FLISOL event is happening in late April but we are already at full speed recruting, looking for sponsors and promoters and setting up an even better event from last year. 2011 was great for the FLISOL movement in Mexico, and this year I hope it gets even better.
First of, we did a decent job documenting the event, making database of visitors and getting contacts from newspapers and shows. We also got some visibility online and also some recognition, so is a good time to build on a next level of recognition closer to the mainstream.
This year we have a stronger relationship with a few more companies and we are growing. We hope to have even more partners than last year. And I hope we are able to acomplish more on less time. We also have more time with some universities from the locality and potentially a better fit team to create events.
So we are looking for this edition to be bigger, greater and more to the point of what people really are looking for. We are compiling a CD full of Videos that users can take home and maybe even a software packages that explain the creation and use of open source software.
However this is not enough, we are looking for next year also as an opportunity to kick start new developments with budgets and more strong relationship with the different locations across the country. We want to launch an initiative to get federal funds for innovation and put it into next year event across the country, giving it more visibility and a relationship with innovation that can start getting some legs.
I hope we can do this with the help of some of the open source activist that I know through the years. Happy FLISOL and keep hacking and moving.
Yesterday I was able to participate in a talk during a University event about the virtual internships through OpenOffice.org, project named "WayOOo".
The WayOOo project is a incentive to build the infrastructure of creating contracts with the universities about creating relationships and getting kids into the project.
OOo might not be the best project to start but is certainly a powerful and and popular open source platform to do so.
So the project has already produced a successful intern with a tangible result, and during the conference he was able to create a UNO naturalization to a popular OOo extension. OOo2Gdoc is an extension that will connect and exchange documents with Google Docs, Zoho and Webdav through their API.
So the presentation was a bit rocky, I got a bit lost explaining the concept of the presentation through a very awkward example of how traditional internships fail. However things improved when the intern talked about his extension and finally I think the QA was great since we were able to talk more fluently with the audience. At the end, I enjoyed it but the people attended was fairly reduced and I guess I was competing with other great talks, I only wish this talk was worth it for the few and will talk about it with their peers.
I am leaving the original presentation so you can check it out and comment on it, if you like it or have any suggestions please comment on it.
A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the Software Freedom Day in Cancun, the first SFD in that city. The development of the event was quite nice since we were able to capture most of the moments of the event and include things that have become a signature of the events from Tequila Valley Cancun including the "Freedom Cake" and some gifts to give out after each talk.
The event was well promoted and included things like TV broadcast of the event, development of new web application and even some streaming.
Talks included new bleeding edge topics like Bitcoins, Git, and some more traditional topics like Creative commons and recomended books on cyberculture and hacker culture.
The idea of this event is step away from the traditional Linux OS and their application environment and learning more about the ideals that make software free. The opportunities and empowerement behind open technology and also inspire atendees to innovate.
Lately I have been getting more and more involved wiht the OLPC movement not just in Mexico but in latin america. The goal is to help to create a more suitable group here in Mexico towards the development of applications for the Sugar environment.
So far we have had a couple of meetups with some of the initial invitees, including the coordinator: Mariana Cortez and a bunch of guys from Social Media Club.
At the moment I have manage to localizae the Developer manual wiki, there still many strings to translate but at least the structure is somewhat complete with localized pages.
The next attempt is to fully translate each page, I hope that more people stand up and help me acomplish this.
On other note, two days ago there was an interesting event about Free Software in the government house. This included the talks of many big free software personalities including Richard Stallman. Some of the topics range from ACTA, DRM, Internet rights, Educational projects and many more topics relevant to stablishing a digital agenda.
So here is my 'report' of the event going on at #FONASOL, an event targeted to the people of Coatzacoalcos. Previously, I was invited to that event in 2007 and was a really cool experience because the Mozilla Mexico group was just formed and also there was special setups such as a debate between Free software and proprietary one.
The event was covered was greatly covered by the local media and a debate was held infront of at least my camera. You can view a big chunks of the debate here.
This version of #FONASOL was much smaller and less prominent than the first one with a more traditional setup it was just about workshops and talks, with a lot of students and not as much interactivity. Many of the usual suspects weren't there but that was good since I was able to see new blood coming in and give their talks.
Few surprises was a talk I had with the guy from Oracle, Miguel angel from Novell and some night time discussion with Omar.
At the same time I was a bit disapointed that well there is just way too much exciting about alcohol and just get drunk. Don't get me wrong I am all forward for people getting retarded, as long as it has a porpouse. However there is nothing more uninspiring than hanging out with people wanting to get drunk talking about alcohol. I wonder if it's almost as annoying of having sex with someone talking about past times she had sex. :D
Back to the event, well it was nice seen so many females coming to the event more than males and even more when they are from high school. I wish they are actually interested more than just an extra point by a teacher. But only a girl can wish.
Well about the talks I went to some pretty good talks, I was pleasantly surprised by:
LFS: Linux From Scratch - the guy put too much text which nobody likes, but his talk was fluid and technically great.
