Infociencia Computer & XX Days Community in Reading I leave then Lugín raises a concern on his blog and follow the line of reflection on the creation of public policies on ICT in Venezuela. On the one hand the authorities planners and implementers on the other. Establishing the legal framework to move the country towards self-determination in ICT but does not run by management failures. It is very interesting reading thus the full posting.
The wolf in sheep. Millions of Venezuelans
about to be deceived by Microsoft and false revolutionaries ... Do you allow it?
Luigino Bracci Roa
Aporrea
Do you know the steps that President Chavez and the Venezuelan government are being taken to prevent recurrence, by negligence or lack of speed, a technological failure that affects our country, similar which affected PDVSA and the Venezuelan oil industry in 2002? Do you know the actions that foreign trasnsnacionales monopolies are currently running against these measures, with the complicity of public officials? Do you know that, right now, is making a vote that, if manipulated by a well-known transnational information could affect the sovereignty of our country?
President Chavez signed in 2004 by Decree 3390, ordering that the public administration IT systems migrate to Free Software and Open Standards. It is a measure which, for some, may seem tedious, but whose success depends on technological independence of the country's computer systems, that we Venezuelans are not just users of computers and software sold to us from abroad, but we know how to modify, adapt them to our needs, enhance and share them with other people who also needed. So that nobody can stop our industries back again!
are many reasons why some are betting that the 3390 Act fails (there are many multimillion dollar contracts and commissions involved), and there are many strategies used to it.
Microsoft Strategy: Pretend to be "Free Software"
Microsoft, the renowned company that sells millions of copies of Windows and Office every year, generating a surplus so large that, in just two decades, created two ten men with more money in the world. Gains derived by a single man (Bill Gates) has had to deny the world the knowledge behind Windows and its derivatives, is much higher than the international reserves of Venezuela, an oil producing country with 26 million inhabitants! Despite its multibillion-dollar profits, Microsoft became the main enemy of Decree 3390. Last year, the MNC won the support of a popular deputy "Chavez" and the principal government agency for information technology, to try to pass the "Law of Infogobierno", which basically changed the definition of "Software Libre" to adjust as needed Microsoft, and enable it to continue selling its software to the State, this time in a massive way.
Microsoft's strategy was not to attack free software, but try to change their concept to fool the gullible and make Microsoft's proprietary applications may be acquired by the State. In other words, Microsoft's strategy was similar to say, "change the definition of socialism, so that all capitalist masquerading as socialist." Similar to the sentence of a former director of CNTI, who said in an interview: "free technologies include all technologies, including free technologies and non-free" [4]
had not been strong protest by the revolutionary government officials and many members of the Free Software community, most likely this law had been adopted, with disastrous consequences for the country's sovereignty.
OpenXML: In 2007 the strategy is repeated
A year later, the software transnational returns with the same modus operandi:
Microsoft seeks a Non-Governmental Organization Fondonorma on behalf of all of Venezuela, approved as OSI standard formats for Microsoft Office 2007, cynically called "OpenXML (. docx,. xlsx,. pptx, etc., also called Office Open XML or OOXML). His intention is primarily commercial: to achieve this will require millions of individuals, companies and public and private entities to acquire the new Office 2007 to manipulate these files.
The goal again is not to cancel the free software or open standards, but "change concepts" for the unwary to believe that Microsoft's format is an open standard.
An open standard is one whose specifications can be known and used by anyone. For example, everyone knows that a traffic light is flashing red, yellow and green, each with a specific meaning. It is a standard, something that we all agreed. If you morning they decided to make traffic lights, do not have to ask anyone's permission to use the colors red, yellow and green. Nobody owns the colors, so no one can come to ask for royalties for use at a stoplight.
opposite are closed or proprietary standards: those whose internal specification remains partially or completely secret, and is required to pay royalties to use them. For example, if you want to mount a movie and put the logo "Dolby Digital", has to pay a huge amount of money on equipment and certifications, and who meet standards for a private company authorized to place the logo in its films .
The objective of Microsoft is that Fondonorma declare "open standard" closed standard, using their influence in public and private officials. In Fondonorma, many public bodies are entitled to vote, as members of academia and business. Microsoft again has influenced various public officials such as CENIT and PDVSA, among others, to vote in his favor. Another strange case is constituted by a representative of the Central University of Venezuela, who says vote on behalf of this university, but also an employee of Microsoft and defends their interests.
Microsoft OpenXML formats are NOT open standards and free: Large portions of it are closed (it is not possible how cer cone) and depend on sizes and specifications are not known. In addition, more than 300 technical errors. More information can be seen in references [1] [2] and [3]
Microsoft OpenXML formats required to purchase Microsoft's proprietary applications to use: Because of the difficulties and obstacles that Microsoft has in its pseudo-standard will be very difficult to create software that achieves fully comply with its parameters. Most people prefer to buy proprietary software from Microsoft, claiming that "those they do well," free to choose applications that can only partially implemented.
OpenXML is patented by Microsoft, this makes the possibility of free applications can open and save with confidence. Microsoft may, at any time, require royalties or threaten to sue those who make programs that use this format.
There are alternatives to OpenXML, OpenDocument itself is an open standard, approved by standards bodies like OASIS OSI. Its specifications are fully available. It is free of patents. It is built on many open standards, and a huge variety of applications that can manipulate: OpenOffice, AbiWord, KOffice, and even Microsoft Office using a plugin. Microsoft could use as its standard for records if so desired.
Again, our Venezuelan government, anti-imperialist, pro-socialist and anti-neoliberal, is in tremendous ideological contradiction when some of its officials decide to vote and support to Microsoft, such as monopolistic transnational neoliberalism summit, to their proprietary standards become "open" standards. Having done that, many officials feel "allowed" to buy thousands of licenses of proprietary software Microsoft Office 2007, so you can continue to open and manipulate these files in the coming years, with a high probability that data nation are not perennial.
Although some people seem a purely technical and of little interest to the popular sectors and the general population, the fact is that this is a political issue. This is not to attack Microsoft because we fall ill, because it is a foreign or transnational because it is the world's largest computer monopoly. It is that the company is trying to mislead millions of Venezuelans, technology affecting our sovereignty and our right to store the data of all Venezuelans in formats that can be handled without relying on foreign-owned products.
apparently
Final votes will be held on 2 September. If you work in a State agency, do you know the position of the Department of Informatics of his body brought before Fondonorma? If you work or study in an autonomous university, do you know what will be the delivery of the same? We demand
know.
References:
[1] http://www.jesuslara.com.ve/blog/2007/08/24/argumentos-tecnicos-en-contra-de-ooxml-i-parte/
[2] http://www.openxml.info/
[3] http://www.noooxml.org/
[4] http://lubrio.blogspot.com/2006/02/jorge -Berrizbeitia-on-the-case-java.html