BRAZILIAN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE & COPYLEFT

YBERSALON @ GUANABARA

Guanabara, Parker Street, Nr. Drury Lane, London WC2
Cost: Free
Members of the press interested in attending or for further information, please contact Patsy Lima at Guanabara - patsy[AT]guanabara.co.uk
Nearest tubes: Covent Garden

VIEW THE LIVE WEBCAST FOR THE GILBERTO GIL BRAZILIAN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE & COPYLEFT EVENT AT GUANABARA HERE

Speakers:
Gilberto Gil - Minister of Culture, Brazil
Claudio Prado - Digital Policy Coordinator, Ministry of Culture, Brazil
Dr. Richard Barbrook - Cybersalon and University of Westminster

This Cybersalon will discuss the Brazilian government's open source software project and its support for copyleft at the forthcoming WSIS conference on 18-19th November in Tunis, Tunisia. WSIS is the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society: www.itu.int/wsis

6.00pm: British Council meet & greet (invite only)
6.30pm: Press reception
7.00-9.30pm: Cybersalon lectures and discussion (free entry)
10.00pm: Charity auction of football shirts signed by Pele and Brazilian team
10.30pm until late: DJ set

Ever since he became the Brazilian Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil has championed the democratic potential of new media. As one of his first moves on taking office, he created a Digital Culture department within the Ministry and appointed Claudio Prado to take charge of this initiative.

The work of the Digital Culture department is inspired by the realisation that the social impact of the digital technological revolution can only be understood from a cultural perspective - and that these new technologies can act as catalysts for totally new paradigms in every field of human behaviour.

The Digital Culture department of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture is responsible for promoting debate about the key issues of the digital technological revolution inside government circles; among the universities; and within the wider society. During the last few years, Minister Gil has been making inspiring and passionate speeches about the social possibilities of new media to audiences in Brazil and across the world. Inspired by the hacker ethic, he argues that cyberspace is the most democratic public space in history – and that a more flexible interpretation of intellectual property is now needed for the creative industries.

Most importantly, the Digital Culture department is putting this hacker ethic into practice within Brazil. One of the most important projects of the Ministry of Culture is creating a network of free software multi-media studios which will give access to the Net to hundreds of communities across the country.

At the 10th October Cybersalon on Brazilian open source software and copyleft, Minister Gil will speak and discuss about these issues...