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:it never ceases to amaze me...

[GoofyBoy]

>I know for damn sure that the US government wastes tens, perhaps hundreds, of billions of tax dollars paying giant companies for closed, proprietary systems that never work as advertised.

Waste is waste. It doesn't matter if its Open or Closed Source, it will still cost a huge amount and still barely work because it is the government.

Re:Great, but...

[bit01]

... a slightly more major player joins our side?

A country of 25,000,000+ people? That's major enough progress to make the daily news for me!

If even a fraction of the Venezualan programming population get involved in open source that will mean significant improvements for open source software producers, packagers and consumers world wide. Remember, one of the most valuable attributes of software is that it can be copied at minimal cost. All it takes is a single person to program it and a hundred million people can use it, something the commercial pay-an-arm-and-a-leg-per-copy advocates like to ignore.

---

Don't be a programmer-bureaucrat; someone who substitutes marketing buzzwords and software bloat for verifiable improvements.

Re:A positive development ...?

[Pig Hogger]

If you care to actually read the article, you would notice that Chavez is simply counterbalancing the greater disinformational power of the bourgeois-controlled media in order to avoid further destabilization attempts by the bourgeois who cannot bear to see the State help the poorer people by providing them by better education (the bourgeois are dependent on an ignorant population in order to suck their wealth).

In effect, the Chavez government is providing A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, something the bourgeois hate because they got ahead because of a playingfield blatantly lopsided in their favour.

Re:Don't really see this having much effect

[stephanruby]

I suppose you're part of the minority elite that would have been satisfied that the coup had succeeded.

Re:We should look at this from a wider perspective

[Pig Hogger]

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.

This is not surprising, given that in order to promote the leeching bourgeois agenda of siphoning off the country's wealth, the US has been trying for a long time to destabilize Chavez's goverment.

Why should Chavez be grateful towards people who wants to suck his country dry and leave the majority of the population in abject poverty and ignorance?

Re:THe Irony OSS in a closed society

[wheelbarrow]

As Buddha said, "When someone points at the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger."

How about Human Rights Watch. Is this unbiased [hrw.org] enough for you?

Re:Victory? - the Chavez problem

[Anonymous Coward]

First, Chavez is not a dictator. He was democratically elected

After, one might note, failing to overthrow the goverment by force. One might also note Chavez' attempts to stop rallies in Caracas by his opponents. Or his failure to take a stand against the armed thugs of the "Bolivarian Circle" groups intimidating Chavez' opponents.

, and recently won a referendum on his mandate

Talk about spinning. "referendum on his mandate"? Chavez won a special recall election... enough Venezuelans were unhappy enough to demand, and get, a recall election. Just not a majority. The reason is simple: it's the middle- and upper-classes that are upset, and the poor in Venezuela greatly outnumber the wealthy. I find it hard to accept the idea that any country's president has a "mandate" if so many citizens oppose him that a special recall election must be held.

, which was endorsed by international observers.

Nice wordsmithing. International observers endorsed neither the referendum nor the mandate; they certified that the election results appeared to be legitimate. I don't know that the vote was actually verified -- apparently Venezuela used American touchscreen election machines with paper trail [wvcag.org] -- but given Chavez' heavy handed rule, socialist rhetoric, and huge base of impoverished Venezelanos, he should have won the recall.

Also, I can personally tell you that the Venezuelan media enjoys a high degree of freedom and independence

I'll grant you that I haven't heard of Chavez cracking down on his nation's own media as badly as, say, Putin, but that statement's almost laughable. How much air time does Chavez demand from broadcasters for his longwinded speeches? How many stations really want to broadcast every pronouncement, every staged episode of Halo Presidente (a Sunday morning call-in show that somehow manages to only get calls from people who adore el presidente)?

I was in Caracas in the summer of 2001, and while I was there, Chavez threatened to deport any foreign journalist that wrote unfavorably of his administration. Maybe he has only threatened foreigners and you think that's alright. I don't.

, the opposition has never been outlawed,

Maybe not, but Chavez has threatened to imprison high-ranking Venezuelan military officials for criticizing his regime. And his ability to demand/seize airtime on Venezuelan broadcast media doesn't exactly creat a "level playing field".

and Venezuelans have all their civil rights protected by the Constitution.

This is the most laughable part of your Chavez apology. Most Americans and "westerners" think of "constitutions" as old, revered documents that protect individual rights. In the United States, we have a tradition of altering the constitution infrequently, in ways that expand personal liberties and restrict state power. It's the opposite in Venezuela. Chavez sees the constitution as a piece of legislation ripe for amending, and his changes usually expand the power of the Venezuelan execuive branch (i.e., his individual power). The current Venezuelan constitution was written by Chavez all of five years ago [cnn.com]. "All their civil rights" -- what does that mean? Intimidation, torture, police turning a blind eye to mob lynchings? [amnesty.org]

I hope you're right about your second and third points -- this could turn out well for FOSS if Venezuela becomes a viable, convincing case study for the "open source" merits of FOSS. But I fear it's more likely to be (or at least be seen as) a political anti-US, anti-capitalist "free software" ploy by a socialism-spouting power-hungry tyrant (just 'cos Hugo won the election doesn't mean he's not a tyrant).