<a href=www.linuxjournal.com>Linux JournalCurrents: Liberation Technology Posted on Monday, June 09, 2003 by Frederick Noronha   

The recent Finnish study on the significance of FLOSS (free/libre and open-source software) in developing countries labels itself version 1.0 and ushers in a new concept--not free as in beer or speech, but free as in education. This report, the latest in a series of studies on the impact of free and open-source software worldwide, focuses on the third world. It has been sponsored by Finland, home of the Linux kernel. "This is the beginning. We will put out our findings on the Net and hope to get ideas on improvements (to the study)", says lead researcher Niranjan Rajani, originally from Pakistan and currently based in Helsinki. "This has become a project that most probably will not have an end. You could consider this report [to be] version 1.0...this is just a starting point", stressed Juha Rekola of KEPA, a Finnish network of non-governmental and campaign organisations involved in the study.

Rajani, a philosopher who took to computing to earn a living, looks at the impact of FLOSS in specific countries, and he also views the implications of what it means for a cash-strapped economy. He has few doubts about the usefulness of FLOSS, which he believes would be "extremely relevant" in any of the poorer parts of the globe. He says, "Take the example of education. In terms of computer education, FLOSS has no match. Nothing else provides [as] much value to learners as FLOSS does. You're free to tinker with the code. Not only that, you can get in touch with the people who wrote the code and ask why this or that was done in a particular piece of code.

"[FLOSS] offers low entry barriers. That's how it should be described. It reduces the barriers for anyone wanting to enter this field by making everything open. So much so, that many people fail to appreciate that fact. Besides, there's the element of cost. Most of the studies show that, in terms of cost, free and open-source software is unmatched. Some studies have been made which tend to show that, in certain cases, FLOSS may have more immediate costs. But I doubt the seriousness and validity of these studies on the ground that these studies do not take into account what would be happening if there was no FLOSS. Where would the cost structure of the current software be?"

Recently, while unveiling the report in downtown Helsinki, Rajani agreed that "there is no magic bullet or magic wand, and neither FLOSS nor computers (by themselves) can provide a great leap into development". Development, he argued, comes about by humans determined to make changes in the direction they are moving. "But FLOSS can do wonders in terms of savings (on software), educating and building a solid base needed for going ahead", said the 45-year-old Karachi and philosopher-techie.

Rajani argues the ideas of free software are spreading to other fields, as seen in terms of open law, open-source biology, MIT's opencourseware, e-books put on-line through volunteers under Project Gutenberg, free dictionaries, the open music movement and the like. Rajani contends the freedom offered by FLOSS is of "paramount importance in more than one way" in the third world. Yet, he says, the price aspect is also "very important, without which developing nations would not be able to significantly meet the challenges of the computing age". So, rather than arguing whether free and open-source software is free beer or free speech, it ought to be thought of as "free education...in terms of both freedom [and] price."

Taking a broad overview, the study suggests "the situation in Asia and even Africa can be contrasted to Latin America, where the contribution of code to FLOSS started much earlier and is duly noticed and recognised". But Niranjan goes along with the view that the output of free software and open-source code from Asia "in coming years (could see) more contributions, and some will excel so much that they will get attention".

"Going through the 20+ countries mentioned in the Asia report, the highest overall FLOSS-related activity seems to be taking place in countries like India, China and Taiwan (excluding Japan, which is not the subject of this study) followed by South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, etc.", summarises Rajani. In Latin America, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina top the FLOSS-related activity scores, both in terms of usage and code-contribution. They're followed by Colombia, Venezuela and Peru.

"Latin American programmers have made significant contributions to the overall FLOSS projects around the globe", Rajani confirms. For instance, this Finnish study notes that GNOME, one of the two competing GUIs available for Linux, was started by the Mexican developer Miguel de Icaza while he was working at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences (UNAM-Universidad Autonoma de Mexico).

Latin America also can boast of projects such as Brazil's CodigoLivre at UNIVATES and the Rede Escolar Livre RS, plus UTUTU, BioLinux and Via Libre Foundation in Argentina, PHP-Nuke from Venezuela and INFOMED from Cuba, among others.

