E-learning Luis Contreras p. 14
Flying electric cars Martin Goldin p. 22
ENGLISH VERSION
Southern California Linux Expo Larry Cafiero p. 4
VOL I N7
gREEN COMPUTING
editorial
We changed, for better or for worse A concept which has been coined
message is stronger than ever. We should ha-
"philosophically" the model of free software
by technology companies in this century, is
ve the ability to make analogies. If we com-
and its relationship with the planet. The res-
called the Free Software ecosystem. It is in-
pare the free software and its interaction
ponse that I couldn't find at the moment is
creasingly common to read the term in docu-
with other technologies as an ecosystem,
simple: The things in life are generally sim-
ments, both from marketing and technical,
then why don't we realize that if we consu-
ple and we manage to make them complex.
of the major proprietary software compa-
me resources and pollute the ecosystem by
For example, a secretary or operator perator could
nies as a way of justify the existence of its
removing the essence of it, that ecosystem is
has found the perfect excuse that the compu-
products and the interaction thereof with
doomed to die (cease to be what it was, to
ter is not in Spanish (the menus, nus, not the pro-
Free Software. The truth is that most of
switch to another entity that can not easily
grams), to avoid work. These se same people
them still have not found a way to coexist
be predicted).This issue is dedicated to the
argue that they can not makee the document
(and in some cases to survive) to the free
Software and so-called green technologies.
or spreadsheet because they are re experts in a
solutions growth in the world of ICTs. The
Those with the least destructive impact on
proprietary tool, but not ot in OpenOffice and
proposed new production model is not easy
the environment and at the same time those
they are the samee who use their car more to
to be accepted in a technological world that
which improve the quality of life for those
ner supermarket, because the get to the corner
grew up with the shackles of licenses and
who use them. One technology that has no
ey cause is minimal compared to pollution they
patents. However, for all of them is clear,
impact on quality of life of the global ecosys-
oduced by the factory located near the one produced
this is the fastest growing model and that in
tem is a sterile technology. During my life -
me. We'll always find arguments to their home.
a way or the other, they should ride on the
long or short, depending on the way it is
destruc ion of our ecosystem, justify the destruction
train or they will be at the oblivion station.
going to be measured -, I have been fortuna-
gical or biological. b ological. Except that thetechnological
So the Free Software ecosystem approach
te to witness many changes in the technolo-
nts are harder to sustain when we se arguments
adopted by some is a good strategy that
gical world. I also know dozens of people in
eak the truth. So I am going to leahave to speak
allows them to survive while they learn and
and out of this ecosystem of free software,
torial up to this point and instead ve this editorial
adapt. But what happens when we abuse an
people seeking a path, a path that can be
I'm leaving to spend some quality time with
ecosystem? The earth, our planet is giving
pragmatic or spiritual, people who want to
that child, my nephew, because for better or
us an answer right now. We should not ex-
learn but do not want to make the effort,
hanged. for worse, we changed.
pect (actually, they don't have to wait) to
who want to progress but do not want to con-
see what happens if they simply parasite the
tribute other who contribute all the time and
Ricardo Strusbergg
system and deplete their resources. Unfortu-
and do not realize they are parasites. While
(Venezuela)
nately or fortunately, we are a species
writing this last paragraph, I was approached
strusberg@latinux.com com
which changes, but not always learns.
by an angel (a child) who asked: My compu-
And is there, although it is clear that
ter need to be configured in Spanish, do you
the Software adoption model
think you can help me?. And I said that I
changed, still many people try
could and then he said "Well, let's do it anot-
to preserve the older mo-
her day because I don't have it with me", he
del,
parasitizing
the
was gone for a moment, came back and then
Surprisingly,
asked again: "Why are you always on a com-
this occurs when
puter?" and I didn't had an honest answer to
new.
