Free Software, Free Society

Conference on Freedom in Computing, Development and Culture. 28th -30th May, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. The Free Software, Free Society (FSFS)Conference, organized by Government and civil society organizations from Brazil, Italy, Venezuela and India, is scheduled for 28-30 May 2005 in the Southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), the capital of the province of Kerala. The Conference is primarily an attempt to initiate a South-South-North dialogue on the use of Free Software as a useful paradigm for non-software realms and its role as an instrument for development. In the process, the countries involved will share their perspective and experiences in using Free Software. Vision Over two-and-a-half decades, Free Software has inspired an alternative approach to creation, use and redistribution of software. The values of Free Software has been the inspiration for other kind of intellectual content as well, as illustrated, for example, by the Creative Commons initiative. Located at the intersection of Free Software, Development and Society, the FSFS Conference will examine the application of the Free Software model for the purpose of evolving more equitable development and information sharing models for humanity. In particular, the Conference will discuss the use of Free Software for addressing issues of technology access and the digital divide and also develop further the alternative paradigms for sharing intellectual content.For more information see the conference web site http://fsfs.hipatia.net