Blue GNU interviews Alexandre Oliva to learn about Free Software Foundation - Latin America. After a bit of a stuttering start, the FSFLA is definitely well under way and making strong progress.

When and why was FSFLA started?

Efforts started late in December 2004, and by mid 2005 a first public announcement was made. Unfortunately, most of the initial participants have moved on to pursue other interests, and in late 2006 we started the process of rebuilding FSFLA.

Our mission is to defend the rights and freedoms of software users and developers, with a focus in Latin America. Along with the original FSF, FSF Europe and FSF India, we form a network of independent organizations that cooperate to achieve digital freedom for all, each one focused on its geography, but with coordinated actions to sum forces where it makes sense, and avoidance of duplication of efforts where that makes sense.

One of the non-obvious goals of the FSF network is to create a suitable environment in which worldwide Free Software activists can be formed and nurtured, so as to ensure a very long-term stability of the Free Software philosophy, ideology, promotion and defense.

Where does the project stand at this point?

After publishing our publicly-reviewed constitution, we're now in the process of enrolling Free Software activists from all over Latin America to join us in shaping up the new FSFLA.

How many active people are actively involved in FSFLA?

In addition to 3 board members and about a dozen regular participants in our translators workgroup, we've recently enrolled more than 20 Free Software activists from countries such as Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, and a number of them are getting up to speed to become board members.

What distinguishes FSFLA from other projects?

What most distinguishes FSFLA from other FSFs is that its focus is Latin America, and that it's structured as a direct democracy, rather than as a representative democracy.

What distinguishes FSFs from most other groups that promote Free Software is the non-compromising of the core values of Free Software, and the focus on the long term, preferring slow but sure advances for users' and developers' freedoms over moves that may boost popularity in the short term but that may yield less freedom for everybody in the long term.

In a sense, FSFes bear the non-exclusive but painful role of reminding people who do promote Free Software but that sacrifice 100% freedom for the sake of usability or other pragmatic considerations, that although taking steps towards freedom is a good thing, we'll only be free when we actually get there.

It is quite common that people fail to understand our radical, non-compromising attitudes, and even take offense at them, for not understanding or sharing our long-term vision or our fundamental moral and ethical values. Although it is frustrating to take criticism for this "free radical" stance, we understand these views are necessary to accomplish the ultimate goal of freedom, even when they are unpopular.

Can you give me any idea of FSFLA's impact (an example or two of how you've helped people)?

Our most visible success so far has been the campaign against "Softwares Impostos" (Impostos means both "taxes" and "imposed" in Portuguese), whose initial focus was on non-Free income tax software in Brazil. We've succeeded in releasing a functional Free Software version thereof, such that nobody in Brazil would have to give up their freedoms in order to comply with their tax obligations, regardless of how unlawful such obligations were.
http://www.fsfla.org/?q=en/node/157
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/blogs/lxo/2007-05-14-irpf2007-free.en.html

We've also had some inroads into anti-DRM campaigning, and we're now getting involved with Free Open Standards, as we participate in the discussions on the DIS 29500 proposed standard (Microsoft OOXML) in
the Brazilian standardization organization. We'd limited our focus to Brazil based on incorrect information that Brazil was the only Latin American country with voting rights at ISO JTC-1. Now that we know better, we're looking into expanding our efforts, in part through our recently-created workgroup to promote Free Open Standards, with focus on office document formats.
http://fsfla.org/svnwiki/circular/2007-078.pt#3
http://www.fsfla.org/mailman/listinfo/stdlib

What lies ahead for FSFLA? What are some things you want to see happen?

Besides internal reorganization, which is a top priority for us right now, we look forward to extending the scope of our campaign against Softwares Impostos to other countries in Latin America, and bring the need for adopting Free Open Standards and to reject DRM to wider public knowledge.

Having been actively involved in the development of GPLv3, we also expect to see its use grow over time, and we have been writing and speaking at conferences about it, to dispell fears and myths that built up. We welcome opportunities to speak at conferences and spread knowledge about Free Software, GPLv3 and our other activities.

What are the biggest challenges the FSFLA team faces?

At this moment, our greatest challenge is a shortage of human power. This has made it very difficult for us to keep up with our long-term campaigns while at the same time acting quickly in the face of surprising moves detrimental to Free Software, such as the pact between Microsoft and the Chilean Ministry of Economy.
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/blogs/lxo/2007-07-31-ms-chile.en.html

Help from Free Software activists is always welcome, and we have a number of workgroups that need more attention and participation.

Is there anything else about FSFLA you think our audience should know?

We expect to establish a juridic arm in Brazil over the next few months, which will enable us to receive contributions from corporate sponsors that have voiced interest in supporting our activities. We thank those who have already extended offers to us, and apologize for the delay, and we invite others who appreciate the importance of such an organization to consider the possibility of supporting our work.