austraLasia #2278


Taking up the GC26 challenge in one particular area

QUITO: 16th October 2008 -- Quito is a little 'out of range' for EAO if we just talk geography, but given that at least one member of the Region is contributing fairly heavily to events there in these days, a little news about this is warranted (and will also explain why over the next couple of weeks austraLasia editions may be more sporadic depending on place, time and access).
    Even a superficial reading of the GC26 document and AGC402's six year plan will reveal, from the RM's introductions onwards, frequent reference to 'new frontiers' where young people are to be found yet we sometimes not! At times it is a reference to a wide-ranging set of needs (education to ethics, fostering personal dignity, socio-political involvement, active citizenship, rights, peace-building, family situations, new technologies).  In other words 'new frontiers' is not a simple expression and nor is it to be limited to new technologies.  But the Chapter and the subsequent planning document also make it very clear that there is one set of 'playgrounds' (elsewhere described as 'virtual worlds') which the young inhabit, and where we simply must be to 'listen, enlighten, guide'.  This is the reasoning underpinning the first Salesian International Congress on Free Software and the Democratisation of Knowledge.  There are in fact two keynote speakers from the EAO Region, yours truly being one (speaking on rights, equity and the democratisation of knowledge) and Michel Bauwens from Thailand.  Michel is not a Salesian and has just one or two Salesian connections, including the fact that he grew up in Belgium and knew 'Don Bosco' from that context, but, as he explains, his rather left-wing and anti-clerical father would let him have little to do with all that!  As it turns out, MB went on to great things in managing Belgium's telecom industry then underwent a kind of secular-spiritual conversion which led him to repudiate the dog-eat-dog that goes on in the business world and live more simply and more for the benefit of humanity.  As a result he moved to Thailand (Chiang Mai) and set up the P2P Foundation. The Vatican got to know about his activity and ideas and invited him to address the Pontifical Council for Culture in May this year to inform the Church on where it might head in its thinking about virtual worlds vis-a-vis human activity. We then subsequently invited him to Quito.
    The Congress, which despite being international in flavour will be heavily though understandably Latin-American populated, other than testing one's meagre knowledge of Spanish, will be a direct follow-up to the issues noted above.  Free  Software (not as in 'gratis' so much as in the value of freedom) will be tied to education and evangelisation, the kind of thing asked for by GC26 in nos. 104, 109, 110, 111. Interestingly enough the RM in his closing address to the Chapter, identified 'new frontiers' not as place or places but as one of the three keys to reading the entire Chapter correctly. The Congress is attempting to do precisely this - 'read' today's world of the young, especially those who are poor, in the light of what has become not a trickle but an avalanche around the world as individuals, groups, cities and entire states convert to F/LOSS approaches. The question for Salesians is where does this leave us as educators and evangelisers?
    As the event unfolds, maybe we can offer a little more on this. It will be attended by SC Delegates from two regions - Interamerica and South Cone - who will then meet to see what paths the Congress has led them along.  It is hoped, in 2009, that there may be something of the kind also organised in the English-speaking world. Initial feelers have been put out in some places.
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Title: australasia 2278
Subject and key words: SDB General FLOSS Congress Quito
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2278