CDR: First, Mexico's future lies with free, "open source" software like the operating system Linux, and Gnome

[Matthew Gaylor]

[Sent with permission-MG]

DIGITAL NATION

Mexico Has Resources for High-Tech Success

By Gary Chapman

Copyright 2000, The Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved

An open letter to Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox:

Congratulations on your historic victory in the presidential 
election. About 100 million Mexicans and others who love Mexico are 
eager for change in your country, and they have high hopes when your 
new administration takes office in December.

But clearly, one issue of great importance is how to bring Mexico 
into the "new economy" of the Internet, high tech and global 
commerce. Mexico has many resources in technology to exploit, but 
they have been obstructed by weak or bad government policies. You can 
change this.

Let me offer you some suggestions on how you might start.

First, Mexico's future lies with free, "open source" software like 
the operating system Linux, and Gnome, another open-source effort to 
build a Windows-like screen. Gnome itself was developed by a young 
Mexican programmer, Miguel de Icaza, who is 27 years old. This 
summer, De Icaza started the Gnome Foundation (http://www.gnome.org) 
to unify and stabilize the Linux desktop software, and he acquired 
the support of IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, 
among other major U.S. companies. He is a hero to young programmers 
around the world, and he should be a hero to all Mexicans. You should 
meet with Miguel de Icaza and get to know him and young people like 
him. They are the best hope for Mexico.

Obviously, the biggest benefit of free software to Mexico is that 
it's literally free, and Mexico is a poor country that needs to 
preserve its capital. Mexico has a new law on software piracy, for 
example, and your government will need to enforce this law for Mexico 
to be regarded as a trusted partner in high-tech trade. But if you do 
enforce the software piracy law effectively, it will result in a 
massive transfer of pesos to the United States, and principally to 
Microsoft, the largest victim of software piracy in Mexico.

Alternatively, you could promote the use of free software such as 
Linux, Gnome and application packages such as Sun Microsystems' 
StarOffice suite, which are all free. No pesos would leave Mexico and 
you would get all of the functionality of modern software. Indeed, 
you'd become part of a trend that is sweeping the computing field in 
the U.S. IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are all offering Linux 
on computers now. IBM is essentially a Linux company these days, an 
astonishing transformation. Mexico would not lose anything by 
adopting free software, indeed, it would move to the cutting edge of 
technology.

Your government should also think about creating an elite but 
grassroots-oriented corps of young free-software evangelists, 
programmers, hackers and systems developers who could build on the 
culture and spirit of the embryonic free-software movement. Give them 
an identity with special shirts or jackets and specially painted 
pickup trucks to go out to villages and towns, and elevate them to 
hero status in Mexico. They should have an esprit de corps that 
reflects both their enthusiasm for their work and their patriotism. 
Send them around the world to technical and trade conferences and 
make them stand out -- make them the young, technically skilled 
enthusiasts everyone wants to work with.

Joakim Ziegler is one of these wizard-like programmers. He's 
Norwegian, but he lives in Mexico City because he loves it there. He 
works for Helix Code, the company started by Miguel de Icaza. Ziegler 
is also in his twenties. He told me, "A change as radical as the 
internal use of free software" -- meaning use by the government 
itself -- "would be an indication of real change." The Federal 
Election Commission in Mexico used free software to run this year's 
election, but other government agencies have yet to grasp its 
benefits.

Ziegler also said, "Small companies run by enthusiastic young people 
don't have a lot of status in Mexico right now." Too many of Mexico's 
young entrepreneurs have moved to the U.S. to start companies. In 
Mexico, there's too much government red tape, credit is too expensive 
and there is a culture of "not what you do, but who you know," all of 
which are obstacles to building the kind of entrepreneurial spirit 
Mexico needs. You should make Mexico a place that is as easy to start 
a business in as it is in California or Texas.

Mexico also needs a better telecommunications infrastructure. Telmex, 
the recently privatized national phone company, and its competitors, 
such as Avantel, are slowly building up their capabilities. But they 
will not soon reach the vast numbers of Mexicans who live in 
underserved and poor areas.

So you should pay attention to a San Diego company called Tachyon 
Inc.(http://www.tachyon.net), which is doing business in Mexico. 
Tachyon has a contract for using SatMex 5, the powerful Mexican 
satellite that covers all of Mexico. Tachyon is offering inexpensive 
two-way Internet service via satellite, and it can serve every town 
and village in Mexico right now.

The company's vice president, Santiago Ontañon, who is 33 and from 
Mexico City, told me that its price for broadband Internet 
connectivity for a typical Mexican school with five to 10 computers 
is only about $300 to $400 per month. This is thousands of dollars 
less than what Telmex can offer, and it can happen tomorrow, not in 
some indefinite future. Incidentally, the ground equipment Tachyon 
provides its customers runs on Linux.

With the combination of free software and inexpensive Internet 
connectivity, as well as building on Mexico's Red Escolar (SchoolNet) 
program for wiring Mexican schools, the country could become the 
world's leading example of affordable high-tech infrastructure for 
the rest of the world's developing nations. Moreover, the philosophy 
behind free, open-source software fits well with your important ideas 
about a new "open society" in Mexico.

There will be strong pressures, both internally and externally, for 
Mexico to adopt a conventional model of development, dependent on big 
corporate players and mega-deals. But you have the opportunity to 
foster something different and far more interesting. Throw your 
power, prestige and vision to your young people, to your 
entrepreneurs and innovators and to the practical idealists of the 
free software movement. This will pay off in the long run, and it 
could dramatically transform Mexico

Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the 
University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at 
gary.chapman at mail.utexas.edu.

    ------------------------------------------

**************************************************************************
Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues
Send a blank message to: freematt at coil.com with the words subscribe FA
on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month)
Matthew Gaylor,1933 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., PMB 176, Columbus, OH  43229
(614) 313-5722     Archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/fa/
**************************************************************************