Cláudia Abreu*
São Paulo – Music production has gained strength in Brazil. A visit to address www.studiolivre.utopia.com.br (in Portuguese) shows how the creative process is going in the country. Almost every day a new "beat" is posted. The great interest of youths in musical production was observed by the Ministry of Culture and became an innovative project for digital inclusion: Points of Culture.
"The program will train people interested in producing music, video and art on the Internet throughout Brazil and will supply technology tools for this," explained Saulo Faria Barretto, from the Institute for Research in Information Technology (IPTI), a partner of the ministry in implementation of the project.
According to the ministry, the federal government intention is to have 1,000 Points of Culture up to 2007. Up to now there are 244 installed. The logic is simple: the Points will have multimedia stations for cultural production, audio, video and print.
The first 100 will receive the technological kits (software and hardware) in September this year. "It is not enough to simply place a computer there and teach the person to enter the Internet, as is done in many places. We are going to show that it is possible to make interesting things with a computer, like music and films," stated Alexandre Freire, the program Research and Development coordinator at the Ministry.
Musical and visual production will be possible because all the work is done on free software, which may be downloaded freely on the Internet, without paying for a license. For music production, for example, programs like Ardour and Hydrogen may be used. "The operational system is Lynux, which is also free," explained Freire.
According to him, the "daring" model of the program, which only uses free software, has attracted the attention of professionals interested in promoting digital inclusion in other countries, like South Africa.
Investment
The funds for the Points will come from the federal government and from other partners, such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The annual budget of each Point is around US$ 76,000 (in current figures), divided into five instalments. They are for the development of the cultural project and for the purchase of multimedia equipment (computers, digital cameras, technological support on free software and equipment for broad band connection – a partnership with the Electronic Government Service for Attention to the Citizen, Gesac).
Phases
For implementation, the program has been divided into two phases. The first is the training of multipliers. A group of 40 people from the IPTI is visiting the sites in Brazil where there are Points, identifying the people to be trained. "They will pass their knowledge on to the rest of the community," explained Saulo Barretto.
The next phase is the following, to take place after the arrival of the first multimedia kits in September. "We are continually going to follow the training process of people in the communities, seeing how transfer of knowledge to the group is taking place," he said.
While the kits do not arrive, cultural manifestations are taking place throughout the country. This week, in the city of Teresina, capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Piauí, a group of 200 youths aged between 15 and 25 years, connected to the Hip Hop movement, participated in audio and video workshops during the 1st Meeting of Free Knowledge of the Points of Culture of the Northeast.
On the first day of the event – to end next week – the youths produced a musical track, "Autenticidade", with lyrics by a rapper from the city. The song may be downloaded for free at the Studio Livre site. Various musicians participated in the recording oriented by Cristiano Scabella, the coordinator in the audio area at the IPTI.
The whole work was developed on free software, the same that will be available in the kits. According to Scabella, if the young artists were to pay for the software, they would have to pay around US$ 2,000 in licenses alone to produce the track.
*Translated by Mark Ament
