For Amy and Justin Shaw

Open Source Weaves Connections Between Countries
Long ago when I was a tech administrator at Arlington Public Schools, I received a single-sentence email out, of the blue. The email said: "Our school in India loves your children's stories -- and so we've printed them all out in braille."
Apparently, a school had found the collection of my children's stories on the web. I spent a moment visualizing those students so far away enjoying my stories on those printed pages of braille. The sender of that email might not have realized how meaningful their email was to me, but it's stayed with me for two decades.
Telling collaborative stories with open source That experience got me thinking about how technology can weave new connections between people in different countries. While surfing the web recently, I encountered an Inkscape enthusiast in Romania. His talent with the software was obvious.
You might not think of Romania as a tech hub, but there are people there who have all kinds of tech talent. Talent exists everywhere. Open source, accessible to anyone who downloads it, can serve as a connector between cultures and countries. This Inkscape enthusiast was having a fabulous time honing his skills using Inkscape, one of today's premier illustration tools—and it doesn't cost anything. He and I had something in common—something that could foster a friendship.
I then became curious whether the Opensource.com web site gets regular web visits from Romania. A quick email to the managers of the site confirmed that yes, their web site logs shows regular visits from Romania. In fact, Opensource.com gets more monthly web visits from Romania than from the countries of Denmark, Norway, and New Zealand. Would you be surprised to learn that Opensource.com gets a lot of web traffic from Indonesia? I find that statistic delightful because it points towards a smaller world—a more inclusive, multicultural world.
My thoughts about open source as a global connector became awakened again last month when I found out about an open source, web-based motion graphics editor, Motionity, by a software developer in Great Britain. She describes this software as "a mix of Canva and Adobe After Effects."
This is an immensely exciting development. I can envision my own lighthearted, whimsical story titled Ellen the Eagle Needs Glasses drawn in Inkscape and brought to life using Motionity. To honor AlyssaX's programming work, we must find ways of putting her software to use to showcase what the software is capable of doing. If you're an illustrator of animator, get in touch with me—even better, surprise me with your finished creative project created using Inkscape and Motionity.
Beyond my own children's stories, go explore Motionity for whatever uses you might have. Surprise AlyssaX with your best creative work. I want AlyssaX to experience the same feeling I had when I received that one-sentence email from India. (Our language does not currently have a word for that kind of experience, but maybe we ought to coin a word. If you coin such a word, please tell me.)
Building a healthy society
Fifteen years ago, I attended an international conference on wireless community networks. At that conference, I attended a session explaining the workings of Serbia Wireless, a nonprofit grassroots community wireless network. One of the young presenters was from Serbia, and one from Bosnia. When I heard what they were doing with their homebrew wireless community network, I quickly understood the signficance of it. These two young people were blurring the national boundary lines between two previously warring nations, using open source hardware and open source software to do that. When their motivation became apparent, I honestly wanted to jump up and cheer. After their session, I grabbed one of the presenters, Bogdan Tancic, for this six minute video interview. Listen carefully to what he has to say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCVtPcFp14E
Making connections
If you're looking for something meaningful to do in your life, find ways of connecting people in different countries. Have these individuals cherish their cross national friendships. If these new connections are grown over and over again, the world would be an immeasurably better place. Open source is an outstanding tool to make that happen.
What are your own cross national open source stories? Share your stories right here on this web site. https://opensource.com/writers