Free Software and the Democratic Construction of the Society
Last Wednesday I went for the first time in many years to FES Iztacala, the UNAM faculty where I worked for four years (1999-2003) and where I have most learnt and advanced in my career so far. I have a very special spot in my heart for Iztacala :-) But it was not just a nostalgy drive - In no small part, I had not visited Iztacala -despite several invitations- because… It is really far away, in Tlalnepantla, Northern Mexico City (while I live in the South, just by UNAM). It takes me approximately 1.5 hours to get there via public transportation, and I would not venture less than 1 hour travel time by car. So… Having nothing to lose, I decided to go by bike - you can look at my route to get there (OpenStreetMap, SportsTracker) and safely back home (OpenStreetMap, SportsTracker). Some people I have talked with think it was a crazy thing to do - No, I don’t feel that, by a long shot. A 26Km ride in slightly under two hours, and back. People insist on thinking that biking in such a large and chaotic city as Mexico is unsafe, dangerous, suicidal… I deeply disagree. Cycling is fun and got me to my destination in almost the same time I would have made by bus. And no, I would not buy four liters of gasoline just to cross my city. Anyway, I am also happy about the reason that actually got me to go to Iztacala - I submitted a talk+paper I prepared together with Alejandro Miranda to Congreso Internacional Software Libre y Democratización del Conocimiento organized by Universidad Politécnica Salesiana in Quito, Ecuador. This conference is quite different to those I am used to, as it is quite more formal and academic; it is mainly targetted at social scientists working on understanding our movement. We prepared a talk called Software Libre y la Construcción Democrática de la Sociedad - which was accepted, to my amazement. Neither Alejandro nor I were unable to travel to Ecuador to give the talk, so we arranged to present it via a videoconference call - Which was based on Iztacala. A nice session, although quite different to what I am used to. Our presentation was on a panel setting, under the global Ethical and political dimensions in the Free Software culture, with 20 minutes to present the topic (I am used to preparing one- or two-hour talks), and it was frankly rushed… We “met” with some friends (or were able at least to greet them shortly after the talk) who attended live to the conference, and… Well, all in all, it was one of those good, interesting experiences I would surely repeat. And besides, I have several things pending to show off about my current work to my Iztacalan fellows ;-)
Comments
Alejandro Valenzuela 2008-10-26 03:19:51
Suicidal depends on where you live
I also had this idea to go to school by bike, but I had to abandon it after deeming the carretera libre a Cuernavaca too unsafe even for cars.
Going by bike on the paid road (yes, I used to take the paid road because I lived near the first retour and didn’t have to pay anything) is prohibited, because the buses might pass you too fast and “suck you in”.
In the end I simply took my bike every day to UNAM, cycling from the stadium up to LIDSOL, to the CELE, to LIDSOL and back to the stadium (I couldn’t take the pumabus because I was no longer taking classes, just thesis, and my ID was not stamped for ‘08). I really liked it.
Alejandro Valenzuela 2008-10-26 03:31:13
Re:Suicidal
s/pumabus/bicipuma if applicable :P