said Kerala had a good chance of building itself as aglobal destination of Free Software. SPACE chairperson Prof K RSrivathsan termed Free Software a "natural way for the scientificcommunity to play around with".
Former musician turned Free Software activist Juan Carlos Gentile saidhe hoped this first-ever meet of its kind "would lead to many thingsto come". Kerala IT secretary PH Kurian said ideas of sharingknowledge were "not alien" to India, and cited the case of GautamBuddha who used the people's language to spread his message.
Kerala began this four-nation meet on Saturday morning, and it aims totake the ideas of free software to different realms of society, whichcan gain from the power of sharing knowledge and culture.
SPACE, the Thiruvananthapuram-based Society for the Promotion ofAlternative Computing and Environment, is co-organiser of this eventwith the global NGO Hipatia (www.hipatia.net) and the Free SoftwareFoundation-India (www.fsf.org.in).
Organisers say that the international free software movement has showna "new way of knowledge creation and social ownership". They're keento explore how the "free software model" can be applied to fields asdiverse as governance, digital inclusion, development and culture.(ENDS)
------------------------------------------------------------------------Frederick Noronha         784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA IndiaFreelance Journalist      TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436http://fn.swiki.net       http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinksfred at bytesforall.org   http://www.bytesforall.org

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