OpenHardware Summit: Arduino - the talk was great, alhtough would have been nice to actually see a demo. It did remind me of a new innitiative Open Source Ecology
LTSP en Tabasco - Muy buena platica, me gusto haber visto las cajas rescatadas y que esto por fin se este implementando. Tambien quiero ver si el tecnologico de Centla quiere entrar en el programa practicas.
Desarrollo en Software libre para SCDH - No muy tecnica un testimonio de un sistema de tickets para casos de abuso de derechos humanos. Me hubiera gustado ver codigo.
Linux en el mundo empresarial - Excelente platica, ya la habia visto en el CONSOL pero me gusto el entusiasmo que Miguel le mete a sus platicas.
Desarrollo de Python - Pues fue una charla basica pero me gusto que mostrara codigo, quizas no tanto que codeara en vivo por que alarga la sesion innecesariamente. Si hubiera hecho pseudo-codigo hubiera sido bueno para la audiencia.
Excelente pero ahora con mis sesiones, Zen de Libertad pues estuvieron buenas, pero aun creo que se puede mejorar. La platica magistral creo que captivo a muchos. Aunque quizas el Q&A fue completamente abusado por Florentino que pregunto cosas que no tienen que ver con el topico sinceramente. Checa las diapositivas.
Sobre el taller, ODF Scripting pues el fail que pude ver fue que nadie tenia laptop para hacer lo que mostraba. Pero creo que muchas personas le entendieron a pesar de mis sobre explicacion de las cosas. Tarde mucho tiempo explicando que es RSS y XML que sinceramente no tiene tanto que ver con los scripts. Esto me hizo no poder cubrir los lenguajes de Perl y Java para que lo vieran las personas. Tambien tengo un todo que es transcribir scripts de un lenguaje a otro.
Sin embargo creo que a mucha gente le gusto, le intereso y pues quizas uno de toda la audiencia llegue a investar esto. Sin embargo el problema de que son muy pollos pueda ser el problema. Ahora, lo que esto me da es motivacion para hacer una replica de este taller en Youtube y que el mundo lo vea. Ahora que tengo un roadmap podre hablar de este.
Me gustaria ver el proximo #FONASOL si se llegara a hacer una especie de hackaton con mucha comida y mucha bebida y mucho mucho codigo en vez de tanta platica y diapositivas. Un bugfest por ejemplo hubiera sido excelente on actividad de localizar blogs.
So here is my 'report' of the event going on at #FONASOL, an event targeted to the people of Coatzacoalcos. Previously, I was invited to that event in 2007 and was a really cool experience because the Mozilla Mexico group was just formed and also there was special setups such as a debate between Free software and proprietary one.
The event was covered was greatly covered by the local media and a debate was held infront of at least my camera. You can view a big chunks of the debate here.
This version of #FONASOL was much smaller and less prominent than the first one with a more traditional setup it was just about workshops and talks, with a lot of students and not as much interactivity. Many of the usual suspects weren't there but that was good since I was able to see new blood coming in and give their talks.
Few surprises was a talk I had with the guy from Oracle, Miguel angel from Novell and some night time discussion with Omar.
At the same time I was a bit disapointed that well there is just way too much exciting about alcohol and just get drunk. Don't get me wrong I am all forward for people getting retarded, as long as it has a porpouse. However there is nothing more uninspiring than hanging out with people wanting to get drunk talking about alcohol. I wonder if it's almost as annoying of having sex with someone talking about past times she had sex. :D
Back to the event, well it was nice seen so many females coming to the event more than males and even more when they are from high school. I wish they are actually interested more than just an extra point by a teacher. But only a girl can wish.
Well about the talks I went to some pretty good talks, I was pleasantly surprised by:
LFS: Linux From Scratch - the guy put too much text which nobody likes, but his talk was fluid and technically great.
OpenHardware Summit: Arduino - the talk was great, alhtough would have been nice to actually see a demo. It did remind me of a new innitiative Open Source Ecology
LTSP en Tabasco - Muy buena platica, me gusto haber visto las cajas rescatadas y que esto por fin se este implementando. Tambien quiero ver si el tecnologico de Centla quiere entrar en el programa practicas.
Desarrollo en Software libre para SCDH - No muy tecnica un testimonio de un sistema de tickets para casos de abuso de derechos humanos. Me hubiera gustado ver codigo.
Linux en el mundo empresarial - Excelente platica, ya la habia visto en el CONSOL pero me gusto el entusiasmo que Miguel le mete a sus platicas.
Desarrollo de Python - Pues fue una charla basica pero me gusto que mostrara codigo, quizas no tanto que codeara en vivo por que alarga la sesion innecesariamente. Si hubiera hecho pseudo-codigo hubiera sido bueno para la audiencia.
Excelente pero ahora con mis sesiones, pues estuvieron buenas, pero aun creo que se puede mejorar. La platica magistral creo que captivo a muchos. Aunque quizas el Q&A fue completamente abusado por Florentino que pregunto cosas que no tienen que ver con el topico sinceramente.
