Chile's eGovernment to Run on Microsoft

Read me in the Washington Post, about the Microsoft deal that pissed everybody off. In September, Digital Liberation member Cristian Sepulveda pointed out that Chileans personal data harvested from the Civil Registry and put on Microsoft's servers could subject Chileans to gringo surveillance, based on a clause in the USA Patriot Act. My response to Cristian:

What do you have to hide?

But despite having such a great pasture for my 177 words to prance around in, there are many points I didn't manage to cover. I haven't had coffee yet so I can only remember one semi-clearly:

1. Chile is the first national client of Microsoft. Luis Ramirez, one of the Chilean bloggers who I emailed, points out that when he talked to the National Strategy Manager for Microsoft in Chile the latter said he thought this was the first time Microsoft Chile was doing Digital Address at a countrywide level. The fascinating conclusion to be drawn is that once again, Chile is an experiment country. Like democratic Marxism, neoliberalism - Chile could be the pilot for e-governments run by corporations, at a time when many countries are going open source.

Also, a lot of people frame this as Chile's government selling out its citizens and handing over 16 million new clients to Microsoft.

Here's a summary of many other peoples' hard work that I pilfered for personal glory:

T-Dog gives a great fantastic English language summary of the Chile Microsoft deal story.

Truth Happens noticed.

Sharpshooter was the original bitcher: The Day that Chile Sold Itself to Microsoft [Spanish]

Devil in the Details turns it into an interrogative: Is the Goverment of Chile Selling us to Microsoft? [Spanish]

Here's a classic example of we-know-what's best for you Chilean elitism [Spanish] which I thoroughly enjoyed but can't say I sourced it.