[CREATE] Free as in Speech, and Vietnam?

[Mario Behling]

Hi,

wow! A huge amount of questions. So, this email became a bit longer as well..

As someone, who has been around in Asia for several years -
Afghanistan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam - I can just say: Come over
and have a look. It is very difficult to answer all your concerns
precisely. Freedom - it is a vast topic. As a "bynote" I feel much
more restricted in Europe than in most Asian countries.

The question I see: Is Vietnam the right place to do an LGM now? I
want to see Free Software and Openess growing and it is the best to do
this by getting in touch directly.

Having seen and having organized events throughout Vietnam and Asia
and seeing the enthusiasm and commitment for LGM I am sure we can put
together a great LGM in Vietnam, also considering the support of this
bid locally.

What we need to focus on, if Vietnam becomes the host: How can the
event in Vietnam help to maximize our efforts to join up with Asian
contributors, rather than just getting the existing community to an
exciting location? I think the chances to achieve this are pretty
good.

Besides ideas Hong Phuc mentioned in her talk at LGM, I see that it
would be very helpful to involve community members, who are already
active in the region. I see that there is a good momentum to link up
with the local communities in Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Thailand,
Laos, Korea, Japan... We have a lot of Open Source designers in
Thailand as seen a couple of weeks ago at MekongICT in Chiang Mai.
Linking up with people spontaneously on the net requires quite some
effort. Bringing people together around an event like LGM offers more
chance of success and is more fun.

There are networks of the community that exist in Asia already. Let's
connect with these networks at LGM and let's feel and see how things
are. We also need to understand that "Western concepts" that to a
large extent go back to the idea of the Greek democracy and the French
revolution do not always "translate" to the exact same meaning in
Asia, where we have a different historic background. This might be the
reason why some Vietnamese might not understand, when you ask them
about Human Rights. Liberation and Freedom - these words were/are used
by the Japanese, French, Americans ... justifying invasions and war
and most Asian countries have experienced this. Please be aware that
words you are using in a Western context might transfer into different
meanings or even several different meanings in languages that are not
closely related to ours.

There are many people in Asia who want to work together with us. So
many people are excited about international sharing and collaboration.
So many people share our goals (even though they might use a different
wording their actions show that we are in line). We have the chance to
make this event possible in Vietnam and to bring this world together.

I would be extremely - extremely - surprised, if anyone would have
his/her laptop searched at the airport and followed by security during
the whole trip (I wonder if they have facilities and staff that speaks
English, French, Portuguese, German.. to do this at all). LGM does not
plan to overthrow the Vietnamese government by organizing a human
rights event (again the wording and justifications of foreigners for
involving into local politics). So, I would not believe there would be
a problem with the event at all.

About FOSS - as part of a EU funded project I organized FOSS Bridge
(http://fossbridge.org) 2007/2008 in Vietnam. Vietnam has a strong
Open Source policy. Before Vietnam joined the WTO, the US demanded a
stricter implementation of copyright policies. Vietnam agreed to that.
In the following years the country decided in 2003/2004 to switch its
IT infrastructure to Free and Open Source Software in order to comply.
Nevertheless copyright and patents restriction are usually unknown
around IT users (you can get anything).

In my experience the government would like to see much more Open
Source implemented, however, it is often difficult to find qualified
people. LGM can help to push knowledge around Free Software. Leading
to the event, I can imagine to set up initiatives for translating
books, founding students groups and more. Things will happen anyways,
but LGM in Vietnam would give all this a fantastic push in the region.

As someone living in Vietnam, I would be happy to tell you more about
life there or to put you in touch with other people. I know Serge
Stinckwich for example from France who lives currently in Hanoi (put
him in CC). I would also vouche to involve other local community
organizers on a kind of advisory board, e.g. Arthit Suriyawongkul from
Thailand, the Khmer-OS makers from Cambodia and people from Singapore
like Preetam Rai who supports Barcamps throughout the region. Of
course Andy Fitzsimon and Jon Phillips are already involved and work
in the region.

So, I am curious to see the outcome of this discussion. Please get in
touch with me, if I can help in any way.

All the best,

- Mario


On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 9:11 PM, ricardo lafuente <bollecs at sollec.org> wrote:
> Wonderful way to wrap the issues up. +1
>
> On 06/14/2010 07:09 PM, Susan Spencer wrote:
>>
>> My 2k on holding LGM in Vietnam:
>>
>> LGM embraces and promotes the open source model.
>> But an open source model of government doesn't exist anywhere on earth.
>> Compromise will happen no matter our destination.
>> Let's be who we are anywhere we go.
>>
>> I'd love to see even a small part of Vietnam.
>> And there's a lot happening there right now.
>> We can be a part of what's to come.
>> Let's go.
>>
>> - Susan