mfioretti.com

This is the talk given at the Kosova Software Freedom Conference 2009 about "E-government, digital rights, equal opportunities: how can Free Software help developing countries?". Only the PDF version is available here, due to web server space constraint. If you need the original, editable OpenDocument version just request it by email to marco . at . digifreedom dot net

The goal of the first conference about Free Software and Knowledge in Santo Domingo was to "promote and spread the philosophy of Free software, education and knowledge in the Dominican Republic, among all who are concerned about the social, economic and scientific development of Santo Domingo". In this context, I gave a talk about "Computers and Internet: sources of social exclusion or engines of education and human development?".

Besides its official website, general coverage of the event is available (in Spanish) on Hoy Digital and El Nuevo Diario.

The Software Freedom Conference Kosova is to be a yearly event to bring together local developers and the international community. In the 2009 edition I gave a talk about how Free SW can help developing countries.

Interviews and other coverage of the conference is available at:

1. the interviews page on the official website
2. F. Marzano's report

Description of the actions taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India to become, using Free Software as an essential tool, one of the most high-tech political parties in India by 2010.

these are the paper and talk I wrote for the Italian National Conference on Free Software in Bologna.

1. Report from Quito: a look at Free Software and Free Knowledge among Catholics and other communities in latin America and what other Free Software advocates may learn from them
2. Report from Quito, summary

Feeback from participants to the Conference:

M. Grillini: "very interesting talk, especially when explaining localization of Free SW in Quechua, to preserve local culture, and the interest of Salesians in Free SW for ethical and cultural reasons"

(if you need the original OpenDocument versions of the paper and slides, just email me at marco, @ digifreedom . net)

On June 13th I spoke in Bologna at the third Italian National Conference on Free Software in Bologna. The paper and talk I wrote for the Conference is: Report from Quito: A look at Free Software and Free Knowledge among Catholics and other communities in Latin America and what other Free Software Advocates may learn from them". You can also download the complete collection of all the papers discussed at the ConfSl09 Conference

My talk (PDF) about the relationships among human rights, cultural diversity, environment and ICT to the volunteers of the VIS NGO. The original full version in OpenDocument format isn't on this server only because it's ten times bigger than the PDF one. If you want a copy or want to discuss these themes, just write to marco, at digifreedom dot net.

This is simply a short interview about these themes, included in the April 17th edition of the italian Passpartu talk show hosted by Marzia Coronati of Amisnet.

Very short synthesis: I explained how and why, in my opinion, migrants use the Internet to stay in touch with their home countries; how Free Software can help to accomplish this goal; and why today's Internet can't really do much to stop atrocities like those of 1994 in Rwanda, but could help a lot to make sure such things don't happen in the future.

Marzia interviewed on the same theme Cameroon writer Fonju Ndemesah Fausta, author of "The Radio and the Machete", an essay on the role of media in the Rwanda genocide, and Federico Marchini, the only Italian journalist present in Rwanda in 1994.

A text synthesys and a full Mp3 version of the whole show (both in Italian) are available for download on the Amisnet website.

It will also be broadcast via satellite for one week between 7am and 7:30 am, starting 2009/04/18 on the global mir station, hotbird 13 satellite.

Some of the FM italian radios which broadcast Amisnet productions will also air the show during the following week.

On Monday, april 20th, 2009 at 8pm, VIS hosts a meeting on a very particular topic which is becoming more and more important: the correlation between all cultures - in a multicultural and intercultural perspective - and individual rights in a society in which the Internet has given us new freedoms but has also created new forms of exclusion. These issues will be explained by Marco Fioretti.

Why a single-file SQL standard format is necessary and how SQLite can get us there.

On a related note, today there is also Drupal-Sqlite, a project developed in Italy to add Sqlite support to Drupal 6, making it possible to use databases with Drupal even with hosting providers who charge extra for MySql databases.