In Africa, the spotlight turns to the Translate.org initiative of South Africa, a translation effort to make Linux available in South Africa's 11 official languages; OpenLab, in South Africa and Nigeria; SchoolTool; and LinuxLab, among others. There's also the radio e-mail project in Guinea and the use of Linux wireless routers to bring in subscribers for an ISP in Ghana. In February 2003, the Free and Open Source Software Foundation Africa was launched in Geneva.

Interestingly, Rajani points to a recent trend that has seen South Asians at the helm of a number of important studies on free software and open source. First it was Rishab Aiyer-Ghosh, in the Netherlands, who undertook the prestigious study on free/libre and open-source software for the European Union. In addition, Seema Arora at Stanford is part of the team looking at what makes programmers gift their critical code without hoping to earn millions in return. Now comes Rajani's work.

This latest report was funded by Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs and undertaken by OneWorld Finland and KEPA. The latter two are organisations working in development, a field in which software--particularly free software--is being looked at as a tool with considerable promise. Also of note, Peruvian Congressman Dr. Edgar Villanueva Nunez, well known for his stand on free software and his legislative initiatives there, was present at the unveiling of the report.

Copies of the report are available at www.itfirms.co.za/research.html and fi.oneworld.net/article/view/56261. An English language version can be found at www.kepa.fi/english.

Frederick Noronha is a freelance journalist living in Goa, India.

Take a look at Namibia (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 11, 2003 Here in Namibia we have an initiative Schoolnet.na (www.schoolnet.na) that aims to connect all schools in Namibia to the Internet. We are using all open source sortware (linux, kde, openoffice) to both run a national network of schools and on desktops in computerlabs which we put into schools. Some of this is done using wireless technology in areas where there are no phones, electical connections, etc.

In the past we have refused offers of "free" software from commercial companies because this will tie us into a path of costly upgrades in the future. Using OSS allows us to spend scarce resources on equipment and to keep our serices up and running. We also feel that in a developing country it is very important to have young Namibians using software that allows them to "get under the hood." By doing so we are encouraging those who are intersted to develop their programming/networking skills.

Please check us out at www. schoolnet.na

Dr. Ben Fuller

Sunday, June 8, 2003 By Cliff Peale The Cincinnati Enquirer

After bombing in the stock market three years ago, the Internet revolution is alive and well in the nation's biggest companies.

Shareholders in dot-com companies lost billions. But the same strategies that drove that craze are now established programs inside companies including Procter & Gamble Co.

The strategies are helping P&G cut millions of dollars in costs. They're also shrinking production cycles and improving communication among thousands of employees. All of this benefits corporate profits - and yes, stock prices.

"I don't see how a company of this scale can survive without the Internet being at the core," said Robert Dixon, vice president for information technology and leader of the "Leverage the Internet" program within P&G.

Leverage the Internet has focused on the way P&G deals with consumers, suppliers and customers, and employees.

• From Pampers.com to beinggirl.com, consumers are using P&G's Web sites more. P&G's corporate site, www.pg.com, hosted 1.87 million users in April.

• Suppliers in remote areas, who were still faxing or mailing order slips to P&G, are tapping into an Internet portal that automates the process.

• Employees now access virtually all of their benefit and job-related information over an internal Web site.

Big companies around the Tristate and around the world are making similar discoveries. Some, including P&G and General Electric Co., have earned high marks for integrating those programs with their basic business.

Large companies long have used technology to cut costs. But they've discovered that they can complete more transactions faster by plugging the Internet into even the most mundane corporate functions.

Jack Cassidy, president of Cincinnati Bell Inc., said the telecommunications company does similar things. Virtually all purchasing is done through electronic auctions, buying everything from copiers to services.

With consumers, Bell now is offering electronic billing through all of its business, with about 10 percent of wireless consumers signing on. Clearly, Cassidy said, that's the wave of the future.

And with corporate customers, Bell is providing data solutions that allow companies to concentrate on their core business, which provides a double benefit, Cassidy said.

"The good news for us is we provide the pipe," he said. "We get efficiencies on one end, and we make money on the other."

Creating an Internet-friendly culture takes years, said Christine Overby, a senior analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

"This is about quick hits, small wins, and the systematic communication of those throughout the entire system," she said.

