[Linux-aus] A Big Australian Thankyou

[Pia Smith]

Hi Joice,

On behalf of Linux Australia and the Australian Linux Community I wanted
to say thankyou for coming to LCA2004. Everyone that attended your talk
on "The GNUrias – making a difference in Brazil!" said it was an
excellent talk and got a lot out of it. 
http://educationalinux.adam.com.au/programme.html

The work of the GNUrias in Brazil has been amazing, getting IT to those
who may not otherwise have it. It brings to mind the worthy efforts of
various Computerbank groups around Australia. I truly believe that by
bringing technology to all people, we can actually raise the median
standard of living for all humanity. For those who don't know, Linux
Australia actually sponsored Joice to come to Australia to share her
experiences and hopefully further open the communication between
Australia and the rest of the world. At WSIS in Geneva (wsis.org) Brazil
was one of the leading countries in Open Source initiatives, which was
wonderful to see, and I only hope that the Australian government can
realise that many of the benefits of Open Source are above and beyond
the economic advantages. Open Source software and the social and
strategic benefits it presents is giving developing countries an edge in
IT. More to come on this when I do my write up on WSIS :)

http://www.gnurias.org.br/
http://fsm2003.softwarelivre.org/dep/gnurias.en.htm 
http://dll.istec.org/conferences/brasildll03/d2s.htm

Rock on GNUrias, we look forward to watching your efforts and hopefully
working with you sometime in the future. Thankyou for the t-shirt :) 

Warmest regards,
Pia
-- 
Pia Smith
President of Linux Australia
pia at linux.org.au