I think some may recall World Social Forum, an event that happened in Porto Alegre, Brazil in the beginning of this year.
WSF was a massive event. In it, politics, technology, environment and much more was discussed.
In the techn. aspect it gave an introdution of an event to happen this following month: The International Free Software Forum.
Porto Alegre, So Paulo and a handful of others Brazilian cities are governed by the left (Worker's Party) and they've been trying to insist in a "free and participative" government in all instances possible, in POA's case that includes technology.
So, the FISL will happen from 2-5 in May. It's very likely that the agency which I work (www.hotbits.com.br) will have news about it everyday.
The website is here
http://www.softwarelivre.rs.gov.br/forum/
Portuguese only, I'm afraid :(
Main guests:
international:
Bob Chassell (FSF)
Paul Everitt (Zope),
Miguel de Icaza (Ximian),
Patrick Stakem (NASA);
Shane Hathaway [Python],
Tim Ney (Gnome Foundation);
Andrei Zmievski (PHP-GTK),
Larry Wall (Perl)
Jon "maddog" Hall (Linux International)
Gov't and stuff:
UNESCO
Brazilian Defense Ministery
Army, Navy, Aeronautics
Braz. Science and Techn. Ministery
Quilombo Digital Free Software Community
I think the website may have an english version soon. Any interested send me an email and I'll try to let you know if this happens.