'Value creation' Within P&G, Dixon is the voice of the Internet focus. Last summer, he got the seal of approval from chairman and chief executive A.G. Lafley, becoming the newest member of P&G's Global Leadership Council, the three dozen top executives who report to Lafley.

The 47-year-old Atlanta native is the second African-American on the CEO's top team at P&G. Trained as an engineer at Georgia Tech, he started at P&G's paper plant in Albany, Ga., but decided that he wanted to broaden outside P&G's network of plants and research hubs. He has managed information technology in P&G's baby-care unit since 1999.

Lafley's increased focus on using the Internet - "value creation" in Procter-speak - gave Dixon the organizational muscle he needed to nudge acceptance among employees around the world. He's done that by emphasizing that new technologies only matter if they get P&G more focused on consumers.

Milan Turk, director of global customer business development, said success for Leverage the Internet is measured not by new technologies, but by sales and profits.

"Everybody has a computer on their desk, and everybody who leaves the building has a laptop in their briefcase, but the point isn't to focus on the technology," Turk said. "It's all tied to business results."

Working without a defined budget, Dixon has identified people responsible for LTI in all of P&G's five major businesses and seven major geographies. He identified nine major goals last year, and is streamlining that to three goals now, isolating those that can be leveraged throughout P&G's 102,000 employees in nearly 80 countries.

Some tasks are easier than others. For example, P&G now does all of its "concept testing," or focus groups, over the Internet in the United States. Costs are 10 percent of what they once were, and the tests often are done in 24 hours, chief information officer Steve David said.

Dealing with consumers is a dicier proposition. Not all consumers want to use the Internet. Many just want to find their Tide on the store shelf, and that's that.

Other consumers, David said, feel "empowered" by the ability to opt into P&G's Web programs.

Much of P&G's Internet work is invisible to the consumer. Wall Street investors love it, because it cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses.

The job, Dixon said, is far from done. When pushing the program to P&G managers in any part of the company, Dixon's role is half corporate executive and half cheerleader.

"It's just an intuitive feel, but let's push the envelope," Dixon urged a late April meeting on the E-procurement program at P&G's Winton Hill campus. "I think the pool (of savings) could potentially be much more than a couple of billion dollars."

'Now that's transformative' "The business can do what they've always done, but they do it in a better way, so they replace the fax machine with the portal," says David Heppenstall, P&G's associate director of global purchasing systems.

He's on a conference call from England in late April, and Dixon is participating from his Winton Hill conference room.

"Then we say, 'You can do it better.' "

The subject is the supplier portal, started by P&G two years ago to replace paper transaction forms.

There are a "few thousand" suppliers using the portal now, but Heppenstall thinks that will multiply 3 to 5 times in the next few years.

Dixon wants to tap into P&G's existing service centers in Manila, Costa Rica and Newcastle, England to manage the growth and give suppliers all of the options they need. That could present a problem, because many of the functions at those centers are about to be outsourced after P&G signed a 10-year, $3 billion information-technology services contract with a unit of Hewlett-Packard Co.

"It'll be tough to get their attention in the next six weeks," Heppenstall says.

"Get some time with me in the next several weeks," Dixon replies. He says he'll talk to Global Business Services officer Filippo Passerini. "We need to play in this space and have the service ready to go sometime next fiscal year."

Next Dixon turns to Latin America, where the portal is not as widely used. But as a mid-sized player, it's "changed some of the rules," says Jose Ignacio Sordo, director of information technology for P&G in the Latin American market development group based in Caracas, Venezuela.

"They've been doing things one way, and technology is not one of their core functions," Sordo says of some of the smaller Latin American suppliers. "People sometimes are afraid. They say, 'If I don't do it, will you get rid of me?' ... Let's build reliability, something that works short-term."

People skills Much of Dixon's work is not hard-core programming, but nudging people to drive changes through P&G's sometimes rigid corporate culture.

That skill took center stage when Dixon met with a group seeking to implement electronic procurement for P&G employees buying everything from computer repairs to professional services to office supplies. The baby and family care unit, which makes Pampers, Bounty and Charmin, has led the way. On office supplies alone, they're saving up to $2 million a year globally.

