Daniela Silva and Pedro Markun on Hacker Culture in Brazil
Video via http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=laT20mACMaM#!
Interview conducted by Ulrike Reinhard.
Description
"Daniela Silva and Pedro Markun work together in the House of Digital Culture in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s a co-working space – lovely set-up – where many young people meet and work in the fields of transparency, open innovation, digital culture and and the culture of hacking.
One of my favourite projects Daniela and Pedro are involved in, is the “Ônibus Hacker” – the Hacker Bus. The project was born from the Brazilian online community Transparência Hacker, ‘Hacker Transparency’. It was created in 2009 around a HackDay in São Paulo, and the group’s discussion list now counts over 700 members. As its name says, its focus is (h)activism in favor of public transparency and open data. Previous and ongoing projects include Otoridades, a portal where Brazilians can denunciate abuses of power, and Mapas Livres, which focuses on open mapping.
They participated in Rio de Janeiro’s Digital Culture Festival, Sao Paulo’s Campus Party was also on the agenda, as well as ConSocial. This government initiative was Brazil’s first National Conference on Transparency and Social Control. The most important part of the project will be its interaction with the general public. Hacker Transparency calls it ‘Hacker Invasions’: the group’s plan is to visit small towns, where they can have a stronger impact on local realities. It doesn’t mean they will come up with ready-made solutions; it will be a work in progress, in partnership with the local population. During one weekend, they listened to the inhabitants’ needs and helped them to develop answers with the help of to technology, from blogs to apps. In other terms, it was a local version of their HackDays.
Although these actions are local, Hacker Bus hopes to have a larger impact: thanks to webcams and 3G, anyone interested should be able to watch their progress in real time. Hacker Bus might even physically go beyond Brazil’s borders as the group has received an invitation to visit Uruguay." (http://www.ulrikereinhard.com/2012/01/21/hacker-culture-is-close-to-brazilian-culture/)