Hi everybody
I will share with 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
on 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 interface like Gnome, Kde [???]
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 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 is [???] is one of the most actives 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 encounters 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
DebianHlg 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 track 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 REGUTL 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 [???] do
you know if they already collaborate with debian in that way?
[A:] No the Misox development is [???] just by local developers in Cuba,
and they have not make 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 to me and I believe also for other 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 users, and how to present it for
debian, and collaborate with us.
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 this I don't know
if there are 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 there 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 on systems to maintain community projects or self driven serves
Unless you are working in some institution or in the government or in a university,
you could have a chance to host your project in your local computer and then
use a public IP, maybe , but if you are not working 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]