the
environmental
the substance of his question. It just made me think a little more and change the last two paragraphs of this editorial, which was
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1
CONTENT
Editorial "Título" Ricardo Strusberg
p. 1
EVENTS "Southern California Linux Expo 2010" Larry Cafiero
"E-learning" Luis Contreras
p. 14
sci-fi "Breve historia del castigo y la salvación" Christian Bogado Marsá p. 6
diffusion zone "Green Computing" Stephen Spector
p. 8
"Software Libre en la gestión pública" Felipe Cabada
p. 10
Page Pá Página ágina
p. 12
p. 4
In touch "Timothy Ney" Lauretta
"Migrar sin mitos" Levarcol
Technology Kiosk "Volando en carros eléctricos" Martín Goldin
p. 22
Comicnology
p. 24
2 2 www w.latinuxmagazine.com www.latinuxmagazine.com
p. 10
p. 20
CONTENT
Editor in Chief Ricardo Strusberg Associated Editor Mariana Henríquez Illustrator & Graphic Design Marina Bello Magazine Layout Mariana Henríquez Translation Martha Romero Administration Jacqueline Pérez de Strusberg
For local contacts: brasil@latinuxmagazine.com chile@latinuxmagazine.com colombia@latinuxmagazine.com puertorico@latinuxmagazine.com republicadominicana@latinuxmagazine.com mexico@latinuxmagazine.com uruguay@latinuxmagazine.com usa@latinuxmagazine.com venezuela@latinuxmagazine.com
LATINUX CLUSTER Sponsored by: Latinux Cluster The Cluster Latinux is an enterprises, educational institutions and consultants network specialized in solutions based in free technologies, including consulting and training for these solutions.At the same time, it focuses in consulting, support, maintenance, developing and enterprises solutions installation services based in free technology worldwide. Inside business opportunities opened from Latinux, one is to cover the no satisfied demand from organizations, companies and governments related to free software development and the chance to take advantage of products and services with a specific local success or in a whole conglomerate acting area.All Latinux participant enterprises are well established in their own working area and all have a long experience with free technology.
LATINUX PRESS Published by: Latinux Press, a division of Latinux Inc. Address: Av. Samuel Lewis, Edificio Central, PH. Panamá, República de Panamá Phone: + 1 305 5171853 / Email: info@latinuxpress.com
Latinux Magazine is not responsible for the content posted. The information is responsability of the authors and/or associates mentioned here.
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3 3
events
SCALE8X attracts largest crowd in its history
30 PERCENT INCREASE IN REGISTRATION BODES WELL FOR SHOW, FOSS IN GENERAL
LOS ANGELES -- Observers looking to take the pulse of the Free/Open Source Software movement looked to the Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 8x, the first-of-the-year Linux event in the U.S., and found that this year, and the immediate future, may be at its brightest.
With nearly 1,500 registrants -- an uptick of about 30 percent over last year - and a packed expo floor for a large part of the weekend's show, SCALE organizers call this year's event an unparalleled success. In a post-expo interview, SCALE's Community Relations chairman Gareth Greenaway reflected on this year's event. "It's always a bittersweet moment at SCALE; the last of the sessions finished, the exhibitor floor torn away and everyone heading home for some much deserved rest," Greenaway said. "SCALE 8x was a huge success, not only because attendance was up or because the quality of the speaker sessions, but simply because it happened.
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SCALE is one of the longest running events around, and its success is a true testament to a thriving community." The spike in the number of attendees to the annual first-of-the-year Linux show caused most of the weekend's sessions and talks to be full. In many instances, the talks were at room capacity and there was standing-room only. The keysigning party had nearly 50 participants on Saturday night. In the case of Saturday's keynote address, the keynote was simulcast to the overflow crowd into another room. Those 275 attendees to the keynote who couldn't fit into the theater at the Westin Los Angeles Airport hotel, where SCALE 8x took place, watched the live simulcast in the nearby Kennedy room. The attendance on the expo floor was al-
so significantly higher, especially on the first show day on Saturday. The expo floor traffic had been so heavy that several of the exhibitors had run out of their giveaway items by Saturday afternoon. "We were completely pillaged," said Larry Cafiero, regional ambassador for the U.S. West Coast for the Fedora Project who worked the Fedora booth. "We had to go to our reserves of additional media to give away and we had just enough to get us through the weekend." The show officially started on Friday with several talks, including two tracks involving Women In Open Source
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formative talks which provided educa-
more robust," Ruecker said.
