Latinoware 2012

Free software can bring many benefits, both for individuals and for those who produce them. But does everyone know where and when to use them? At Latinoware 2012, the topic “Free Licenses and Fundamental Rights” will be addressed by Heitor Faria*, on October 19th.

 Author of “Free Licenses and Fundamental Rights” and “Bacula – Backup in Free Software”, at the conference Faria will address the social-legal benefits enabled by content or free software, focusing on the Fundamental Rights of society and bringing them to applications in social development. “Fundamental rights are those that every citizen needs to survive with dignity, in health, education or infrastructure services. The free licenses, in addition to providing greater economy, can generate a major development for citizens,” he says.

 According to Heitor, everyone knows that there are advantages in adopting free software, but not everyone knows the real benefits. “The benefits of adopting free software linked to Fundamental Rights, come directly from the functionalities and their applicability to social ends.”

 An example of applicability, according to the lawyer, is the freedom that some Brazilians managed obtain in the code for inVersalius, 3D mapping software for the human body used in MRIs and other hospital diagnostic tools, whose proprietary software license has a cost equivalent to millions of dollars. “In addition to the savings generated by not acquiring the license, there is a benefit to the effectiveness of the Fundamental Right to Health and the principle of administrative efficiency.”

 For Heitor, the most important aspect in bringing up this discussion is to ensure that IT professionals and the general public are sensitized to the issue, since there are numerous benefits enabled by open code and contents that are present in every social program possibly undertaken by governments.

* Heitor Faria is founder, consultant and trainer of the national community of users Bacula (www.bacula.com.br). Bachelor in Law by the Catholic University of Salvador. Lawyer. Analyst of the Federal Data Processing Service. He has experience as Network Administrator (Windows, Linux, Netware, including directory services), Security Manager and Service Manager and Projects. Certificate ITILF, LPIC-III and TOEIC “Gold”. He coordinated the implementation of the 5th Region PROMASP by SERPRO. He has participated in forums and meetings as free software speaker (including international events).

With the objective of bringing international speakers and, consequently, raise the level of quality for events, the organizing committees for Latinoware,Free Softeare International Conference (CISL Argentina) and the Hackers to Hacker Conference (H2HC) joined forces this year.

A result of this cooperation is, for instance, the coming of Ron Minnich, creator of LINUXBios, and Jon “Maddog” Hall, executive director of Linux International. Both will participate in Latinoware and CISL Argentina, which will be held in Buenos Aires, betweenOctober 15 and 19. “We feel this would benefit the audiences of the conferences and the speakers, since before this, they had to choose which event to participate”, affirms Jorge Cabezas, coordinator of CISL.

 With respect to H2HC – held in São Paulo, on October 20 and 21 – the partnership helped to bring the renowned PaX Team. “We used the contacts we have from H2HC and the tourist potential of Foz do Iguaçu to convince international speakers to come to the events”, emphasized Rodrigo Rubira Branco, event coordinator.

Unusual situations of everyday life of a programmer are shown daily on site ‘Programmer’s Life’ by comic strips and a good dose of humor. On the 19th, at 10am, André Noel – author of the site – will share with the Latinoware audience his experiences and also show how to use free tools in production of content.

Lots of creativity, Inkscape and Gimp are enough for the work he does and that has followers all over the country “Everything is produced with free software. I did not have any difficulties because I already used them long before starting with ‘Programmer’s Life’. Of course, proprietary tools always offer some additional features more than the others, but I’ve never felt the need for them,” he says.

- Where did the idea to create the website come from? How long do you usually spend on graphics nowadays?

I wanted to make something that was humorous and that made people laugh. After considering a few different ideas, I thought I should focus on programming, which is what I understand best. Hence the content has been “sprouting” from things that I experienced, some stories of friends and soon began receiving many true stories from readers. Today I’m working only with the site and doing my Masters. So, content production and my Masters program are always fighting for my time …

- Is there a strip for Latinoware!?

Sure. I only do not know if I will have time to draw it live there because of the time constraints, but there will certainly be a special one.

Even the elections have become the subject of Andre’s strips and ‘Programmer’s Life’.

André Noel holds a BA in Computer Science from the State University of Maringá (UEM); Web developer and Linux User since 2002, and Ubuntu since 2005;he is a member of the Ubuntu-BR Community Council and author of the Programmer’s Life website.

The German, Frank Karlitschek, is known for being one of the major contributors in the free software world. Besides participating in initiatives such as the Open-PC and openDesktop.org network, he is the founder of ownCloud Inc, a company that delivers services in the area of cloud computing.

At Latinoware 2012, he will introduce the main trends in the sector – on which he is considered one of the greatest international experts – and even promises a surprise. What will it be? Check out our full interview:

What a student or a young entrepreneur can expect from your presentation?

