Today is my first day back in office after the GPLv3 conference in Tokyo,
Japan. Great thanks and compliments go to the Free Software Initiative Japan (FSIJ)
for organising such a professional and interesting conference in Akihabara, where
dead geeks reincarnate.
If you are interested in more information, all the presentations
are available in PDF from the conference web site and Ciaran already transcribed the talks of RMS
and himself
on FSFE's GPLv3 project
page. More transcripts coming soon.
The international attendance at this conference was quite
exceptional, including people from Latin America, India, Japan,
Europe, and the United States, so there were many interesting
discussions and exchanges about Free Software activities in the
various countries and regions.
To me, it was most interesting to see how promoting Free Software
all over Asia plays a major role in the International IT Strategy of
Japan, and how the Ministry
of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) supports Free Software
activities in Japan. So while the Japanese market is rotating very
fast and quite oriented towards short-term benefit at the moment,
there is a growing interest in Free Software.
Another very interesting discussion was with Arun M of FSF India who does some very interesting
work in the state of Kerala. He had some copies of a very nice
brochure about "Free Software Projects in Public Enterprises of
Kerala" by the Society for
Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment that he
co-ordinates. Unfortunately I do not know of a URL for this brochure,
otherwise I'd provide it. Once Arun puts it up, I'll make sure to link
to it.
As to the country itself, my love for Aikido has always connected me to
Japanese culture, so I regret that I once more had to leave so
early. In case you're interested, here are two reading suggestions for
the holiday season
with links to
Bookzilla.de, an
online bookstore that donates its commission to the
FSFE to support the ongoing work.
