[Runasimi] Bolivia FOSS - FOSS video software

[Yama Ploskonka]

flavio,

E un honor pra mim que Voce me escreba.  Muito obrigado.

that's about it :-)

Actually I reside currently in Austin, Texas.

There is little or no free software happening in Bolivia.  Microsoft was 
totally successful there in getting the country to become dependent 
through suspiciously easy piracy, and it is the country that will 
probably have the hardest time to free itself from those chains.   The 
current government is quite connected with Venezuela, and it would be 
totally great if Chavez public stance for Linux were heard in Bolivia, 
but it hasn't happened yet.  Government as a whole, media, etc are 
Redmont with a very few Macs.  Maybe a few dozen Linux, but don't expect 
much more.

One of the few active, organized things going on about FOSS in Bolivia 
is around Runasimipi.org.  I love those guys, you could do worse than 
getting in our mailing list.  I am copying this to the list, there might 
be other people who are actually in the ground there that would be 
interested to know about you and might be able to tell you more of what 
I cannot see from here, and hopefully correct my mistakes in what I am 
saying.

I am sure they'd like to know more about Plumiferos, I was a fan in the 
days I was into Blender, multimedia and Cinelerra.  I have dropped all 
that for this project: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Bolivia
but I hope that at some moment Luminera and other such will make it as 
part of it.

Hope to keep in touch.

Yama


flavio wrote:
> Hi, there, Yama,
> 
> I saw this mail of yours on the list. My name is flavio, I am the 
> maintainer of the portuguese translation documentation and probably one 
> of the most experienced video researcher under free software here in 
> Brazil. I'm writing this e-mail because I saw you reside in Bolivia and 
> I have recently returned (jan08) from a bicycle trip crossing Uruguay 
> and stopping in Buenos Aires, where I got in contact with the guys who 
> are making Plumíferos and to a very interesting group residing in the 
> triple-frontier, Misiones, Argentina, where a friend and I gave a 
> workshop on this issue.
> 
> Well, matter of fact I understood that travelling by bicycle is a very 
> rich experience. The talks we had during the trip opened my eyes to see 
> what is really happening in Latin America as a whole. I understood that 
> my second trip will have to be photography-based so I'm pretty much 
> under study of digital photography techniques so as to be able to really 
> register what is to be seen - apart from being a video documentarist, I 
> am also a still photographer. That second trip starts in La Paz, 
> probably by the end of the year.
> 
> So the main reason I'm writing you is to ask for a personal statement of 
> your as to what is happening in Bolivia concerning the use of free 
> software, especially (if not exclusively) on the multimedia area. I have 
> worked for two years for the Ministry of Culture here and travelled 
> around - the MinC was responsible for spreading free software here (an 
> interesting shift, since usually people relate the theme to technology 
> and not culture) and I think I've had a glimpse of what is happening in 
> Argentina and Venezuela (the second mostly by reports of friends coming 
> from the World Social Forum that happened there).
> 
> I don't want to sound bureaucratic or organ-dependent. Actually, the 
> story of this movement here relates way more to independent groups and 
> how these groups have infiltrated the organs. And, to me, Latin America 
> seems to be where a lot of things are happening.
> 
> Thanks previously for any response,
> flavio
> 
> 2008/4/16 Yama Ploskonka <yama en netoso.com <mailto:yama en netoso.com>>:
> 
>     Dear Cinelerra, Luminera friends,
> 
>     It's been a most enjoyable ride, but a new full time job and an
>     exciting volunteering project with OLPC will take all the time I can
>     afford, so I'll be moving on for at least a while.
> 
>     I own the domains Luminerra.org and Luminerra.com
> 
>     Good to anyone who fronts 20 dollars US for both, Paypal, to cover
>     my expense (if Luminerra had been the chosen name, as it should :-)
>     it being connected with Cinelerra... etc, I planned to give the
>     domains to the project, as I announced at the time)
> 
>     I'll be watching the list just in case someone wants those domains,
>     and then I'll sign off.
> 
>     BTW, let me encourage you to help OLPC FOSS work.  It would be great
>     Luminera eventually be part of that project.
> 
>     Yama
>     http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Bolivia
> 
>     _______________________________________________
>     Cinelerra mailing list
>     Cinelerra en skolelinux.no <mailto:Cinelerra en skolelinux.no>
>     https://init.linpro.no/mailman/skolelinux.no/listinfo/cinelerra
> 
>