João, In relation to open source and government policy, you should check out Deborah Halbert's chapter on Open source in Asia.com: Asia Encounters the internet (Routledge Curzon). Extensive legal and policy discussion of the issues developing countries face on this issue. Also, you should look into China's moves with open source, especially in relationship to Linux. The government in China is making a very concerted effort to move all government computers to open source computing. Randolph Kluver School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University 31 Nanyang Link Singapore, 637718 (65) 6790-5770 Fax (65) 6792-4329 -----Original Message----- From: João Martins [mailto:joao_martins@terra.com.br] Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 8:51 AM To: air-l@aoir.org; discuss@opensource.mit.edu; sebastian.arnold@student.uni-augsburg.de; james@apdip.net; rsaroka@ciudad.com.ar; josafa@rocketmail.com Subject: [Air-l] question related to OS and governments Hello everybody My name is João Martins and I am a post-graduated student in Communication (MA), finishing a thesis about the social dynamics of Gnutella development. Now, I am working in a project for a doctorate in social sciences. My intent is to investigate the brasilian government investiments in Open Source. This scene, in my country, is becoming every day more clear to me, but I can't say the same thing about the internacional context of government aid in OS projects. My question is: did anybody here knows about any article related to that relantionship in any country? Best regards PS - Just to ilustrate this context in Brasil (f anyone becames curious...): recetlly, the brasilian congress starts a considerable investiment with the intention of stimulate the use of free software by a lot of public organs. The actions includes an investimet of R$ 6.3 milions (almost US$ 2 milions) in projects related to the concept of Free Software, besides the creation of a parliamentarian group related to the free software, during an event called "Free Software Week in the Legislative". Did anyone knows about something like this in any other country? == João Martins. joao_martins@terra.com.br Post graduated program in Communication Fluminense Federal University Rua Tiradentes, 148, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 24510-590. 55-21-2618-3409 Curriculum Vitae http://genos.cnpq.br:12010/dwlattes/owa/prc_imp_cv_int?f_cod=K4765634E2