tors and those in the education sector to bring back to their schools. Caryl Bi-
[Submitted by the SCALE Publicity Committee].
genho gave a presentation about "Sugar in Your Classroom," referring to the Su-
(WIOS) and Open Source Software in Education (OSSIE). Highlights of the WIOS track included a trio of girls -- two 12-year-olds and an 8-year-old -- who gave a talk about girls and Open Source software. Also, Sarah Mei gave a talk about women's participation in the Ruby community in San Francisco, where 18 percent of the participating members are women. The OSSIE track also produced some in-
gar desktop environment, and Ken Leyba gave a talk on "Linux in Small Environments." OSSIE also provided a try-it lab for educators to try out different education-related software. Fedora's Cafiero also noted that a high number of teachers and others in the education field stopped by his booth at SCALE, a result he said stemming from curiosity and interest from those newcomers attending the OSSIE track. UpSCALE Talks -- SCALE's version of Ignite Talks -- were held on Friday evening as well, bringing out the best of the fast-talkers who had 5 minutes and 20 slides, shown in 15-second intervals, to give their presentation. Among the UpSCALE Talks on Friday were "So I married a geek . . . now what?" by Michelle Hall; "Volunteer Vertigo and High-Tech Hangovers," by Amber Graner; and "How to Destroy Your Community," by Josh Berkus. Both the attendance and the number of new people drawn to the three-day event serve as a testament to the increase in interest and fares well for FOSS, according to Lxer.com editor Scott Ruecker. "If the economy is on the decline and SCALE 8x is increasing in attendance, then the health of FOSS is becoming
Our thanks to Larry Cafiero (Fedora) Images courtesy Scale8x
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Timothy Ney From one of the oldest cities in USA, Boston, rich in history, tradition and culture, comes to Latinux Magazine, Timothy Ney, a film producer, who also was director of the GNOME Foundation, for 10 years he has been running the Linux Greenhouse project. Take a look!
Lauretta: So, what’s your interest in free software and what do you ask as a professional? Tim: I’ve been working with free software for about 10 years now. In the beginning my job was working with Richard Stallman. I was the man in charge of the Free Software Foundation, and then I met Miguel de Icaza from Mexico so I became the executive directory of the GNOME Foundation and then I started with a colleague, Leslie Proctor in the organization called Linux Greenhouse. And the idea of Linux Greenhouse is a virtual incubator for projects and open source companies with high potential, which aims to promote a knowledge society through education, mentoring and job creation, especially in developing countries. In the first year there was a participant from Caracas, Betancourt, I can say his name because he was an innovator, what we did in the first year was select from about twelve countries, different individuals working with free software, but they wanted to make project with confident persons, but they didn’t
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know how, they may had knew how to bailout, to do the technical side, but they didn’t know how to manage the organization, how to sell, how to marketing , in contracts, how you do the legal agreements, these are thing that an engineer doesn’t know, so the idea with Green House is that you can bring many of the young social entrepreneurs, I’ve said social entrepreneurs, because we wanted not only people that willing to use technology to make money , I mean , that’s OK, that’s good, right?, but to make some social goods. This is about supporting the companies who want to do a telecenter or maybe they want to do something for medicine or for public health, so the selections of the projects of the social entrepreneurs is that you have to be making a small cooperative with other people, but you want to do something for the social good.. what in Brazil the called Digital Inclusion. Lauretta: Is there any case of success with this program? Tim: Yes, the first year, in 2000, in Korea, we had one individual from Helsinki , Finland , Henri Bergious, he
LINUX GREENHOUSE
wanted to start his own company, he had a job, he has finished college, but he had some ideas he wanted to work with, CMS content management system... so he was developing with his friend Midgard, a content manager. So we had some meetings, people from the banks, people from marketing, specialists to advice this group, and then we were 3,4,7,8 in the group, so then he went home and he was able to start a company by this name Newmen, so this was the software libre project , he has many individuals working. At the beginning they couldn’t spend all of their time on Midgard, so by having the company or cooperative, they now could make a business contract with the government, Nokia, and now they have money for jobs, so they can still do their work with the software libre project like they were providing some service, in education, in medicine, so they were using the free software as an economy to make jobs , and now they have not only in Finland, they have people working, but they have also in the country of Georgia , and in other countries, so in that region of Scandinavia and the north, they have other people, engineers, that they gave them a job
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too, and then they make contracts with the private companies enterprise or with the government, public sector, so the Green House idea is you take somebody like Henry, who is an engineer, and you mentor him, you find somebody who has some experience , some knowledge, maybe they started a cooperative and the business began. In 2009, we made a study, a volunteer team of students of the Harvard Business School, and they concluded that we should make Linux Green House more about social networks, because meeting is fine, is wonderful, it is best when we can work together, sometimes only once a year, because it’s expensive to take an airplane.
