Latin America is a case in point. I had the opportunity to work recently for the Inter-American Development Bank to study and write a report on Open Source in Latin America. After embarking on a field trip, and talking to lots of people, this writer feels, well, confused.

Latin America is said to be a region of extremes: extreme poverty and extreme wealth. There is also a gulf in skills. You have some very bright computing experts and the vast majority of people, who have never even used a computer. As for the software marketplace, north-south comparisons are not as stark. One finds international software companies, small and local entrepreneurs, and everything in-between.

There is much talk of free software in education and access to information. To be sure, Richard Stallman's frequent preaching on his visits have paid off. Many government people with whom I met preferred to speak in terms of software libre—free software—not Open Source. There are government-run Internet cafe projects around, called telecentros. They’re based on cheap hardware boxes and Linux desktop software. When people haven't used Microsoft's software before, they say, it is easy to learn Linux.

There are highly productive developers who are committed to Open Source. While only a small percentage of Linux and other Open Source developers are from Latin America, among those few are some famous contributors, from Miguel de Icaza of Mexico (Ximian) to Marcelo Tossati of Brazil (Linux kernel maintainer). In addition, one can easily find Linux user groups that are not only active but vibrant. A visitor such as myself catches a mood that feels very much like that experienced some 10 years ago in Europe and the United States: That feeling is one of promise.

Understanding the Open Source situation in Latin America begins with understand the politicians. It is very different from the United States and Europe: In Latin America all too many of the politicians are populists. They propose and at times write laws on every subject possible. It's all about whatever can make the news. We, like everyone else, read online news sources quoting Latin American politicians proposing bold free software initiatives. There we learned that none of those proposals, whether it was from Peru, Brazil, or elsewhere, has had any notable impact on reality.

Nonetheless, it is hardly arguable that those who recognize tremendous importance of advancing information and communication technologies are those on the proprietary side who, like Free Software cadres, feel the promise, too. There are hundreds of millions of people. There is market potential. There are some very talented programmers. And there’s definitely no shortage of enthusiasm. What more could these vendors need? Small wonder that all major international software companies from Microsoft to IBM have a strong presence in the region. They believe the market is growing. Piracy rates have been going down. Countries are climbing aboard the Internet bandwagon. At this stage, any means to grow computer literacy will help.

One thing is certain. For the moment, Latin America might be perceived by some people as a place for samba and soccer. In the long term, those hundreds of millions of people will be an integral part of our global information village.