Venezuela Moves Further Toward Open Source

baquiano writes "Today the Venezuelan press reports that the government has formally issued a decree (English translation) which prioritizes the use of free/open source software over proprietary systems in government entities. This follows a year of pilot deployments in Venezuela's Info Centros (Internet public access points) and some ministries. (Past attempts, reported by Slashdot, by former Minister of Science and Technology Felipe Perez Marti to push ahead this initiative were allegedly foiled by Microsoft.) The decree calls for plans to actively deploy FOSS during a 24-month period."

Re:A positive development ...?

[curtisk]

I was just going to post the same thing, Chavez is busting down hard on any dissent or anyone that doesn't meet him on the political scale [washingtonpost.com]. So great for open source, but is "OSS: Used by the Chavez Administration" a good thing to have out there?

linux is good...

[kevingc]

I read the article and there's nothing in it detailing why free software was chosen over non-free software. I do assume that the reason has something to do with the software not costing the government any money. However, I would like to see some administrative benchmarks (increased civil happiness, etc...) to see if free software really does cause the government to lead more effectively than non-free software.

The East India Company did

[DisasterDoctor]

From wikipedia.org...... The British East India Company, popularly known as "John Company", was founded by a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600. Over the next 250 years, it became one of the most powerful commercial enterprises of its time. The British East India Company's business was centered on India, where it also acquired auxiliary governmental and military functions which came to overshadow its commercial activities. Based in Leadenhall Street, London, the company influenced all continents: it presided over the creation of British India, founded Hong Kong and Singapore, employed Captain Kidd to combat piracy, established the cultivation of tea in India, held Napoleon captive on Saint Helena and made the fortune of Elihu Yale. Its products were the subject of the Boston Tea Party. Microsoft doesn't hold a candle to this company!

Re:it never ceases to amaze me...

[St. Arbirix]

*ahem*

The Knights Templar had a massive amount of wealth and loaned it to kings and people all around the world effectively making them the first bank. Philip the Fair (French) got together with the Pope to have them rounded up and killed. Before then they were big-time movers and shakers in European governments and by Papal bull were allowed to do things like levy taxes and receiving tithes.

The Dutch East Indies company was comparable to the Guild (Dune reference) in their control over trade around the world. There's more to it, but they were satisfied with their control.

When Standard Oil was broken up into it's subsidiaries you had 5 American companies plus the British Shell Oil looking into South America for new prospects. Because companies had become so heavily aligned with specific countries the only way for one company to be able to prospect on what was thought to be fertile ground was by getting the country they worked in to expand its borders in that direction. At least two wars were started in South America in order to expand a border onto prospective new ground. In both of those wars it was found that there was no oil there anyway and the governments sponsoring the wars got paid nothing in return for their actions.

There was this guy named Rhodes who got a scholarship named after him. He basically got the British government to protect him as he invaded Zulu territory for diamonds. He simultaneously sold the Zulu some firearms which, upon notice by the British, made them important enough to wipe out. From then on that diamond operation has controlled the interests of South Africa.

Today's offenders: OPEC, U.S. media conglomerates, varying world telecoms, Microsoft, and China (a giant unionized manufacturing company, they count right?)

Don't really see this having much effect

[LocoMan]

This is the first time I actually reply to the article instead of to another discussion, but it's also the first time I've seen slashdot discuss something about my country so here goes.. :)

Personally I don't see this having any effect other than public offices changing to linux and open source programs. It will give more jobs in the public sector to programmers, which is a good thing considering the huge unemployment right now, but the regular people will just continue using their pirated copies of programs. To put things in perspective, I live in the 4th biggest city in the country, and where the electricity (hydro) for most of Venezuela and part of Colombia and Brazil is generated, plus a big producer of iron, steel, aluminum and lots of other minerals exported worldwide... but yet I don't know of any place here where I could buy legitimate software.. while at the same time just walking from my home to work everyday I pass in front of at least 4 places that sell pirated DVDs, music and software.. and I don't mean shady places in the back of a van or soemthing, but huge places with neon signs advertising pirated stuff for sale... heck, I've seen several next to police stations with police people buying on them frequently. People here just don't know about open source, because there's just not a culture of paying for software at all, most people don't even realize that buying a burned CD with the latest software on it, a crack and a serial written on the label is illegal... and last time I heard of something being done about it was 4 or 5 years ago when the BSA did a campaign against piracy, closed down several stores and placed fines on people... and things were back again like it was before within a week.

If I had to guess, I'd say this is more about president Chavez sticking it up to the US in any way he can (after all, we're talking about a guy that called Bush an asshole in public chained TV.. and for those that don't know "chained" means that the president can "chain" all the public TV and radio stations so that they're forced to display whatever he wants, usually him giving one of his 2 or 3+ hours speeches, which he does very frequently... times like those makes me feel pity for those that can't afford cable TV), and as I said, I really doubt it'll have any effect outside of the public offices... and if the ones I've gone to, in this city and in the capitol, even then they have so few computers and so outdated the effect will be minimal... we use to joke around that anytime we hear the sound of an old style typewriter (that old tac-tac-tac), that it sounds like a public office.. :)

Re:Victory?

[baquiano]

Nice troll... but since I've seen other misinformed posts been modded up, I feel the need to reply.

