Free Software Festival Closes in Havana

Vicente Morin Aguado

HAVANA TIMES – The third consecutive Latin American Free Software festival concluded in Cuba on Saturday helping to consolidate the Free Technologies Use Group. Once again the Central Computer Palace in Havana served as the headquarters of an activity sponsored by the Youth Computer Clubs in the country.

The program of activities included the massive installation of free software with the copy option on any storage device and conferences where speakers addressed various local challenges to popularize these alternatives to traditional programming monopolies.

Of special interest to participants were the Cuban solutions for using Wi-Fi connections from mobile phones.

The conference served to launch an invitation to FOSS4G, an event sponsored by the German Free software group Geospatial, promoter of more than 50 applications grouped into OSGeoLive. The city of Bonn will host the event on August 24-26. The key downloads are at http:/live.osgeo.org.

Although the entrance to the Computer Palace of Computing was free, the event was affected by the filming of Fast and Furious version # 8, leading to sudden and extensive closures of the streets around the palace. Agglomerations motivated by film event, linked to required security measures, were a demotivation for attendance to the Free Software conference.