Sobre el taller, pues el fail que pude ver fue que nadie tenia laptop para hacer lo que mostraba. Pero creo que muchas personas le entendieron a pesar de mis sobre explicacion de las cosas. Tarde mucho tiempo explicando que es RSS y XML que sinceramente no tiene tanto que ver con los scripts.
Sin embargo creo que a mucha gente le gusto, le intereso y pues quizas uno de toda la audiencia llegue a investar esto. Sin embargo el problema de que son muy pollos pueda ser el problema. Ahora, lo que esto me da es motivacion para hacer una replica de este taller en Youtube y que el mundo lo vea. Ahora que tengo un roadmap podre hablar de este.
Me gustaria ver el proximo #FONASOL si se llegara a hacer una especie de hackaton con mucha comida y mucha bebida y mucho mucho codigo en vez de tanta platica y diapositivas. Un bugfest por ejemplo hubiera sido excelente on actividad de localizar blogs.
The video is finally done with some extra clips and a good week in Starbucks primarily were enough to finalize the video full with a custom mix of a remix from the Free software Song and the narrations of one of the most well recognized developers from the FLOSS scene. The end result is this great video which I think will grab the attention of people all around.
So today, I got the first release by the Document Freedom Day PR department, this will add to FLISOL's and other local events agenda.
Freedom to Read, Freedom to Write: Celebrating Document Freedom Day 2011
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) invites individuals, community groups and institutions to celebrate the Document Freedom Day (DFD) on March 30th. DFD is a global day to celebrate Open Standards and open document formats and its importance. Open Standards ensure the freedom to access your data, and the freedom to build Free Software to write and read data in specific formats.
You can participate by organizing activities in your home town. Distributing fliers, organizing talks, adding a banner on your blog, donating money: there are many ways you can help spread awareness about Open Standards.
We would like at least 25 cities to take part in Document Freedom Day 2011. Help us to make this event a global success!
For more information about the event, please have a look at documentfreedom.org.
An ever greater part of our communication moves into the digital world. In the digital society, Open Standards and open document formats provide us with the freedom to read and write. They are crucial to ensure our ability to exchange information, remain independent of software vendors, and keep our data accessible in the long term. Open Standards also make sure that we are able to communicate and work using Free Software.
What are Open Standards?
Open Standards are a common language that all computers can speak. They enable us to work and communicate using Free Software. They make it possible for developers to write Free Software applications that are compatible with other solutions, and allow users to migrate to Free Software solutions without losing access to their data.
What is the aim of the Campaign?
The campaign brings a message about Open Standards and document formats to a non-technical audience. Open Standards are a basic condition for freedom and choice in software. Document Freedom Day raises awareness for Open Standards and lets everyone contribute to a better information society. It's easy and fun to participate in Document Freedom Day, whether as a group or as an individual.
So I am finallyin Mexico and I have been doing a lot of work lately with what I felt that needed some. I have had meeting all along with some of the issues regarding the Open for business initiative, also the ODFKit and the deals with the Valencian government.
I have also been interested with the things going on at UX and have solidify my position on getting rid of the upper toolbar. Another project which I have driven my attention is webdev which did a recent upgrade on the wiki and it affect the template from OOo.
I wonder if I should update my wordpress theme to the OOo site type of theme. I really like the way that theme blends and is a very cool factor. I also had done this in the past fo the mediawiki and would like to see it on my site. Plus the wordpress community could benefit from it.
Finally I am trying to get back in touch with the contacts from Brazil and make an impact and an alliance. The program RCSLA is one of the projects about sustainability on free software development.
Well seems that plans keep coming and I will need to be developing them for as far as I can.
Having Guadec and Akademy at the same place always seemed like a great idea and pulling it together has proved that it was indeed a great idea.
As an OpenOffice.org community member I feel truly honored to be at this event and see so much forward thinking about using open source, free software and open standards to push forward society and innovate.
Nobody is talking about imitating the commercial equivalent, at least when talking about technologies. Nor there is people that seems that a good idea is to keep doing what works.
This is a great fertile soil ground to innovate and come up with propositions about business, development, use cases, and just share bold daring opinions.
Yet everyday is a party and having creative juices all over can lead to maybe some exhaustion and just take the night off to sleep. However the way things have been advancing I really wish we could make more of this events with more inclusiveness.
The event has been great and the people I have meet has been outstanding. To be honest I knew some of these people before, they are fun, easy to talk to and very very geeky.
I enjoyed having them around again and sharing experiences on what can happened to OpenOffice.org and the general desktop. The most important points that this event has raised so far is the Semantic applications and the social desktop.
Gnome people on the other side were more concern with Gnome 3.0 and more underlining technology like Freedesktop and GnomeShell. Media applications and just having a more appealing desktop experience. Not saying that they weren't embrassing innovation, but much on a different fashion.
