Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Emerging Synergies in El Salvador Free Software Project

Yesterday was a really encouraging day for the Juan Chacon Free Software Project.  Douglas Cerna, SchoolTool developer and hacking high priest of our project, sent an email and made a phone call to Lic. Liseth Giron, Profesora de Computacion at la Universidad Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero (UMOAR), to start a conversation about how we might work together on several projects.  Douglas's chat to me afterward captures the mood of their conversation:


Douglas: WOW
and wow
just wow

It turns out that Lic. Giron is already familiar with the free software movement, has Ubuntu already running at the university, and is interested in exploring ways we might work together toward community development in Chalatenango.  So our collaboration with PEACE, International and UMOAR is off to a promising start!

When I first learned about the Free Software Foundation more than 15 years ago, I thought the day would come when free software would play a crucial role in movements for progressive social change.  Now, watching free software sweep across progressive Latin America, it is great to be able to play a small part in the process.

2 comments:

  1. I am glad to see this project honoring Juan Chacon. I was with him three times.The fist time, eartly 1980 at the Central America University (UCA) where I was an student, and he was a panelist along with Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, and Lino,a campesino leader in El Salvador; the second time, we were toguether in the same house in Mexico City,inmediately after Bishop Romero was killed; and the last time, it was in a public event at the UNAM ( National University of Mexico). Next day, he left to El Salvador, where he was kidnaped and killed, two days latter. Francisco Acosta

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