I read on Glyn Moody's blog that one-time bosom buddies, Cuba and Russia, have linked up again. The cause this time? No, it's not communism. That one lost a while back. This time, the two are banding together to fight the evil software capitalists with open-source software.
Russia and Cuba speak different languages, of course, but the article suggests sovereignty may be the lingua franca here, with Russia leading the charge. Cuba, finally free from the shackles of American imperialism, and Russia, that paragon of liberty, playing the lead. The possibilities are enormous!
Or not. American software companies haven't been able to sell into Cuba for decades (though many probably do, anyway), but this prohibition will become moot if Cuba is able to become self-sufficient in its software needs. Will we notice? Nah. I can't remember the last time I considered Cuba a real threat to anything other than the balance of nationalities playing in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Hmm....Perhaps Cuba can open source its exceptional baseball talent in return for software? Even President Bush might sign up for that.
Matt Asay in Russia
(Credit: Matt Asay)Russia is warming up to open source, as evidenced by a new government policy document that Roberto Galoppini analyzes, and something I experienced firsthand today during my trip to Moscow to keynote Interop Moscow.
I met with a range of people including systems integrators, government employees, open-source vendors and, of course, Microsoft (Yes, they're always at these events, and the Russian country manager turned out to be a bit of a Putin-bulldog type). Despite the Microsoftie's attempt to discredit open source as a terrible strategy for Russia - perhaps he worries about a second Bolshevik Revolution, this time in IT? - it was a pleasant, informative day.
In my keynote (available to download here), I argued that Russia should develop its own IT economy, rather than shipping rubles back to Redmond (or anywhere else, for that matter). For any developing country (which is pretty much everyone), why would you ever want to try to build an IT economy on imports?
The economic impact of open-source development, as derived from a report the European Union commissioned, is telling:
... Read more
News recently broke that Russia is requiring registration for Wi-Fi use. I had forgotten until I checked into my hotel in Moscow tonight, and had the bother of having to go to a special desk in the lobby to sign up.
Reading the agreement, it sounds like this is an antispam measure? Seems a bit like the guns debate in the U.S. I doubt many of the spam kings and criminals that would be affected by it are going to register...
Russian Wi-Fi Agreement
(Credit: Matt Asay)Roberto Galoppini argues that open source is heating up in Russia. For such a large country, it's fascinating to see how small its start into open source may be:
Recent interest towards FOSS from the Russian government has boosted commercial activity in this field. No longer than a year ago there was no single large company that would say it is capable of doing FOSS system integration projects. Now there are three, and the number will probably grow.
I'll be keynoting the open-source day of the upcoming Interop Moscow show, and would love to talk with any open-source entrepreneurs that plan to attend the show. Please send me an email if you're available to talk while I'm there on April 24. My email address is not hard to find....
In an attempt to reduce its dependence on foreign software, Russia is planning to install its own version of Linux on school children's desktops across the country, according to CNews. Fantastic, right? Well, all that glitters is not gold.
Leonid Reiman, RF acting Minister of Communication states Russian OS and application program package development is of vital importance,...[with] [t]he main aim of the given work [being] to reduce dependence on foreign commercial software and provide education institutions with the possibility to choose whether to pay for commercial items or to use the software, provided by the government....
... Read more
- prev
- 1
- next
