"Freeware and other new initiatives to re-launch the italian
information technology and industry"

CNR conference hall

Tuesday, 23rd February 1999


On Tuesday, the 23rd of February, the meeting on "Freeware and other
new initiatives to re-launch the Italian information technology and
industry" took place in the conference hall of the National Research
Council (CNR), promoted by the Presidence of the CNR. The day, centered
round the revolutionary Open Source developing model, which gave life
to the Linux operating system, was full of high level speeches of the
scientific, political and industrial world.

The CNR president, Bianco, in the opening of the day, giving the
numbers of the italian deficit in the Information Technology world and
of the subjection to the imports, sees in the Free Software a
worthwhile re-launch idea for the italian software industry. Bianco
says "The comments, the hopes, the proposals, the targets of
Freeware increase. Everyone underlines the impressive result of a
common worldwide action, which is very cheap and above all is open to
the contribution of the fiercest groups of the technologically
advanced countries, but also to the one of isolated scholars in
modestly developed countries, i.e. open and available to the rich but
also to the poor."

Cuffaro, undersecretary at the Ministry of University and of
Scientific and Technological Research, assures that the government
will undertake to support the Open Source movement. But the speech of
Prof. Meo of the Numeral Signal Elaboration Centre CNR and organizer
of the event, is the one which succeeds to capture the attention of
the numerous audience, analyzing the reality of Italian computer
science.

The re-launch of a big Italian firm in the sector which would make the
exports grow is utterly impassable because of the necessary financial
effort. The possibility, Meo explains, to use the Free Software is the
only practicable way to decrease imports. With a tiny financial effort
we could have tangible results on condition that the public
corporations activate themselves in the following fields:

- certification: companies do not install Open Source software becuase
it does not prove to be certified

- documentation: the Free Software is often poorly documented or it's
not nationalized in our language

- education: the use of Free Software must have the same opportunity
to be enjoyed that the proprietary software has among secondary school
and university

- favouring Open Source products in the tenders of public
administration, so that the realized solution could be effectively
reused by other corporations. In this way all those everyday
incompatibilities in the data interchange would be eliminated.

- incentives to the firms for the use of Open Source products and for
the production of new Open Source software.

Naturally the impact on the balance of payments, on the control of the
know-how and on the small firm development would be effective.

So, Prof. Meo has laid the foundations of a real project, not only
with an ample documentation, but also inviting to talk a large number
of professional, concentrated in the section "Freeware: experiences
under way", who have brought their experience in carrying out their
own activities according to the Open Source model.

Even if Eng. Gianoglio, responsable of the FIAT Informative Systems,
during his speech has been rather sceptical, during the round table
has expressed the wish to deepen his knowledge of Free Software.

The round table marked the end of the day. Introduced by Eng. Bravi,
Coordinator of the Roma Linux User Group and rappresentative of the
Pluto project, who brought the experience of someone grouping together
and coordinating some important italian Linux projects. It has been
moderated by Prof. Giuseppe Biorci.

The atmosphere got at once heated between those who maintained that
the Open Source movement could only be a vehicle and those who saw in
the Free Software a real model of development for the italian
Information Technology. Vehicle or model, the Freeware movement,
thanks to this event, had itself known and appreciated to levels which
were unreachable until some months ago. Thanks to Prof. Meo the stone
has been cast, let's see which waves will be produced!


by Gabriele Paciucci with the valued collaboration of Dott. A. Celli.
Translation by Riccardo Russo.

References:

http://www.freeware.it
http://www.opensource.it

http://www.opensource.org
http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/copyleft.html