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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

FISL: Java Everywhere

One of the gratifying things about attending FISL here in Brazil has been the diversity and richness of the event (I only wish I spoke Portuguese better than counting to ten, ordering coffee and avoiding being too impolite). My hosts have been monumentally accommodating and everyone I have met has been friendly and positive. The sessions too have been rich and diverse. There has been the usual geek-speak and outbreaks of partisanship bordering on the religious, but you get plenty of that at JavaOne as well! But there has also been philosophy, literature, history and, most importantly, music - the event even ended with a mass samba to the Brazilian national anthem.

This is the first F/OSS event I have ever been to that has included the Java community. To anyone who has attended JavaOne, Bruno Souza will be a familiar figure - he's the one with boundless positive energy and enthusiasm, serving caipirinhas and wrapped in the Brazilian flag. What people outside Brazil may not realise is that, as well as being the co-ordinator for Java User Groups (JUGs), he is a tireless advocate of open source and has been championing the use of the Java platform for open source projects. This was emphasised for me when he was included with those recognised as leaders of the open source community by the Brazilian government at the launch of their 'Free Software Migration Guide' this week. I have never seen a Java advocate counted among the champions of free software and this is a very encouraging step.

Java was everywhere here this week. By far the largest technology contingent in the 'User Groups' area of the conference was the Java user groups, especially the local group JavaRS, but more remarkable was the number of Java-related sessions on the conference agenda. While the aims of FISL and the F/OSS movement in Brazil are liberty not (necessarily) economy, the people are open-minded, reasonable and friendly and recognise the value of platform independence as a vehicle of freedom.

Going forward, we need to find ways to allow the parallel paths to freedom provided by standards, source access and compatibility to find ways to complement one another. That's clearly not easy, but the attitude and experience in Brazil may be the place to make it happen.

[Other Brazil posts: A Government That Gets It, WIPO, Smooth, Drinks, In Translation]

posted at 10:20 PM (UK) | |