First, Chavez is not a dictator. He was democratically elected, and recently won a referendum on his mandate, which was endorsed by international observers. Also, I can personally tell you that the Venezuelan media enjoys a high degree of freedom and independence, the opposition has never been outlawed, and Venezuelans have all their civil rights protected by the Constitution. The problem with Chavez is his tendency to inflamatory speeches, his ultra-nationalistic rhetoric, and his close friendship with Fidel Castro, which gives the casual observer the impression that he's a classic communist dictator. But if you dig a little deeper you will find out that's far from being so. If you judge him by what he has actually done (opposed to what he merely said in ultra-patriotic rallies and speeches directed toward their partisans), you conclude that's he's no more left-leaning than Brazilian President Lula or Argentinian Nestor Kirchner. And no one is accussing the latter two of being dictators.

Second, this step from Venezuela may have important implications for Latin America. If a country manages to successfully switch an important part of his governmental software infrastructure to FOSS, it might start a landslide of investment in FOSS in other Latin American countries, as the local goverment is usually the biggest spender in IT in Latin American countries.

Third, this is not a ploy to getter deal from Microsoft (they already did that), since is a decree -- that means it's official policy, not something you can casually use to bargain a better deal from a vendor.

We should look at this from a wider perspective

[Spy der Mann]

From what I see, president Hugo Chavez has a deep hatred towards the U.S. And he sees any american company as a threat to his government. In other words, his move towards open source is not to be seen as something "defending the rights of the people", but rather as an instrument of pressure.

Frankly I don't care what happens with software on Venezuela... I just want the guy out.

Re:Don't really see this having much effect

[LocoMan]

Not really. While I don't agree with lots of things Chavez is doing in the government, there are some things I do agree with, and I do believe we needed someone like him to revive the politics in the state they were. I don't think right now he's the best person to lead the country, though (though I have to say I'd be hard pressed to find someone that would be better and that would have the amount of public support needed), I don't believe a coup is the way to go (even if I believed back then Carmona might have done a good work, the choices he took were wrong in too many levels which is why he failed), not now, and not back when Chavez himself tried it twice.

Wrong headline

[Ucklak]

'Venezuela Moves Further Toward Open Source' should read
'Venezuela Moves Closer Toward Open Source' or 'Venezuela Moves Further From Open Source'

Judging by the article, 'Venezuela Moves Closer Toward Open Source' is correct

The FOSS in Venezuela (Well Explained)

[Roliverio]

Im From Venezuela, and i also Follow Slahsdot Very Closely, and seeing this thread about how the Government Adopted a FOSS policy, prompts me to finally create an account and post a good reply to the news.. I, like many other Lug members in this country, where in a Forum whose hosts were mainly RMS and the aforementioned ex-Minister of Technology Felipe Perez Marti In this Forum apart of demostrating other technologies and hearing RMS's Speech, the reasons to adopt Open Source by the Goverment where exposed and these are: 1) Improve Education Trough FOSS 2) Cut Costs in Government IT sectors 3) Develop a joint Strategy With Brazil to Implement FOSS nationwide and not only in Government Agencies and Institutions. 4) Better Access to Technology for Everyone 5) Stay updated in new Software Technolgies 6) Use FOSS in Universities and Superior Education Institutes to Teach others how to implement, use and improve over Open Source. These are the main reasons, altough there are some others that arent as important as these that where what the former minister told the people tha t assisted the forum in November.. RMS couldn't talk properly because he had a horrible flu, and every other word a cough spelled out i see that in some replys to this article, there are Chavez supporters, or "Chavistas" as we call them here, i personally don't like the Chavez Administration, but i cannot disagree with this decree, as it makes a lot of sense even for the private sector, that should start noting a lot more FOSS for now on... Im not going to attack Chavez supporters here, the only thing i say is, before you believe either me or any of them, please, read every media in Venezuela before making an opinion!

Re:Wrong headline

[Anonymous Coward]

Please learn English yourself before trying to correct other people. "Closer toward" is redundant and bad form. "Further toward" is perfectly correct; it implies that they had previously taken steps towards open-source software and have now taken further steps in the same direction.

Re:Great, but...

[Jacco de Leeuw]

How about the Leopard seal [wikipedia.org]?

Re:Great, but...

[outrage98]

I don't mean to be too cynical, but I'm sure even the Venezualan people would admit that they are not the foremost force in world IT. Quite right, this is a victory for Open Source, but could we save the dancing in the streets for when a slightly more major player joins our side?

Twit. Who cares whether Venezuela is a "major player"?

If this means that schools in Venezuela are more inclined to teach using OSS, then that alone is a victory. Who knows where the next Richard Stallman or Linus Torvalds will come from?

EDITORIAL != FACTUAL ARTICLE

[Anonymous Coward]

>Click here [washingtonpost.com] to see the drift towards totalitarianism in Venezuela documented.

That's like the 10000000th time I've seen that link posted here. Let me make something clear.

An editorial is not a reliable source. Everyone is always condemning 'bias' in this outlet or that outlet. An editorial is a newspaper article that is openly biased. Please do not cite an editorial to support your political assertions. I know, it looks good to have [washingtonpost.com] at the end of your statement, but please, stick to facts if you want to "document" anything.