IBM, Brazil Partner to Promote Open Source

IBM and the Brazilian government announced Thursday that they have signed a cooperation agreement to establish a knowledge and technology center, known as CDTC, which will promote and develop open-source and Linux solutions in Brazil.

This is the next step in a plan that IBM announced last December. In it, IBM and the Brazilian government agreed to expand the use of Linux in Brazil.

Under the auspices of Brazils Information Technology Institute, with support from Brazils Ministry of Culture and the University of Brasilia, Brazils leading university, the center will encourage the popularization of open-standard and open-source solutions by training technicians and supporting professionals and users of public administration systems.

The goal of the operation is to establish a growing group of open-source users. The CDTC aims to stimulate and supply tools for the Brazilian market to adopt new information technology standards, based on open source software.

Set at UnB in Brasilia, the center will support collaborative development and technological migration projects from public agencies and small companies involving the use of open-standard-based solutions. IBM and ITI will jointly manage the center.

The centers first task will be to train 700 public service professionals from Education Technology Nuclei, a government program aimed at supporting public schools and state education bureaus. The courses will be given in all Brazilian state capitals, and their goal is to explain all possibilities and benefits of open-standard- and open-source-based models.

For ITI President Sérgio Amadeu. a leading open-source advocate, this partnership is one more opportunity for the Brazilian government to encourage the adoption of open-source technology: “CDTC will allow a vigorous dissemination of knowledge throughout the country, in addition to expanding the national technological intelligence.”

“For developing countries such as Brazil and for governments focusing on fostering economic development and diversification of the information technology industry, open standards can help to play a leading role in the government strategy toward economic development,” said Rogerio Oliveira, chairman of IBM Brazil. “More than 60 countries have already adopted open source. To reach its deserved standing on the international economic scene, Brazil plans to use these new technologies in a structured way, and as a development catalyst.”

Check out eWEEK.coms Linux & Open Source Center for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

Be sure to add our eWEEK.com Linux news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page