Until now, businesses have bought what they needed, then gone to accounts payable, a process dubbed "renegade spending." There were not enough discounts on large-volume buys, said Pat McCurnin, section manager in Global Business Services.

Employees are starting to take to the program, McCurnin says.

"If you think about Amazon.com as the gold standard, we're not there yet," Dixon says.

"Actually," McCurnin responds, "we're closer than you think."

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com

PHILIPSBURG--The Daily Herald-United Telecommunication Services (UTS) signed an agreement with Ericsson yesterday that guarantees delivery and installation in St. Maarten by the internationally known cellular service provider of a GSM switch and nine radio base stations worth NAf. 10 million that will give the island full GSM cellular service coverage.

UTS announced that its service would be launched by the third quarter of this year, giving not only coverage throughout the 37-square-mile island, but also international roaming possibilities and Caribbean-wide coverage, with a spectacular customer care package that would separate UTS from the rest.

The signing ceremony was held at Captain Oliver's Restaurant in Oyster Pond as a symbol of the joining of the French and Dutch sides in an endeavour to provide island-wide cellular service.

Present at the signing ceremony were UTS Windward Islands General Manager Glen Carty, UTS President Julio Constansia, Ericsson Netherlands Antilles Office Director Bengt Bergvall and UTS Manager of Networks Provision Michael Gaari.

During the ceremony Carty donated a cheque of NAf. 5,000 to Emilio Wilson Park Foundation to be used to improve the facilities and aid in its efforts to preserve the island's history.

Present to accept the cheque for the foundation was board member Julius Lambert, who said, "The cheque will be used for education and preservation of the history of St. Maarten." He also thanked Carty for his innovative drive to always ensure that UTS is one step ahead in telecommunications for the benefit of all people living in St. Maarten.

Constansia said, "Today we not only want to reaffirm our responsibility towards the community of the Windward Islands, but we also want to offer St. Maarten and the other islands of the Windward Islands an alternative with regard to their telecommunications needs."

He noted that UTS was also signing a roaming agreement with the French cellular service provider Orange Caraib as its strategic partner in the launch of the GSM service.

According to Constansia, "Customers will also be able to roam in Curacao, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and soon in the Dominican Republic, the USA, Portugal, India and Aruba."

Carty said, "Today it goes to show that properly structured and controlled competition is definitely working to the benefit of the inhabitants of St. Maarten."

He stated, "Several things had to be looked at before getting to this stage: first the need for the service, the obtaining of a licence, along with the planning phase and the civil work which is now in progress."

He also took the opportunity to thank key players in the company for their input in the preparation stages of the GSM service.

He said, "Because of the lack of a 100 per cent cellular service on the island, we felt that the need was there."

"Because of the launch of UTS' GSM mobile service, just as in the past with the lowering of international rates and the introduction of our broadband Internet service, our competitors are forced to upgrade their service and adjust their rates," he added.

Constansia said, "We are convinced that UTS' services will position St. Maarten as a technologically progressive island in the eyes of all the investors and tourists who come here."

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers     SUPERCOMM 2003     Booth #11731

    ATLANTA--(<a href=www.businesswire.com>BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2003--

Global Capabilities and Security Features Key Factors Driving the VOISS(TM) Solution Selection     VocalData Inc., an application developer of hosted IP telephony services, today announced that LDTeleCom, a next generation service provider for the Latin American market, has selected its VOISS(TM) application server to provide hosted PBX services to its customers in the U.S., Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and Spain.     LDTeleCom provides international and long distance VoIP to 3,500 residential and business customers, with a focus on shared tenant environments. By adding hosted PBX capabilities to its service portfolio, LDTeleCom will be able to offer additional, higher-margin services to its existing customers.     "After researching solutions from a variety of vendors for the past two years, LDTeleCom has determined that VocalData's VOISS application server is the ideal choice due to its flexible multi-language support and the VOISS Proxy Firewall's ability to terminate VoIP traffic behind firewalls," said Carlos Lahrssen, president and CEO, LDTeleCom. "It was really amazing to see how I could travel anywhere with my IP phone and receive calls through any LAN, without reconfiguration or firewall problems. VocalData's IP telephony solution is truly plug and play, which will translate to easier installation and administration for LDTeleCom."     VocalData's multi-language capabilities include a modular support structure for the web portal, which enables rapid translation of the language resource file into the customer's preferred language. Web portals are GUI web-based applications, which allow users to link communications capabilities with desktop directories and call logs, allowing for, click to dial and unprecedented end-user control over telephone preferences, with features such as find me/follow me. In addition to the Spanish required for LDTeleCom, VocalData customers are using web portals in a variety of languages, including Japanese and French.     "We've seen strong support for hosted IP telephony among service providers in Asia and the U.S., and it's exciting to see the evolving value proposition for Latin American service providers as well," said Mark Whittier, vice president of corporate marketing, VocalData. "LDTeleCom is now extending its success from long distance VoIP into local VoIP, which represents a huge opportunity for them."

