News of Brazil’s Free Software Project and national IT policy sparked thoughts about the future of open-access, open-source and the politics of technology in general, which Alex argues in his article The Brasilia Consensus, Free Software and Gilberto Gil's Dreadlocks, are inextricably linked:

The idea that you can "take the politics" out of subjects like technology, development, trade regimes and intellectual property systems is, of course, patently absurd. There's practically nothing but politics involved here -- the technical issues, the innovation, are practically trivial in comparison to the political challenges involved in creating South-South science or fashioning the Brasilia Consensus. Our entire global system is a political construct, and Brazil is doing its best to hack that system to make it work better for the billions of people on this planet who don't own Microsoft stock. Technology is only a means to an end in that fight.

The Brasilia Consensus, Free Software and Gilberto Gil's Dreadlocks is a part of our month long retrospective leading up to our anniversary on Oct. 1. For the next four weeks, we'll celebrate five years of solutions-based, forward-thinking and innovative journalism by publishing the best of the Worldchanging archives.