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Initiative aims to prepare professionals to contribute to the code development of BrOffice (LibreOffice), and eventually other free software projects. Activities programed to start in the first quarter of 2011.

The Itaipu Binacional and NGO BrOffice.org announced on Wednesday, November 10th, the creation of the Center of Excellence in Free Software. The project aims to train professionals in Brazil, based in Foz do Iguacu, to contribute to the development of the office suite. The initiative is a partnership between the entities Oscip BrOffice.org, Itaipu Binational and Itaipu Technological Park Foundation. The announcement was made by the IT Superintendent at Itaipu, Marli Portella, during the official opening of the VII Latinoware.org, that took place 10th to 12th of November 2010, in the city Foz do Iguacu in Brazil.

As commented by the President of NGO and General Coordinator of BrOffice.org Community, Claudio Filho, the Brazilians are changing from being only users and becoming involved in the development of the major free software projects in the world, which currently has its core development axis between Europe and United States.

As Claudio, about 15 million people use BrOffice.org in Brazil. He explained that the project will give more independence to application development, faster responses, and provide the nationalization of expertise in free software projects, governance through participation in technical bodies, and reducing dependence on international development. "This center became a reality only through a partnership between Itaipu, Itaipu Technological Park and NGO BrOffice.org", says Claudio.

As said by David Emmerich (member of the Council of the NGO and member of the working group on BrOffice.org for the creation of the Center of Excellence) since the foundation of Brazilian community in 2001, it was intended that it contributed code. Over the years, the conditions needed to make this intention become reality, to do this it was a necessary step to consolidating the community and interact with Itaipu. "With the creation of the Foundation Document and LibreOffice, it closed a cycle and all factors have converged, so the idea was put into practice", says David.

The expectation is that, in the first quarter of 2011, the first professionals will be selected to start the training in the Itaipu Technological Park. The training and integration with the design center will be continuous. "We will facilitate the training of professionals in open source languages and methodologies for technology development", explains Claudio.

Contacts:
Claudio Filho - filhocf_at_broffice.org
David Jourdain - jourdain_at_broffice.org
Leonardo Cesar - lhcezar_at_postgresql.org.br

revisão: Rogério Luz