Forum International do Software Livre

by Richard Vernon

The International Forum of Free Software will take place on May 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the city of Porto Alegre in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The event is the largest of its kind in Latin America and will feature over 200 speakers from the Linux community, government, industry and academia from Brazil and Latin America. Speakers include Jon "maddog" Hall (president, Linux International), Richard Stallman (president, Free Software Foundation), Tim Ney (GNOME Foundation), Miguel de Icaza (GNOME/Ximian), Alfredo Kojima (Windowmaker), David Sugar (GNU/Bayonne), Bruce Perens (Hewlett Packard) and Larry Wall (Perl author).

The conference is being organized by Procergs (an IT bureau offering services to the state government and corporations), the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Cyclades Corporation, and several universities and Linux companies.

Procergs serves both the government and corporate market in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. They are the leaders in the adoption of open-source software. In part, it is thanks the the efforts of Procergs that Linux is being used in high volumes (thousands of workstations per application) for banking automation, school Internet access, and office automation in corporations in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Also, the state has specific legislation regulating and favoring the use of open-source software by government agencies.

In terms of Linux world domination, it looks as if at least one Brazilian state is all but conquered. If you can read Portuguese, you can learn more about the Forum on its web site.

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