Lauretta: What message do you want to send to our readers? Tim: That will be good if there are cooperatives that you think could benefit, to come under the umbrella of the Green House, please don't hesitate and contact us. We always each year try to find small, you know, five or six social entrepreneurs, cooperatives, bring them in, for one year , two years and help them grow, “incubate”, together we work better. This is a project that really fills a need, especially for our continent. Linux Greenhouse has been wor-
king in Brazil and some European countries. This is an initiative that can make a big difference. References: http://www.linuxgreenhouse.org/ Lauretta (Venezuela) lauretta@latinuxmagazine.com
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diffusion zone
Green computing
Stephen Spector brings more than 16 years' experience and success in software engineering, product marketing, and developer and alliance marketing programs to the Xen.org community as the current community manager. He has spent more than 10 years at Citrix founding the Citrix Developer Network and supporting the release of the first Windows CE 1.0 client, as well as working on various marketing and alliance programs. He has previously held various positions at Turbolinux, Racal Datacom, and Siemens. Stephen holds an MBA from Florida Atlantic University, an MS in computer science from the University of Florida, and a BS in computer engineering from The Ohio State University.
The following table from Wikipedia shows the average metric tons of Carbon Dioxide generated per person from a given country (complete list on Wikipedia):
Country Metric Ton CO2 Per Person Brazil
1,83
China
4,57
Mexico
3,92
United States
18,67
As the world looks for solutions to complex environmental issues, we in the open source computing industry can take a leadership position in showing how our computing solutions can substantially reduce CO2 emissions. For example, it is estimated that every
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server generates 4 metric tons of CO2 per year which can be substantially reduced with the introduction of virtualization into an enterprise computing environment. Simply consolidating 5 servers into 1 virtualized server running open source Xen (http://www.xen.org) or KVM (http://www.linuxkvm.org/page/Main_Page) can save 16 metric tons of CO2 a year, or almost 1 United States citizen per year. As an open source enthusiast myself, I have been looking for various projects that I can get involved with to see if I can't do my part in reducing greenhouse gases. The following list are some of the projects looking for volunteers who can join in their efforts to promote open source and help the environment: Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) Linux thin-client technology organization
OPEN SOURCE GOES GREEN!
The Green Grid - A global consortium of IT companies and professionals seeking to improve energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems around the globe. The organization seeks to unite global industry efforts to standardize on a common set of metrics, processes, methods and new technologies to further its common goals. Dynamic Power Management (DPM) explores technologies to improve power conservation capabilities of platforms based on open source software LessWatts.org - is about how you can save real watts, however you use Linux on your computer or computers. Project Tesla - seeks to provide OpenSolaris with a modern platform independent power management architecture that integrates seamlessly with existing resource managing subsystems Asterisk http://www.asterisk.org/Asterisk is software that turns an ordinary computer into a voice communications server.
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FreeSWITCH telephony
-
an
platform
open
source
designed
to
facilitate the creation of voice and chat driven products scaling from a softphone up to a soft-switch. Open Source Car Project (OScar) - the goal of the OScar Project to develop a car according to Open Source principles. Xen & KVM – open source virtualization hypervisors Of course, this is not a complete solution and I am sure that I missed some major projects; however, these are projects I have been investigating for future contributions. So please remember to consider the planet when selecting an open source project and go green!.
