Thank you for your interest in Free and Open Source Software in Vietnam. Vietnam is a beautiful country and everyone visiting can feel the spirit of optimism and progress. It is a perfect environment for new ideas of sharing and cooperation to grow. The idea of collaborating across countries, continents, ages, genders and cultures is at the heart of Free and Open Source and I am excited to participate and contribute to it. We welcome and support everyone who shares those values with us.

I have organized the GNOME.Asia Summit in 2009 and 1400 participants – among them many young women – have unfolded the huge potential of the Vietnamese Free and Open Source community. I have participated in many events and even as a “non-techie” I had the chance to participate in the international community, help with feedback and translate software. I have gained invaluable experience, met incredibly interesting people from all over the world and learned a lot. I learned – not only about software, but about cultures and languages. While I continue to learn many things every day, I would like to share my experience and the opportunities we have in this global community now as a supporter through FOSS Vietnam.

Some people said to me, it is astonishing to see a Vietnamese woman being active in the free software community. I believe in order to make Free and Open Source a success we need everyone to participate and I will continue to work, that it is not “astonishing” for women to participate in IT in Vietnam.

Be it termed as Open Source Software or Free Software, there are opportunities of FOSS for individuals as well as for society as a whole and for my homeland Vietnam. We can learn many things. We can improve our knowledge for our studies, jobs and businesses. In Europe 80% of companies are already using Open Source. It is a big factor for the economy. As everyone can access, copy and change the source code the market is open for new actors and many Vietnamese companies already develop commercial products with FOSS or outsourced products for international companies. In my company we are using Linux as a virus-resistent alternative saving us a lot of time and trouble.

The Open Source model of open collaboration can help us to find solutions to many challenges in this world – better, faster and more energy-saving software, software that can be customized for many languages, software for people who cannot see or hear. Free and Open Source can help to give many people access to education and create more equality.

To support this positive change we need to work together to spread information about FOSS. Many people still do not know about Free and Open Source. We need more people to support each other and help new users und developers. We need more developers in Vietnam to adapt existing solutions for Vietnamese and Asian users. We need people to organize events, where we can meet face to face. We need mentors, who developers and contributors can turn to. We need business people who understand business models and opportunities around Free and Open Source. We need you! FOSS can be a sustainable model for Vietnam as it is for other countries. Please join us in our effort for education, spreading knowledge, developement of better, faster and energy-saving software, designing easy to use interfaces and promoting opportunities for everyone with Free and Open Source.

Thank you,

Hong Phuc DANG