Fundación Vía Libre

Fundación Vía Libre of Córdoba, Argentina, is an NGO working on the social implications of information and communication technologies throughout Latin America, with very strong ties to the region's software libre community, to academia, to other civil society organizations, and to the global Free Software movement. It was founded in 2000.

Via Libre's work on the role of software libre for the public administration has led to numerous legislative projects demanding the use of free software for all public administration work. The template "free software bill" Vía Libre together with lawmakers and a large international group of software supporters helped create, introduce and promote in several Latin American countries was mentioned in the FLOSS report as recommended legislation for all European Union member countries.

Vía Libre is currently part of the international consortium executing the FLOSSWorld program within the European Union's 6th Framework Program, led by the University of Maastricht. Vía Libre's Support Program for Small and Medium Organizations, co-funded by Fundación Avina of Switzerland and Argentina's National Agency for Science and Technology, aims at helping small businesses and NGOs introduce software libre in their operations through training, preconfigured software packages and the development of a free ERP tailored to their needs. Vía Libre cooperated heavily with Heinrich Böll Stiftung for two years, working on publications, events and conferences on issues related to copyrights and patents all over Latin America.

External links

* [http://www.vialibre.org.ar Fundación Vía Libre]
* [http://selfproject.eu Self Project]
* [http://flossworld.org FLOSSWorld]
* [http://www.boell-latinoamerica.org Heinrich Böll Foundation in Latinamerica]