I will talk about the ideas behind ownCloud and why it makes sense to free software and a free society. I will also show how to participate and also introduce a new initiative as a surprise.

What makes OwnCloud special and what made you start this project?

The problem with all other cloud storage solutions like Dropbox, Ubuntu One, Skydrive, Google drive or iCloud, is that you have to deliver your files and waive control if you want to use synchronization and sharing features. ownCloud is the only open source project that has features comparable to large proprietary ones, but that works in its own machine.

What can we expect for the next versions of ownCloud?

The last release was ownCloud 4.5, featuring a more robust and significantly faster enhanced synchronization algorithm. We also have full support for mounting Google Drive, Dropbox and FTP servers and even other ownClouds in your ownCloud, plus many resources and solutions.

Along with the Owncloud Open Source Code Project, you also have a company – Owncloud Inc. – offering Owncloud as a service. What is the business model underpinning it and how it is working so far?

The ownCloud company offers ownCloud for businesses, educational centers and service providers. Customers get services and support for ownCloud. We do the customization for them and also offer as an option the ownCloud dual license. We have seen interest greater than expected for the technology in these areas and we are growing rapidly.

Acknowledged as one of the most important publications in the area of free software, Revista Espírito Livre will be represented in Latinoware for the fourth time. Just like last year, the team will have a stand at the event, where participants can learn about the work donesince 2009.

Moreover, in his lecture, João Fernando Costa Junior, creator and maintainer of the magazine, will report on the case of success of publishing the magazine, as well as the tools used in production and the challenges of building a publication using only free software and open document formats. “Latinoware is an incredible event. Each year we participate in the event, we feel our energies are renewed for another year of battle,” he says.

João Fernando will also be present at the roundtable on regional free software meetings in Brazil. The publication is responsible for organizing the Espírito Livre Magazine Forum, which is being held on Thursday (04), in Serra (ES). Check out the full interview:

- In recent years, which are the major developments in the area of free diagramming tools?

We believe that there is still much to be done, but what we already have at our disposal in perfectly meets our needs. Whether in layouting with Scribus, or with Inkscape on vectorial drawing or image editing with Gimp, we are well served. There is still much to be done, since most of the features are included through collaborators / volunteers from the communities of each of these software. We realize however that these are gradually maturing and increasingly becoming excellent tools.

- About the roundtable, how do you see the panorama of regional OS meetings in Brazil?

I realize that some states simply lack events. I find that in the opposite direction, the Rio / SP axis continues with an extensive event calendar, which is great, but still very much concentrated. I think regional events, preferably in states outside Rio or SP would help balance the scales. The proposal of the Revista Espírito Livre Forum, at least, targets this. Latinoware is also another strong contributor because it creates a great event, outside the commercial axis mentioned.

- Has holding this type of event evolved in recent years?

Yes, I realize that we continually receive news of events at colleges, research centers, institutes. I think that is the way to go. Universities are the ideal place to plant the seed of freedom.

- What is needed to improve?

I think if we had more events before the month of July, this would help a lot! I notice that almost all free software events in Brazil happen after the month of July and I still think that the vast majority of companies that use free software do not regularly collaborate with the community. And when I say collaborate, I mean return to the community the benefits they enjoyed (and enjoy). I think we need a change in this direction. Companies that use free software, approach the  communities, participate in events, sponsor events, create partnerships with communities to improve code … there is no lack of thing to do.

Check out details of the latest edition at http://www.revista.espiritolivre.org/lancada-edicao-n-38-da-revista-espirito-livre link.

With the Internet’s growing popularity, the success of having a lot of hits or followers can become a big problem. That is what Fernando Ike, solution engineer at Exceed / Akamai, will talk about in his lecture “How to be prepared to handle a million concurrent users? ‘.

 According to Ike, “the overwhelming majority of websites on the internet are not prepared for rapid success. And because they are not prepared, the sites stop responding and bad reputation can ruin the deal even before it has a chance to consolidate. Being prepared for millions of simultaneous users is the challenge for the coming years,” he says.

 Also according to the engineer, in Brazil there are 70 million Internet users and the biggest problem of the creators of sites is to predict the number of users. “If only 3% of these 70 million access a lightning promotion of your site, it will probably become unavailable, that is, go off-line.”

Cases of “off-line” sites is very common, especially in cases of sale of international concert tickets or related to the federal government. On Oct. 19, during Latinoware, Fernando Ike will bring cases of the problem and the challenges for the future. “Society is entering an era where everyone is connecting and interacting. Better develop sites to obtain quality support for these users will be a constant challenge to overcome,” he concludes.

 * Fernando Ike is solution engineer at Exceed / Akamai and slightly curious about distributed systems, resilience and anything that can improve performance; he has collaborated with some Free Software projects like Debian, PostgreSQL, and PGVM Zabbix, he also collaborated with podcasts like GDHcast and Navaranda Podcast.