Stephen Spector (USA) stephen.spector@xen.org
REFERENCES - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions - (http://www.xen.org) - (http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page) - (LTSP) http://www.ltsp.org/ - http://www.thegreengrid.org/ - (DPM) http://dynamicpower.sourceforge.net/ -http://www.lesswatts.org/ - http://www.asterisk.org/ -http://www.freeswitch.org/ - http://www.theoscarproject.org/ - http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+tesla/WebHome PĂĄgina Page www.latinuxmagazine.com
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diffusion zone
SOFTWARE LIBRE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Software Libre (SL) has nothing to do with "who has more money” and has nothing to do with being a" developed country " neither with being a "poor country ", Software Libre has to do with INTELLIGENCY and efficient use of resources (I quote the President of the Junta de Extremadura, Mérida, Spain, February 2005). In Mexico, the use of free software is not part of a public policy, because we know that our presidents have done business with Bill Gates, the Antichrist, who has donated several million dollars in user and server licenses every six years which are used by governments. On the other hand, even knowing the benefits of using Software Libre in Mexico and yet there has been no political will to integrate the use of it in the "governance", officially. Next, I will detail two cases of SL use in public administration in Mexico, where one can deduce a model of integration and that it can be built up in other governments.
Development In comparison with other Latin American countries, Mexico is still behind in the use of this technology, which can generate significant savings to the country to avoid paying licensing for the use of software, although the consulting is a separate cost; while countries such as Brazil and Venezuela use SL by decree in their government offices, in Mexico the authorities are starting to weigh the advantages of SL versus proprietary software. In our country (Mexico) there isn't a law that determines the use of a particular technology, this is known as technology neutrality. According to Jose Luis Chiquete, Vice president of standards and regulations of the Mexican Association of Software Libre Business (AMESOL), when officials doesn't focus on specific technology platforms trademarks they have the opportunity to choose the solutions that best meet
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their needs. Software Libre means no licensing costs, but the whole process of implementation (installation, configuration and commissioning of production) and the costs of training has cost derived from using a expert company to deliver the final implementation process, which enables organizations to invest their resources in constant training to their employees or technology infrastructure. Due to the economic situation in Mexico and other countries, the SL becomes an opportunity that will allow to integrate high technology without paying the cost of licensing. In Mexico institutions like the Ministry of National Defense, the Senate, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) are already using different
SOFTWARE LIBRE AS OPPORTUNITY free programs. Since 2005 the Government of Michoacán saved about 2 million dollars in licenses, while in the Presidency of the Republic Internet system, during the term of Vicente Fox, saved about $ 6 million, only in the licenses for servers and software development. Examples like the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) , here, it has been decided to replace MS Office for OpenOffice and save $ 6 million per year, these are government institutions' cases where it can be seen the opportunities to generate a local economy in the form of companies formed by local experts in SL, so that the total cost of implementing a SL solution, all these economic assets remain in the community and the capital does not flee as in all proprietary software implantation cases. However, José Luis Chiquete in an interview with El Universal (a newspaper in Mexico), proposed as necessary a standard framework and a homogeneous digital policy to all levels of government. He says that SL entrepreneurs are struggling to participate in licitations in which there
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are not specifications for the use of cer-
Conclusion
institutions and public administration
tain technology, operating systems and
In Mexico there are some developing
for a low investment without losing
suites with a specific brand or model,
projects that are changing the para-
quality and market competitiveness .
just based in requirements and open
digms towards Software Libre, compa-
Regards, and see you in the next Lati-
standards adoptions. Therefore,is observable countless benefits to government institutions, within which we can list the following: Millionaires savings in acquiring software licenses. Social and technological benefits for the country The effective combat of software illicit copying Budget barriers elimination Wide availability of software tools and libraries, better software at lower cost, among others.
nies like SIITNE.com.mx who are supporting the migration of the Technological Institute of Sonora (ITSON) to SL, the integration of a library management system, as was indicated in the edition number 4, among others, examples such as IMSS, CFE, Michoacan and Guanajuato State Governments, in addition to the known examples of Venezuela and Brazil governments and the Region of Extremadura in Spain.
nux Magazine number. Felipe Cabada (MĂŠxico) fcabada@gmail.com
The SL in governance should generate great business opportunities for citizens, SMEs,
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diffusion zone
Migrating without Myths by lev arcol
In computing, migration is a radical change process of programs and mission-critical applications and productivity tools, collaboration and overall operation of desktops, stations or posts that complicate digital environments.
