In episode #7 of the CTRL ENTER podcast, IDP professor and host Leonardo Monastério interviewed Álvaro Justen, also known as Turicas, an activist and collaborator on various free software projects for over 10 years, a Pythonista, Arduino disseminator, agile methodologies enthusiast, and one of the founders of [unclear - possibly a specific organization or project name]. brasil.io, a site that hosts various publicly available databases.
Turicas's journey and motivation
Álvaro says he started programming at age 14 and has always been interested in learning new languages. In 2005, he began learning Python after identifying with the language and, at that time, was already involved with free software.
The idea of Brazil.iIt was born out of a personal need of Álvaro's when he needed to access some data and saw that it wasn't easy to find it in valid formats. Thus, Turicas began to get involved with the open data community and started the project. brasil.io with the goal of making public data more accessible and collaborative for everyone.
"Making data of public interest less accessible is, in a way, elitizing democracy." says Álvaro.
The relationship with government agencies
"In general, the relationship is peaceful, except for some cases that require the access to information and resources law, such as the federal revenue service.", says Álvaro.
O braisl.io The platform contains over 44 million Brazilian CNPJs (Brazilian company tax IDs), as well as information on partners and their business activities. This database, as it is presented on the website today, was not available from the Federal Revenue Service a few years ago, which provided a very simple database with little information. Because of this, Álvaro and some friends requested access to the information, which was initially denied. After several appeals, the request reached the Comptroller General of the Union, and finally, they received access to the data so they could provide it more easily to those who needed it.
Only after the incident occurred was there public pressure, and the Internal Revenue Service began providing the information on its own website.
Is the future Python?
Given Python's current global reach, Álvaro believes that migrating a system from one language to another could be difficult, as it could generate significant costs for companies adopting the current language. Therefore, he believes Python will remain a leading language for quite some time, but that other languages may emerge as needs change. https://mostbet-games.net/pl/
The activist still believes that the main issue with a programming language is not just the technical aspects, but also the collaborative community, that is, the exchange of knowledge and involvement between people, which is why Python is also very strong. Today, on the internet, you can find answers and solutions for the language very quickly.
The basis of COVID-19 and its interpretations.
When faced with a new database, there are some pitfalls for those who will interpret it, such as readability issues, not knowing the "dirt" of the database, and not knowing the data processes, which can cause some distortions in its interpretation.
In the case of COVID-19, many people ended up misinterpreting the data because they were unaware of the discrepancies in the databases.
O brasil.io It's a website that has always focused on creating programs that download and convert data and make that data available on its platform, and they are constantly seeking to improve how they help people interpret data.
Within the site's manifesto, they state that addressing data access is not just about addressing its format, but also about understanding the data and the area in which the data was generated.
With COVID-19, the need to educate people on how to interpret data correctly became much more explicit, since many people ask specific questions about the interpretation of the presented data, according to Álvaro. To meet this need, documentation was created about the presented data to help people understand the business rules and thus avoid the possibility of spreading fake news and misunderstanding the topic.
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