According to government sources in Venezuela, the South American nation has announced an official policy that exclusively calls for the use of open source software in that government.

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-08-30-011-26-NW-LL-PB

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lared.com.ve%2Farch...

Felipe Perez Martí from his first appearance in television incarnated like Minister of Planning, he would announce his absolute certainty of the urgent necessity to take years of inefficiency and chaos to him to the framework, gigantic and slow Venezuelan State. He would declare then his thesis of the shared in common economy and their attachment to the philosophy of the free code. That day when it presented/displayed the first economic proposal of the renewed economic cabinet of president Chávez, would speak of Internet, and his convinced persistence to evolve towards a country where the and-government was a high-priority strategy.

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"I BELIEVE IN THE SHARED IN COMMON ECONOMY "

- Minister, On what one is based the thesis of the shared in common economy and free software that is impelling the Ministry of Planning and Development?

- free software is an extremely interesting phenomenon, which we thought to take advantage of in the reform of the State, we even set out to impel this scheme like essential part of our model of development. I think that the technology is public good, as well as the knowledge is public good. In simpler terms, cambur is a deprived good, because you you eat it, then no longer is available for anybody more. But if you use a computation program, it does not disappear, but that is available for "Pepe", for "Ricardo", for any other, and that characteristic gives a very special quality him in economy. The Industrial Era privatized the technology like a way to produce it. Nevertheless, a new modality arose to produce public goods: "the shared in common" way. Also the State can produce these public goods or promote that they take place so that not to mer his production to me, as it happens with the knowledge. It is