Traditionally all migration processes in the technology areas are intensive processes of change, disruption, regeneration, re-training, planning for change, re-allocation of structures and functions change. The most notable of these, disruption , taken from the English language, literally means "wreak havoc" is the phenomenon more prevalent in digital change processes and undoubtedly cau-
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se the most impact on the population of users toward is the process focused. This truth is more evident, when in that process technology is involved and this in turn into the areas of office automation, IT and computing in general. This is perceived with greater dimension, if migration is directed towards Free Software tools (Open Source1), with free licenses in all its forms.
"DIGITAL FREEDOM WITHOUT FEAR"
(LGPL2, GPL3, GNU4, and others). This is mainly because the current organizational structures, both private and public, the knowledge we have of Open Source, its philosophy and current reality boils down to list their major economic advantages. In fact they are "completely illiterate� and are fully unaware of their enormous operational powers and most importantly, its freedoms of use, implementation, owners-
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your employees new tools, new pro-
tual implementation, not just about
Another important factor that
cesses and new technologies, you are
money, political or commercial advan-
occurs in these processes, is the natural
not getting the results and expected
tage and brand, is the power of being
resistance to change developed by human beings who must face the impending changes. What would be those challenges?, Remember that the number one challenge for the adoption of change is not the lack of vision or leadership, or lack of financial resources, it is, the very fact of change (change is hard and change is scary ). Why change is so difficult?, Why, when you provide
changes?. Well the answer is very simple, because change is not just tools, vital reason is "because change is about people." It is at this point that Free Software (Open Source), its philosophy, its freedoms and real scope great advantages in processes of change, because its ac-
FREE and adopt open and public standards, allowing unlimited collaboration in all branches of knowledge, from the new and democratic information free society. With great power comes great responsibility, and that's our column, a clear message to help remove myths and constraints in implementation, migration and massive and successful use of Free Software (Open Source) great
hip and successful application.
actual power. Levarcol (Colombia) starsuitesun@gmail.com
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e-learning
VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
The E-learning platforms have increasingly become an increasingly popular tool, and without doubt one of the main attractions is that they are Open Source. Since the Web 2.0 emergence we are talking about E-Learning 2.0.
How can we define a platform for ELearning? An E-learning platform, also known as "virtual campus" is nothing more than a virtual space aimed at providing learning and facilitate distance learning for both business organizations and educational institutions. This platform allows the creation of “virtual classrooms� in which interaction occurs between teachers and students and between students themselves, as well as practices, file sharing, participation in forums, chats, and a number of additional tools that are vital in learning. Benefits of having a platform for ELearning: Taking advantage of Internet use More flexible and cheaper training Breaks geographical barriers The E-learning platform is completely flexible regarding the time factor, each student may use the platform at their own pace of learning. Currently on the market there are several platforms for E-Learning, but this time we will focus on only three: Dokeos, Moodle and ILIAS.
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Dokeos It is an E-learning environment and content management courses application that also functions as a collaborative tool. It is Software Libre and is licensed under the GNU / GPL (GNU General Public License) it's an international development and collaborative. It is also certified by the OSI and may be used as a content management system (CMS) for education and educators. This element includes features for managing distribution of content, calendar, training process, text, audio and video chat, tests and records management. Until 2007, it was translated into 34 languages and is used by over a thousand organizations worldwide.
so known as LMS (Learning Management System). Moodle was created by Martin Dougiamas, who was in the WebCT administrator at Curtin University of Technology. He based his design on the ideas of constructivism in teaching which claim that knowledge is constructed in the student's mind instead of being transmitted unchanged from books or teaching and in collaborative learning. A teacher who operates from this perspective creates a studentcentered environment that helps build the knowledge based on their own skills and knowledge rather than simply publish and transmit the information to be considered that students should know.
Dokeos.com is also a Belgian company that provides hosting services and elearning services. The company works with the community supporting multiple developers economically.
The first version of the tool appeared on 20 August 2002, and from there new versions have appeared regularly. Until July 2008, the registered user base includes more than 21 million, distributed at 46,000 sites worldwide and it is translated into over 75 languages.
