During the meeting we listed some projects related to FOSS and civil society in LAC (see the list on the end of this summary). We grouped projects according to the following categories, which we labeled as goals:

1. Advocacy and Promotion;
2. Access;
3. Security, Usage, Migration, Problems solving;
4. Education/Capitacion (Capabilities/ Empowerment);
5. Investigation/Research;

Our discussion of the map identified the following issues, most of which were related to “needs”: 1.) Lack of support and training, which is tied to education; 2) Need for remote backup; 3) High cost of migration; 4) General poverty in schools and society; 5) Lack of communication between political groups and Free Software groups and the need to link these two groups/issues (SOLAR, an Argentinian Free Software organization with a political focus in one important exception) are very important.

The Result of the Needs Assessment:

1. Support: ability to travel to remote regions (i.e, the Amazon), flexible and enthusiastic specialists, local and regional volunteer support being familiar with the work/language/”culture” of NGOs, sharing of duties. And also provide on-line support when possible.
2. Localization: Linux distributions and OpenOffice and manuals in native language of the regions.
3. Sustainability: Financing, Regulate the government, hold them accountable, Viable economic mode for free software.
4. Transversalidad/integration and Translation: Translation between social and technical issues, face to face interaction/collaboration, dialog between the movements, integration of gender/race perspective, connect to the various NGO stake holders, recognition of Free Software as a cultural group with its own norms, and cultivate relevant relations, how FOSS movement can learn from NGO.
5. Access: Hardware, access to the Internet, access to FOSS.
   • NGO-in-a-box: Compiling and distributing NGO-in-a-box with localized software to non-profits in the region.

Next Steps:

Organizers and Tactical Technology Collective are interested to collaborate in the following areas:

1. Transversalidad – We are very interested in cooperating to organize Source-like event(s) (see http://www.tacticaltech.org Summer- and Africa- Source) on different scales: national, sub-regional, LAC. This is only possible with the cooperation of a strong and devoted local partner. To move forward we need to find: local partners, find those willing to draft meeting curricula meeting(s), find the participants, form the facilitators group, seek funds and co-coordinate the event(s);
2. Localization – We can offer the Tactical Tech “localization guide”, experience and contacts to regional experts;
3. Support – We can contact and consult with viable local partner(s) local e-rider projects and connect them to international e-riders network;
4. NGO-in-a-box - We are interested in exploring ways in which we can distribute FOSS in the region. This includes compiling and documenting localized applications and distributions as well finding regional hubs to produce and distribute these.

Things which we can do together now:

• Let's complete the list of the projects, organizations and people in LAC working with NGO and FOSS online on the mailing list and by the phone, find the mediators/translators, find interested partners and participants for future action. We should achieve this by working “from below”, contacting and working with already existing groups and projects at the local level.
• Re-map the relations and thematics again online on the list and by the phone.
• Develop the possible curriculum of the regional/national meeting(s), Attempt to answer the question: what should be done first: regional LAC or national/sub-regional meetings, what thematics should we take, who should we target for the meetings?
• Form the consulting/advisory group;
• Locate possible local partner(s) interested in organizing the “source-like” event. Who are ready to appreciate the outcomes of the event and are capable to prepare and manage the possible follow up acctions emerging from the events;

We are looking for volunteers for above things

• Prepare the working group meeting (for example before the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2005);
• Discuss how to proceed within NGO-in-a-box, finding local partners for distribution and compilation, discuss relevant target groups/sectors etc.;
• please add more

Suggested organizations and groups to contact with:

• Laneta, Mexico
• Funredes, Dominincan Republica
• Puntos de Encuentro, Nicaragua - feminist organization
• Alfa-Redi, Peru
• Solar, Argentina
• SLRS, Brazil
• lets speak to developers (eg. Debian Latin developers);
• PARM/WNSP-APC;
• ComunidadeSol,Amazonas
• CPSR-Peru
• please add more