Govt. develops open source policy

Brazil's government is defining its policy on open source software, a government official said Thursday, encouraging people to contribute with their ideas. "This is an important moment in the discussion with various representatives from society which will contribute to the consolidation of the open source policy developed by the federal government," Antenor Correa, software and services coordinator at the science and technology ministry (MCT) was quoted as saying. Antenor was speaking at the 5th international open source forum (FISL) in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, which opened Thursday and runs through Saturday. For software and services as a whole, the government's aim is to increase exports, strengthen local software developers, encourage emerging segments such as games and digital television, he said. He reiterated the government's claims that it pays US$1bn a year for software licenses, and said the government's goal is to reach US$2bn of software exports by 2007, up from US$100mn today.