Consortium of Free Software Developers and Users 
Announcement 

By Cláudio Menezes

 The free software movement is part of science.  It flourished as of 1984, from scientific institutions work.  In an article presented during the "First Monday Conference", at the International Institute of Infonomy (Maastricht, The Netherlands, 5th November 2001), Christopher M. Kelty underlines that:  "From the work of Stallman at the MIT to the Torvalds project in Finland, participants which develop free software come mainly from universities and research laboratories (private as well as public).  Furthermore, funding for so many projects (in many cases indirectly) came from well-known scientific institutions, such as: national science funding agencies, universities, science academies, government funding agencies and research laboratories, R&D industrial laboratories and organizations and non-profit research organizations, government scientific agencies and R&D private institutions".  Contributions by Bell Laboratory from AT&T, Sun and Berkeley University, California on Unix should be added.  "Free software is a comprehensive part of science, just like computing science and engineering", Kelty says.

Free software development directly relates to all UNESCO programmes and, particularly, to the Information Communication programmes (Access to Public Domain Information) and the cross-cutting theme "ICT"s Use in Education, Science and Culture in the Knowledge Society", with which there exist closer links.  Free software development is also important for the promotion of cultural diversity in the ciber-space.

In this context, 2001 was an extremely positive year. Four main activities were carried out, which required intensive preparation:

1.International events to support free software

a.II Free Software International Forum (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 29-31 May 2001),

b.Latin-American Workshop for the Promotion of Open Software in Education, Science, Culture and Social Areas (Havana, Cuba, 25-27 June 2001).

c.II Free Software Regional Meeting (Montevideo, Uruguay, 28-30 June 2001 

2.UNESCO Free Software Web Site
(http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/index.shtml)

3.Creation of  Provisional Commission to study the feasibility of the creation of the "Consortium of Free Software Developers and Users" in Latin America and the Caribbean.

4.Preparation of the foundations for the creation of the officially-launched "Consortium of Free Software Developers and Users".

In the aim of materializing and consolidating advances made in 2001, UNESCO, through its Office in Montevideo, is publicly launching this announcement for the creation of the "Consortium of Free Software Developers and Users", as a contribution by our Organization to the free software movement in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Provisional Bylaws, Web-page and application to join the consortium are available at:
http://www.unesco.org.uy/informatica/consorcio/index.html 

Foreseen agenda for the creation of the Consortium is the following:

1.Joining to the Consortium - Founding Members: until the beginning of the First Constitution General Assembly during the III International Forum of Free Software (Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 2nd to 4th May, 2002)

2.Official ceremony on the Opening of the Consortium: Wednesday 20 February 2002, at 14:00 hrs., Room 10, during SimpLAC 2002, sponsored by UNESCO and the Ministry of Informatics and Communications of Cuba (Havana, from 18th to 22nd February 2002), as part of the Conference INFORMATICS 2002). 

3.Consortium First Constitution General Assembly during the III International Forum of Free Software (Porto Alegre, from 2nd to 4th May 2002), http://www.softwarelivre.rs.gov.brhttp://www.softwarelivre.rs.gov.br

4. Permanent implementation of the Consortium activities.

In the framework of the Consortium activities, UNESCO has already started the implementation of its 2002-2003 work-plan, in which a high-level conference on free software in the Region is planned, as well as project preparation for submission to international funding sources.

We invite Free Software Users Groups, Universities, Research Centres and all those who are part of the free software community in Latin America and the Caribbean to join the movement and adhere to the Consortium.
 

Thank you very much,
 
 

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