Northxsouth
Northxsouth, a small company of web developers with offices in San Francisco and Sao Paulo, Brazil, represents a new global archetype that has shaped, and been shaped by, the methods of open source software.
In their own words, “Many of us are also involved in open source and free software projects. We were using online collaboration tools as a part of our day-to-day work for open source projects where no two people involved lived in the same city. Being accustomed to secure messaging, voice-over-ip and groupware, we gained a unique edge. Our network of opportunities and trusted talent expanded beyond the Bay Area and we started working on free software projects in Latin America as open source gained momentum there.”
The Northxsouth blog has kept track of interesting developments in the world of Free Software, including a recent survey titled “Free Software Becoming Entrenched in Brazil,” where they report “As time goes on, free software is becoming institutionalized within Latin American businesses, public sector systems, non-profits and NGOs.”
There had been much press a few years ago during the announcements of migration plans to open source, but not a lot of news since. This indicates that much has been happening during this time. (The FOSS adoption survey itself is here.)