fisl9.0

It's hard not to be enthusiastic about fisl, or to expand the acronym, the 9th Fórum International Software Livre, held each year in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In part, my enthusiasm stems from the energy and commitment to free software shown by the government; and in part, from the warmth and friendship demonstrated by the Brazilians.

OOo will, as always, have a booth at fisl, and we will--a first--be holding workshops, demonstrating how to build extensions, and answering question about code, format, project, community. If the past is any measure of the future, I'm fairly sure the event will be memorable and fun.

But there are challenges. The BrOffice community is big and growing but integration between it and the international community needs to be stronger. I would love to know, for instance, some basic data, such as how many people download the application, or some basic information about who is using it. Of course, I am aware of the big players, such as major government offices. And am also acutely aware of the difficulty of obtaining solid information about the users of free software. But, the more and the better information that we possess, the more effective we can be in shaping the product, addressing needs, and so on. And the more the BrOffice community works with the international one, the easier it ultimately is to grow the developer community.

Brazil is by no means alone here: all the major regions suffer the same problems, to greater or lesser degrees, and they come down to a lack of sophisticated developers. Nor is OpenOffice.org at all unique; all major Foss projects are in the same boat. We are also taking similar actions to redress these lacks, but results do not come the next day or even the next month. Education, mentoring, outreach, community coordination, all take time to bear fruit, all are forms of capital investment, and all are worth it--from the perspective of the government, and from that of the project.

And in this regard, as I've witnessed in the last few days, Brazil is a real leader. Its government has powerfully realized the necessity not just of using Foss but of producing it. And it is to OOo's credit and honour that we are so deeply involved in the move to productive freedom.