Brazil

Brazil--the Sinatra song speaks of holiday hope, escape, beauty, love, and their loss--

Brazil, where hearts were entertaining June
We stood beneath an amber moon
And softly murmured "Someday soon"
We kissed and clung together

Then, tomorrow was another day
The morning found me miles away
With still a million things to say
Now, when twilight dims the sky above
Recalling thrills of our love
There's one thing I'm certain of
Return I will to old Brazil

Then, tomorrow was another day
The morning found me miles away
With still a million things to say
Now, when twilight dims the sky above
Recalling thrills of our love
There's one thing that I'm certain of
Return I will to old Brazil
That old Brazil
Man, it's old in Brazil
Brazil, Brazil


And it was brilliantly used by Terry Gillian in his bleak 1985 satire, Brazil. The country remains a focus of hope and expectation, a sunny future, shadowed by its dark realities. But the current federal administration, Lula's, is changing things, and though the disparities of wealth and privilege remain stark and brutal (Brazil is, like the US, one of the more dramatically disparate countries in terms of wealth and privilege), things are very much improving. The government takes seriously the condition of its people and the importance of social responsibility.

I discovered this anew in my most recent trip to Brasilia, for meetings with the education ministry, and Porto Alegre, for fisl 9.0. Briefly, the meetings were immensely productive, and fisl was extraordinary. It is one thing to hear the strong rhetoric for Floss and another to see it in action (read about the KDE installations). The ministry, along with other federal and provincial governments, is dedicated to Floss and wants to move fast on it. OpenOffice.org is crucial there, as it is the best productivity suite on the planet, and that it is also free software--well that simply seals the deal. But the OpenOffice.org we are talking about is BrOffice.org, the Brazilian Portuguese version that is distributed by the BrOffice team. They had to rename it for trademark reasons, but it's the same thing that nearly a hundred million others use daily. And these facts raise some compelling points:

        •        Many Brazilians, including those in the Floss movement, as well as those in major corporations and government offices, are unaware of the identity of the two
        •        Support and training are sporadically available. Now, if someone or some public or private enterprise wants support for OOo, they can find it in several languages by going to our Support page; Sun (my employer) also provides for-fee professional support for OOo, along the same lines as for StarOffice.
        •        But the default understanding of the public and private enterprises in Brazil does not include support, training, services, and these are sorely wanted. Thus, we have the states of Paraná, the huge, quasi-federal office Serpro, the social security agency and many, many more which I learned about in the three-hour session dedicated to OOo and in personal discussions. (Indeed, I had so many of these that I regretfully could attend very few sessions.)

The ultimate point: we need to develop the support business in Brazil. Of course, Brazil is not alone; we need to do this elsewhere, too. But the need is urgent there and the market is open, and as I mentioned in my presentation late Saturday, Brazil really is the leader here and has the ability to join with India and South Africa and possibly China in proving the role and value of Floss in creating not only markets independent of colonial shadow but socially responsible.

But what about support? By support, I mean first and second level support, the sort that reassures regular endusers; and I also mean training. NO polity, no enterprise embraces Floss without minimizing liability. That means they want support and services and training contracts. It means building the ecosystem for OOo and doing so now.

BTW, if you have not looked at this, now is the time: http://www.hackerteen.com .