TheServerSide: Brazilians to bring a strong open source voice to the JCP
By Floyd Marinescu - April 28, 2005
http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=33630
Brazil's JUG SouJava recently joined the JCP, and the Brazilian
government IT department SERPRO is also on its way in. The entry of a
staunchly pro-open source government agency into the JCP, as well as a
like minded and well organized Java User Group (one of the largest in
the world) could have a large impact on the future of Java.
JCP Chair Onno Kluyt recently visited Brazil and shared his thoughts
about SouJava and SERPRO, and the importance of standards in addition to
open source. What follows is mostly accurate transcript of an exclusive
phone conversation Onno had with TSS:
Onno: Brazil is very active from an IT perspective but not as visibly
so. What is interesting about Brazil is how organized they are. There is
the SouJava JUG in Sao Paulo, and SERPRO government agency. Java user
groups are often very informal, meeting once a month on various topics.
Soujava does that but they are also almost a political action group in
the sense that they share ideas and together they pursue those ideas.
One of those ideas is around IP and software patents. At 17,000 members,
they are an agent for change, both in their own country and in the java
community at large.
Posted by Vanessa on May 01, 2005 at 10:49 AM PDT #