Moodle It is a course management system, freedistribution, which helps educators create on-line learning communities. This type of technology platforms is al-
Ilias ILIAS Open Source is a management system for education, LMS, developed on open source. It was developed with the idea of reducing the costs of using
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diffusion zone
new technologies in education, taking
• Files Sharing
into account where and at all times, the
Official pages: Dokeos : http://dokeos.com/es/
ideas of the users of the education sys-
LMS Benefits
Moodle: http://moodle.org/
tem. ILIAS is available as free software under open source the GPL and can be used without any restrictions. Because of this feature, ILIAS can be easily adapted to the specific requirements of each organization. Users around the world contribute to the development of the platform, coordinated by a team from the University of Cologne in Germany. Everything related to the development of ILIAS is accessible to the public on the project website. The name ILIAS comes from an abbreviation of a German definition of what ILIAS means (Integriertes Lern-Informations- und Arbeitskooperations-System), in English it could be translated as "Integrated Learning System of Information and Cooperation" and in Spanish in something like "Integrated Cooperation, Information and Learning."
(As a service to teachers and students) Currently many teachers and students use various tools that are scattered throughout the Internet as a complement to their subject matter, both in campus or distance (email, mailing lists, blogs, wikis). The E-learning platforms bring together and order these tools, this technology facilitates communication and access to teachers who see this like a real relief the possibility of having a tool with everything you need. To use the installed technology infrastructure institutions have their own computers, but also, many of its teachers and students use them at home. These systems let you integrate all that technology park via Internet.
Ilias: http://www.ilias.de/docu/
Basic Components of Virtual Classroom The virtual classroom is where teachers and students interact to learn. In each classroom develops everything related to a course or seminar material. Its main components are: • Calendar • Announcements • Internet links Library • Students' Statistics and monitoring • Forums / Chat Rooms • User management • Creating and managing user groups • Delivery and dispatch of student work • File Repository
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Sources: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dokeos http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILIAS
For distance education and to reach new educational centers These platforms break all distance barriers, since it can offer different lessons through it without the need of the participant to be present.
REFERENCIAS Páginas oficiales: Dokeos : http://dokeos.com/es/ Moodle: http://moodle.org/ Ilias: http://www.ilias.de/docu/ Fuentes: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dok eos http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moo dle http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILI AS
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Luis Contreras Latinux Coordinator (Dominican Republic) lcontreras@latinux.org
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Punishment and Salvation Brief history It has been the subject of numerous studies the phenomenon in which when people is persecuted or in danger, when they suffer great tragedies, their gods become vindictive, holy retribution gods. Mesopotamia had terrible gods, punishing its people with unpredictable flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates. Only the constant tribute, the routine sacrifice appeased his wrath. The Fear of God became one of the main foundations of the most persecuted people in Western history, the Hebrews, the most persecuted, yet durable of the Western cultures, lived with the deity of Job, the punisher, the Armies' God. It was needed a strong God, terrible, studies argue, in order to maintaining the psychological strength that in the end, the chosen people would triumph. Jesus and the Redeemer God were part of a reinterpretation of the Jewish deity. While his message promised heaven to all who repent of heart, those who accept Jesus in their lives, it also set a deadline for doing so. The book of Revelation was written during the Roman persecution of early Christians. There, on the hill of Armageddon good and evil have the final confrontation, and the time to repent will be over. The living and the dead will be judged, and those who never accepted Christ as their savior will suffer the punishment of eternal flames. God always rewards the damage done to his flock.
