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SOLIS, Free Software Co-operative

Lajeado, RS, Brazil May, 7th 2003

What is a Co-operative?

"Co-ops are based on helping each other and caring for others. A co-operative is a a type of business or organization. It is a group of people who are working together to solve their own problems and meet their needs. Co-ops are different from other types of organisations since they abide by three main rules:

* Co-ops treat people fairly and respectfully; * Co-ops encourage people to work together towards solving their mutual problems; * Co-ops provide products and services to meet people's needs rather than solely for the purpose of making money."

(Extracted from http://www.ica.coop/kids)

What is Free Software?

"Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:

* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this."

(Extracted from http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)

Reading the definitions above, you will see Co-operative and Free Software share a common set of principles, based on community building and freedom. It seems natural to use a co-operative organization to produce Free Software. This is what SOLIS does.

Started at the UNIVATES IT department (www.univates.br/freesoftware), SOLIS is formed now by almost 30 people who make their living producing free software (half of them working directly with free software development in projects such as SAGU, GNUTECA and others) and selling training, customization and services to customers who are able to understand and share the Free Software phylosophy. All software produced by SOLIS is licensed under the GPL.

UNIVATES, an University Center in the South of Brazil, actually helped the startup of SOLIS by allowing the University's IT department to provide services and training on the software produced originally for the University. Amazingly enough, if you search Google (www.google.com) with the keywords: Free Software Brazil -- you will see UNIVATES pages as the first ones being displayed. Instead of capitalizing on top of free software services itself, UNIVATES decided to outsource its own IT services to the group already providing these services to the University, allowing the inauguration of SOLIS. By doing this, UNIVATES expects SOLIS will grow and provide a workplace for its computer science and other students, fostering regional development, once money spent on free software solutions stay in the region and won't go to proprietary software companies outside Brazil.

SOLIS starts with a full set of products for academic administration, library automation and others, and it is setting up local partnerships in order to "free" (GPL) a comprehensive set of solutions for small and medium enterprises.

"We understand by offering free software for our local industries and commerce, we will allow them to better automate their business and become more competitive, at the same time we create job positions for people who will be supporting this software and further developing it. Right now, the existing proprietary software solutions don't allow the automation of several businesses in our region.", says João Alex Fritsch, President of SOLIS.

Because SOLIS is a cooperative, not a corporation, there is no danger that SOLIS will accept outside investment from people who have no ethical attachment to the principles of free software. Such investment has been the downfall of many free software companies, since the outside investors often decide to develop non-free software.

For more information, please contact Cesar Brod, Executive Vice-President, at cesar at brod.com.br, or visit www.solis.coop.br

Cesar Brod Executive Vice-President cesar at brod dot com dot br SOLIS, Cooperativa de Soluções Livres www.solis.coop.br 55 51 3714-7040