https:/.../debian_free_software_cuba.webm

Hi everybody

I will share with you some experiences
about activities that are taking place

nowadays in Cuba and also related with
the Debian Project

Who am I? I am Jonathan Bustillos Osornio
(Jathan) also

I am a Debian contributor and a Debian
user since 2008 and I have been helping

in some teams like po-debconf templates,
translations in the Debian Spanish

Translation Team since 2011 and on Debian
Reproducible Builds in 2017

In Cuba there is a community of Free Software
users and developers who have been working

on different activities and useful
developments to extend the use of Debian

and other Free Software projects
throughout the country

The first group that we have is the GUTL
The Free Tecnologies Users Group, in

Spanish - Grupo de Usuarios de Tecnologias
Libres, is an organisation in Cuba since

the development of the GNU/Linux users
communities of the whole country.

It pushes the usage of free technologies
organizing events, workshops, courses and

many more activities of social impact with
Free Software.

Some of this events are like the Free
Document Day related with Libreoffice

And this are the pictures of the events,
also the FLISol the Latin American

Festival Free Software Instalation

Also recreation activities

GUTL has a website in each they publish
many articles or news related with Debian

and another Free Software projects.

The GUTL was born in 2009 and since then
it has been one of the most influencial

organisations in Cuba to learn, use and
share Free Software, hardware and knowledge

The main work objectives of this
organisation are technological sovereignty

Social Comptroller, socialization of
Information, Project development

International visibility for Cuba in the
field for free software and free

Technologies.

Now we will know about free software
projects and it's achievements

The GUTL group has created a repository
called REPOGUTL which is an implementation

of something called the Cuban Sourceforge,
by their developers and users

where free software developers have the
opportunity to publicize their creations

and get feedback, promoting the migration
and use of Free Software to Cuban users.

This is the system which you could
find in the website

the repository generated with Cuban free
software called Alfidi is structured in two

major categories, these are applications
and products, with subcategories under them

and they include the title of the application,
the author, contacts if it is desired by the

creator, size, a brief description and a
long description in addition to the

instructions for installation.

These are the main developers of REPOGUTL
and maintainers, Maikel Enrique Pernia Matos

And Delio Orozco González.

Also we have a free software project called
MISOX

Misox is of set of Free Software
applications developed by Maikel Pernía

Matos , Delio Orozco González and
Alberto Miguel Nuevo Rojo in the

province of Manzanillo Granma in Cuba,
under the GNU GPL license and also

packaged as .deb for our debian distribution
with the purpose of helping computer users

to create a customization of Debian
GNU/Linux adjusting it to their necessities

since an easy and well integrated
environment.

These are some screenshots of the program,
it's main purpose is to facilitate some

computer users customization of debian
GNU/Linux operating system and to put

the packages the users want, to set the
graphical desired interface like

some desktop enviroment with Gnome
Kde or other windows manager like

Fluxbox, Awesome, I3.

And also it offers the possibility to add
individual debian packages from an

external source.

There is another project called VideoMorph
which is a GUI wrapper for ffmpeg,

based on code from python-video-converter
and presets idea from QWinFF and FF Multi

Converter, developed by Ozkar L. Garcell,
Leodanis Pozo Ramos and Leonel Salazar

Videaux in Holguín, Cuba.

And this is the screenshot.

The mais goal of VideoMorph is to focus
is a single purpose making video conversion

simple with an easy to use GUI and allowing
the user to convert to the currently most

popular video formats.

These are the colleagues that are working
on the group of GUTL in Holguín.

And they also organize activities to talk
about some free software community

or present some program to their users.
And they have also created a website

called Debian GNU/Linux in Holguín,
that is Debian Hlg, and in this website

they publish news related to Debian,
events that are organized in this part

of the far east of Cuba in Holguín, and
it's a very nice way to stay in contact

with the local users.

Some achievements of the GUTL in Holguín
is one of the most active communities

in Cuba, because they are a lot of members,
and they have the support of the university

of Holguín, for some activities.
We have also an official member of the

document foundation, Carlos Parra Zaldivar
and he's working with libreoffice community

directly.

Also there are four free software active
developers,

there are two programs in development,

and two active repositories in GitHub.

Beside this it would have three websites
with international visibility like Debian

in Holguín, and Python Scouts and
Libreoffice cubava

Sometimes the Holguín free software
community has a space to talk about free

technologies at a TV program of Cuba called
"A Buen Tiempo", there is something like

[???] time.

By the other hand we have a lot of activity
in Granma province, that is also in the East

of Cuba

This is the place in which more Free
Software projects have been developed

in island, also REPOGUTL was hosted here,
until some months ago, because now the

organization was supporting the group
it is not [???] anymore, to give the hosting

because of institutional restrictions.

