This year's edition of Latinoware will have participation by civil engineer and profession of the Center of Excellence in Software Engineering of the Universidad de la Frontera (CEISUFRO), in Chile, professor Víctor Aravena Díaz.

Managing partner of Tecnológica Lazos, belonging to the Universidad de La Frontera, and head of several software projects for the Chilean government like the medical information system; Web Platform for the Regional Government of the municipalty of Araucanía; educational, participant and innovation in education project carried out in several cities; among other speakers, Víctor will be at Latinoware to present the panel “Projects of the Government of Chile executed using open source software technology”. Check out the interview given to Latinoware below.

Latinoware: Víctor, we've noticed there seems to be a trend to support the adoption of open source software by the governments of Latin America. Do you believe there is a direct correlation between support by the governments and employment and income generation? Has this happened in Chile?

Víctor: There currently is a study on the digital strategy of open source software lby the State (FLOSS) which anlyzes the reality of Latin-american countries. (See more here!). The study promotes the use of the concept of “technological impartiality” and not “technological neutrality”, with the purpose of promoting open source code solutions capable of competing on equal footing with proprietary solutions. It also favors the deployment in projects requiring tailor made software solutions for public agency systems.

The Government is at this point in time promoting the industry of technology and the development of innovation, it is aware of the role of open source software and its influence in innovation and in driving the generation strategic knowledge for advanced technology human capital, the adoption of international standards and the development of bio-technology. Initially, the effort is in promoting the deployment of open source software in public administration.

I believe there is a lack of more advanced initiatives in defining a regulatory framework like Brazil has done, with national department to deal with the issue. I also believe there is a dearth of concrete initiatives and economic assessment studies and the number of companies that have bet on this business model. Unfortunately, deployment level is still low by government and private initiative alike. The main issues are the support, maintenance and costs in training and qualification. Personally, I feel that the issue of licensing and intellectual property is still a pending cultural issue in Chile.

In our case, we are a regional software development company belonging to the Universidad de la Frontera. We have made our bet on open source technology as a business model and at the level of qualification of human capital, to qualify future professionals to join the institution.

This business model allows us to compete in price, product quality and service levels. Our solutions are easy to implement, operate, maintain and support even in high demand operations. For us, deploying open source technology allows us to compete with software business model such as a customized low cost service.

At the qualification level, this allows us to teach software deployment adopting high standards in development , architecture, structure and CMSs, where students are involved and contribute to the community, generating learning networks and a number of best practices and competencies. Promoting the establishment of software companies stimulates competition in an environment of free competition and easy expansion, fostering the appearance of entrepreneur behavior.

Latinoware: One of the projects you participate in is in connection to metrics for quality of education in Chile. What about the adoption of open source software for education in Chile, what could you tell us?

Víctor: There are initiatives that promote the deployment of education solutions in open source technology. Among the projects presented are Edulinux, support of education software analysis according to the platform and the development of learning units.

The best-known project that I am aware of is Edulinux, a Linux distribution providing a client-server solution for laboratories. The focus was to qualify a super-computer (server) and that computers close to the end of their life cycle might take advantage of applications running on a central server.

Another important project, www.redparticipa.cl, created a web 2.0 platform with a learning system in 64 stores and municipal schools in the cities of Temuco, Villarica, Imperial, Lautaro and Chol-Chol.

Incorporation of technology in education is coordinated by project Enlaces, of the Ministry of Education which, together Computer Sciences in Education Institute perform important work in this area. Anyway, I believe these are isolated projects and there is a shortfall of ongoing activities to establish a methodology for the incorporation of open source source (Floss) to daily life.

Latinoware: This is your first participation at Latinoware, what are your expectations? What can people expect from your paper?

Víctor: I'd like the audience to learn of our experience in deployment of open source technology for high demand solutions that we are undertaking with the Government, in particular, the strategies and business models. My expectation is to hear about similar experiences and enhance my business networking.