WORLD SOCIAL FORUM:
Open Systems for Open Politics

The World Social Forum opens Wednesday with open information systems in place to go with an open political ethos. All of about 1,000 computers at the forum are using free software. The official website has been developed for the first time in 'php,' an open source language. A new translation system is also a free software tool. The system has been developed by Nomad, a group of programmers from India, Brazil, France and Britain working since 2003 on a voluntary basis to build the system for the World Social Forum (WSF). A Tunisian group has developed a programme to store video footage and offer it on the Internet. Discussions at more than 400 panels and workshops will be transmitted live, permitting virtual participation from around the world. The idea is to turn the Forum into a space where practice reflects models of a better world. The 'world social territory', as the organisers call the venue, is therefore seeking to use open source technology, fair trade groups and renewable sources of energy. Around 744,600 dollars of the total WSF budget of 5.2 million dollars has been allocated to fair trade organisations and to manufacturers of open communication systems. The WSF is also bringing together free software activists at a 'free knowledge laboratory' at the WSF youth camp. The digital revolution promoted by free software will be at the core of several WSF debates. The debates will be joined among others by members of the Free Software Foundation, Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells, and Lawrence Lessing from the Creative Commons initiative. Creative Commons is a project started December 2002 to seek an alternative to traditional intellectual property rights. It promotes a flexible copyright framework that protects creative works while also promoting access to knowledge. It provides a system of ”some rights reserved” on websites, software, music, films and literary works. An author can for example prevent commercial use of his work, but allow free exchange for non-profit purposes. The Creative Commons system offers a choice of 11 different licences that are being adopted around the world. In May last year the BBC announced that an archive of video and audio material will be released under Creative Commons licence, allowing people to download parts of it, but preventing commercial use. Not surprisingly the Brazilian government is taking part in the debate on alternatives to the intellectual property rights system. At the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in 2003, the Brazilian government strongly opposed intellectual property on software, and succeeded in getting this omitted from the final resolution. Free software is also part of the Cultura Viva (lively culture) project launched last year by the ministry of culture in Brazil to encourage cultural initiatives at the community level. ”Working with open source software and recycling old computers, civil society groups create multimedia laboratories in underdeveloped communities,” Vitor Cheregati from the ministry told IPS. In all 261 communities are already involved in the project, and 250 more will be included next month. Cultura Viva groups have been moving to the World Social Forum in caravans, stopping in cities along the way to organise workshops and meet the local communities. ”We give voice to all the experiences of community media we are meeting along the way, sharing what we know and learning from them,” Gabriel Furtado from Media Sana (a group promoting democratisation of media) told IPS on telephone from their last halt in Florianopolis before joining the youth camp. (END/2005)

By Stefania Milan

World Social Forum has Bush in its sights
Tens of thousands of anti-globalization activists converged on southern Brazil Wednesday for what has become an annual ritual of opposition to corporate-sponsored capitalism and the divide between the rich and poor nations. The annual World Social Forum - a lively gathering of protesters where many sleep in tents or modest guest houses - is held simultaneously with the World Economic Forum, a staid gathering of finance ministers and CEOs of major corporations in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Davos. In Brazil, nearly 6,000 groups will plug their causes at the six-day protest, ranging from debt relief for developing countries to distribution of idle land for impoverished Latin American farmers. In a new rallying cry this year, some protesters compared unfettered capitalism and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq to the tsunami that struck Indian Ocean shores last month, saying the deaths caused in poor countries by First World greed are uncountable. "It is even more than the numbers killed by the tsunami," said forum organizer Meena Menon, an activist from India. Activists are also expected to promote a ban on genetically modified crops and decry the war in Iraq, while plugging a multitude of less-prominent causes, such as protections of indigenous tribes threatened by development. The left-leaning presidents of Brazil and Venezuela are scheduled to address the gathering later this week. But Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, hailed as a hero in Porto Alegre in 2003, could return to jeers from some activists when he speaks Thursday at a soccer stadium. Silva took office vowing to improve living conditions millions of poor Brazilians, but the country's first elected leftist leader has so far stuck to orthodox economic policies, paying down foreign debt in lieu of social programs. And last week, Silva's government acknowledged it fell 30 percent short of its 2004 goal of giving land to 115,000 impoverished families. In response, the Landless Rural Workers' Movement, another forum organizer, promised a wave of protests across Brazil that could result in a new round of land invasions in South America's largest country. In contrast, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who will address the meeting Sunday, has enforced a 2001 law allowing expropriation of idle agricultural land from large estates. Oxfam International is using the forum to push for support for the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, an effort to persuade the world's richest countries to cancel the debt of poor countries. "Millions of people are being denied the most basic human needs: Clean water, food, health care and education," said Oxfam spokeswoman Katia Maia. "People are dyeing while leaders delay debt relief and aid." Organizers of the Social Forum take pride in hosting the event in a developing nation, compared to the site of the Economic Forum in an exclusive resort in one of the world's most expensive countries, saying the contrasting styles underscores their message. "How much does a lunch cost in Davos?" Grajew asked. "It could pay for a lot in a Brazilian slum. There's so much wealth over there, and so much poverty in the rest of the world." Next year, organizers plan to replace the gathering in Porto Alegre with a number of smaller forums in different spots around the world. The 2007 event will take place in Africa.
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