Many programs in development,
also there are one GUTL website editor,

and there is a free software active
developer.

In Santiago de Cuba also we have a
GUTL website editor, and they have created

a blog called SWL-X, that is a a web blog
related to free software activities

and there is a free software active developer

So now i will talk about some events that
has been taking place during the last two

years, this is the CubaConf and these the
Free Technologies Cuban Conference

CubaConf, is an international conference about
Free Software and open technologies that have

taken place in Havana, Cuba since 2016.
CubaConf is a meeting from the international

community of enthusiasts of many parts of
the world besides the Cuban local communities,

peer to peer focused and collective
development. It seeks the participation of people

with different profiles and diverse geographical
locations.

[???] CubaConf that was on 2016, we have
here the last that was in November of last

year and we had the opportunity to have
some Debian developers, for instance in

2016 Tiago Bortolleto and Tassia Camões
went to CubaConf and they pushed to

create with Leonel Salazar a Cuban
free software developer to organize

for the first time the mini-debconf
in Cuba.

From the organization of the conference
it is aimed at the diversity of topics and

projects, as of its participants, so the
participation of women, minority groups

in these activities is crucial to build new
inclusive spaces of knowledge and dialogue

about technology. The main idea is to know
people experience and organizations who

work with and in Free Software, with old
hardware technologies and little or slow

bandwidth, to talk about how Free Software
can help developing countries.

During the last CubaConf we had a great
number of girls participating with talks

and even attending the event and that was
very motivating, we also had a talk with Molly

de Blanc of the Free Software Foundation
and she did a very nice presentation

And this is the global photo from last year

Now I will talk about the mini debconf,
CubaConf 2016 these encounter between

Tassia, Tiago and Leonel, has pushed to
organize for the first time the mini debconf

in Cuba.

This college is Leonel Salazar Videaux
and he's one of the founders of UTL and

Debian GNU(Linux in Holguín, he's a free
software user since 2004

First time using Debian GNU/Linux was with
“Sarge”,

he has been spreading the Debian Project
in local communities in Cuba and organizing

events as MiniDebConf. He is a programmer
has a profession.

So during last mini debconf we had some topics
like how about to help the debian project

from Cuba, the Cuban community share 2
main projects where Misox and VideoMorph

developers showed how is the development
of the programs and how to use them

Also I had the opportunity to present a talk
about reproducible builds for first time in

Spanish and it was very useful to attract
new debian enthusiasts users and also to

the currently developers like Mike and Oscar
from Videomorph and Misox,

it was a new topic to start taking care with
the principles of the reproducible builds

in the construction of then new versions
for their development with Misox and

Videomorph.

So much of this work has been carried
out by enthusiastic and committed people

with Debian and the Free Software
movement, that despite the different

difficulties to sustain some costs
economically, access the Internet, acquire

computer hardware and achieve official
recognition as developers of some

Free Software community in the world
due to all the above, they continue to

contribute in a decisive way projects
that should be available to everyone

inside and outside of Cuba.

Because for instance the Misox project
Videomorph and many other programs

are hosted in the REPOGUTL by the
limitations of hardware, money

available to the Cuban users.

In that way I consider that it would be very
interesting and important to think

about how the Debian could support and
recognize those who contribute directly to

the use and development of our
distribution, in places where there

is a willingness to do so and strengthen
our community by being inclusive of them?

Because we know the Debian Social Contract,
our guidelines, but how can we

considered to those that are in a country
in which you could connect to the

internet but it's very expensive and
if you want to interact with the mailing

list or you want to stay in contact with
another debian maintainer or debian

developers it's not so easy, because simple
you don't have the conditions

So I want to leave the question to have a
dialog and to see what do you think, which

possibilities are in the debian project to
support for instance the Misox development

that is based on debian and even the packages
will be in the repositories in the free section

Well that is all, and thank you very much for
your attention

[Applause]

Any comments or questions?

[Q:] The Misox distribution is it
registrated with the derivatives sensus do

you know if they already collaborate with
debian in that way?

That's the first thing that comes to my mind

[A:] No the Misox development is driven
just by local developers in Cuba,

by Maikel , Delio and Alberto but

they have not done contact with some
debian developers outside.

Then would be my first suggestion, for them
to just inform debian in a relatively

formalized way what is this they are doing,
with derives from debian how is it different

That's an helpful thing for me and I
believe also for others in debian and also

from outside debian to compare, and then
getting [???] what would be interesting

to cherry pick and put into debian,
and what would be important to coordinate

So the very reference that they exist
in a more formal way it's not a lot of work

just a wikipage to inform, who to contact
how to contact, i remember once

looking at Misox webpage and trying to
navigate, and I was lost in locating who

should I even contact, how is it structured
and that's partially a cost because I

don't understand Spanish , so that's one
[???] personally , but that could be other

things also, how do they put the information
for their own users, and how to present it

for debian collaboraters.