The last book of the Christian Bible is just one example of this trend. The fear, or perhaps the apocalyptic desire seems to be well established in almost all civilizations. In just 100 years of history, countless innovative stories are included to give humanity a new fear or hope. As the Goddess of Reason was occupying all the western churches, Science has become their main prophet. Its apocryphal priest, science fiction, has filled the imagination of western man with many possibilities for the end of this and other worlds. The discovery of two prehistoric mass
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extinctions brought with it th he fear of meteorites and their power to end our race. Pests, both natu ural and manufactu ureed, are anoth her major concern fo or a species th hat still remembers alll too well past paandemics. The fury of the goddess Reaason brought about the downfall of many of their cults, declining g parishioners. Th he Second World War and itss progress, especially the in ncreediblle destructiive power off the atom, dissilllusiioned millions of the veracitty of positivist thoughtt, th he "iinfinite progress" than nks to modern technology. The wrath of Science has been characteristic in modern apoccallyptic tales. In its lateest
incarnation, the earth itself will take revenge on our abuse. God is postmodern, no longer blindly trusting the technique, instead He is repaying our pride. Global Warming and the damage caused by non-sustainable industrialization is a reality. While there is a tendency to consider it " a media invention", the number of serious studies that show the damage caused by modern industry on the environment is far superior to those who consider it a natural process. A simple use of Occam's Razor is enough to have some certainty of human impact on their environment. All this doesn't detract from the fact that it is used as an apocalyptic tale, a way for persecuted of beating their persecutors in the holy retribution that fate has in store. At the end of the Cold War, the number of existing nuclear weapons, the available for use and the discovery
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of the Nuclear Winter, not only created a huge amount of apocalyptic fiction, but appeared to cautionary tales, fables with a moral, called post-apocalyptic. A Canticle For Leibowitz is one of those fables, written by a Christian believer, Walter M. Miller, it represents quite clearly the construction of an apocalyptic story. After a catastrophic nuclear war, American society goes back to a state very close to the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome. The story, mostly on the brief recovery of society, thanks in part to the work of a monastery which is responsible for preserving the arcane knowledge for future generations, warns of the terrible power that we are playing. The pride of man, once again, caused his downfall. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the immediate disappearance of the nuclear threat changed the focus of collective fears elsewhere. Meteorites, always present, gained some importance (during the nineties tried several films on the subject). But it was the accelerated climate change and mismanagement of the problem by the Bush administration, which sparked a huge surge of awareness about it. Whole chunks of the poles are drifting in the oceans and it is now impossible to
imagine a future society and industry with similar climatic conditions. But definitely this is not a new subject. Global warming is present in stories like Soylent Green, in 1973 and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch in 1964. The big difference is that now we have the consequences here. Doom sayers believe that it is too late to do anything. With a certain morbid curiosity, hope that their goddess, the earth, teach them the lesson they could not. Others, including the author of these lines, see it as a golden opportunity for humanity to show its place in the universe as a species, we have achieved one of the most spectacular things we could dream of: the ability to destroy an entire planet. We will climb one step further in the evolutionary scale when we have the ability to reverse that process. That's
when we'll be masters of our environment, not only locally but across the planet, and our survival over time will be closer to being a reality. But of course, this will require an evolutionary leap. Christian Bogado (Venezuela) inverso@gmail.com
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technology Kiosk
Flying electric cars In our fossil fuel dependent world, it's hard to remember that most of the forms of fuel that we are exploring as ecofriendly or low carbon print alternatives, already existed for a long time before we joined our destiny to internal combustion engines. Electric vehicles formally exist since the 1830 decade, at least 20 years before the emerging of the
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first gasoline engine! (another reference: the first steam engine was invented before 1700!). By resuming old systems research and to combine them with technologies that we didn't realized we could use in this area, we find the reborn of the electric automobiles, reaching new battery endurance records and, also, high
THE LONG CYCLE OF TECHNOLOGY performance sport electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf (1) that reaches 145 Kph or the Tesla Roadster(2) with its 200 Kph. With electric regeneration systems in brakes, solar panels and other electric generation systems, these reaching flexibility, effectiveness and capa-
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cities never seen before, this it leads us to foresee electric cars with the same autonomy and freedom to which we are accustomed, in the not too distant future. It's still a long road ahead to get to the omnipresent flying car that science fiction is promising us since early 1900
(3), we still have to get used to the idea of the hybrids o dual fuel-electric or hydrogen-electric as a first step and sort out lots of technology challenges to get the right and low cost electric vehicle we need, but following the right path, we
might find that the flying car of the future, will be electric.
Martín Goldín (Venezuela) martingoldin@gmail.com
MORE INFO (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf (2) http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster (3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car_%28fiction%29#Examples
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