Ok, thank you...

[Q:] Just want to ask how are yourself
related to the Cuban community?

[A:] I was in contact with some developers
like Leonel, Maikel, Delio because the

CubaConf and the mini-debconf have
this knowledge, beyond than this

I don't know if there are even more
projects that are underground more

than this, so yes this is the only contact
that I have with the Cuban developers

of free software.

[Q:] Can you tell a bit more about the kind
of barriers, I understand the one that is

expensive, so technically possible to get
online but expensive, but are there other

kind of barriers? Is there a wall like in
China, what kind of barriers is there for

the developers in Cuba to collaborate
with others in Debian?

[A:] My opinion I consider that the main
barrier is to pay to connect to the internet

because in free software movement the
connection to the internet has been very

important to stay in touch with another
developers or interested users , so

in the case of Cuba they have an internet
but if they want to socialize their programs

outside the island you have to pay for
instance 5 [???] that is more or less 4 euro

per 5 hours of internet and not always the
connection is good, because you need to

go to public parks or you need to go to
some monument, a public place which

there are access points and then you use
your card and try to get an IP, but this is

really hard sometimes, you could wait 20,
25 minutes, because there are a lot of

people with smartphones, and more devices
and even if you , in my personal situation

when i was in Cuba, I tried to connect to
the internet and I delayed around 35, 40

minutes to get an IP to my computer,
so first it's the main obstacle to

communicate with another people outside
using internet.

By other hand the hardware, the weather
conditions, it is very hot, and they do not

have air conditioner systems to maintain
community projects or self driven servers

Unless you are working in some institution
or in the government or in a university,

maybe you could have a chance to host
your project in a local computer and

then use a public IP, maybe , but if you
are notworking in these fields of technology

in Cuba, is very hard, if you are an
independent and you want to contribute

and let it know more people about your
project you need to connect to the network

and you need to pay also because internet
is not money free in Cuba.

I was also thinking in the kind of tools,
does it feel from the perspective of

Cubans, does it feel [???] social for
debian developers to be hanging

out on IRC so they need to be
real online, would it be more beneficial

to them if some of us is using mail more
or mailing list more, or IRC more, forms more

[???] you have noticed, the styles of
communication could be helpful for this

kind of barriers.

I think that if that would be possible,
if the Cuban developers could at least use

IRC and communicate with some Debian
maintainers or developers, maybe an

interchange of knowledge , they could learn
more from you and also you could take

their packages into some GIT lab server or
you could be some kind of Debian sponsor

to be public and allow the public access
outside of Cuba to this software, for

instance Misox or another one from RepoGUTL
and maybe you could help in that way, but

Cuban developer needs to connect to the
network, to be in constant communication.

[Q:] What is the best place to learn about
Debian events related in Cuba in case I have

any way over the Atlantic and I think: oh,
could I pass by Cuba and [???] question.

Do you know whether there are any problems
to go to the US via CUBA or going from the

US ,Cuba and then back to Europe?

[A:] I think there are some restrictions for
United States citizens to visit Cuba unless

you argument some research or education
causes, but if you are coming from Europe

there's no problem, there's no restriction
for European citizen or Latin American

citizens or Asian to be in Cuba, to work
with technology topics with the local

people.

[Q:] And how to learn about events? Is there
a Cuban mailing list or something like that?

[A:] Not a mailing list but there is the
RepoGUTL website.

This is the main groups in which you could
stay in contact with the Cuban community

and also you could write through the contact
section of the RepoGUTL website,

this is the general way of communicate with
the more active Cuban developers.

There are some projects that are hosted in
GIT Lab like Videomorph

And here are the contact of some
developers, but this is very particular

you need to know the name of the program
because in RepoGUTL there are more that

50 different programs many of them are
developed by the same guy but by the

other hand there are other ones that
even doesn't have a GIT Lab or GIT Hub

server in this case the better way is
to do it by the GUTL Website to contact

the community of developers of free
software in Cuba.

Any further questions ?

[Q:] Absolutely not an expert but i have
heard of stories of people building their

own ad-hoc network in countries in which
internet is not well connected, for instance

using the baboo protocol and would it be
possible to build your own connection to

the internet using that kind of technology?

[A:] Well I have not realized about this,
I have to say I'm not Cuban, so I have

been trying to help our collegues, but as
you have said I don't know if they have

tried to use this alternatives, or if it
even works, but well it's nice to know it

and thank you.

So any further question or comments?

If not then I thank you again!

[Applause]