    About LDTeleCom

    LDTeleCom is a next generation carrier with POPs in the USA, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, and Spain. It is a licensed international carrier in all of the countries in its service regions, and is licensed for local service in most of its service region. LDTeleCom has over 3500 customers and manages a virtual communication network reaching over 200 countries.

    About VocalData

    VocalData, Inc. provides an integrated suite of hosted IP telephony applications that enable service providers to reliably and cost-effectively deliver voice-over-IP solutions. VocalData's award-winning VOISS solution is a comprehensive set of hosted PBX and IP Centrex applications that delivers higher value telephony services to business customers, while reducing the costs associated with traditional PBX telephony systems. Through VocalData's broad customer and partner base, there are more than 35,000 VOISS lines today. VocalData was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Richardson, Texas. For more information, visit www.vocaldata.com.

    VOISS is a trademark of VocalData, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

--30--LR/da*

CONTACT: Calysto Communications
         Laura Borgstede, 404/266-2060, Ext. 11
         lborgstede@calysto.com

KEYWORD: TEXAS GEORGIA VENEZUELA SPAIN COLOMBIA ARGENTINA INTERNATIONAL LATIN AMERICA EUROPE TRACK

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: TELECOMMUNICATIONS E-COMMERCE INTERNET MARKETING AGREEMENTS PRODUCT TRADESHOW

SOURCE: VocalData Inc.

Patricia Yollin, <a href=www.sfgate.com>San francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, May 24, 2003

Manuelito Juarez, a strong-minded boy of 5, wants burgers for dinner. But his brother Osberto lobbies for "the chicken place." They bicker and balk until their father intervenes and tells them to arm-wrestle. The winner gets to choose.

It is the most ordinary of squabbles except for a few things: The boys are in Guatemala City, their father is in San Francisco, and they're in the middle of a videoconference.

"People don't believe it's real," said Gabriel Biguria, whose company, AmigoLatino, had arranged the session. "It's like something out of a science fiction movie."

Although videoconferencing has been around since the mid-'70s, mostly in corporate boardrooms, it's a new medium for immigrants and those they left behind -- especially in Latin America, where many families lack phones or computers. Businesses like Biguria's also have surfaced recently in New Jersey,

Florida and North Carolina.

"With more and more transnational families, this is going to happen more often," said Belinda Reyes, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in San Francisco. "It's just a reflection of globalism."

Biguria, who immigrated from Guatemala in 1987 and from Silicon Valley last year, decided that videoconferencing could help melt the distance.

He chose to open AmigoLatino in the Flood Building on Market Street because it's next to Muni and BART's Powell Street Station and because it houses eight Latin American consulates. Biguria depends on flyers in their offices, ads in Spanish-language papers and word of mouth to attract clients.

He and his wife, Estefania, have decorated their three-room office with objects from Latin America. Burlap bags of coffee, Indian weavings and ceramic fruits coexist with a $3,000 Polycom Viewstation camera.

HUGGING THE SCREEN

Although Biguria tells clients exactly what to expect, there is, inevitably,

a surrealistic jolt as they stare at a 29-inch Sony TV screen and watch relatives materialize in a Guatemala City office with posters of San Francisco Victorians on the wall.

Sometimes they freeze. Or try to hug the screen. Once the shock and awe subside, the mundane frequently takes over.

"They'll say, 'You're so fat! What happened to you?' " said Carlos Bedoya, whose videoconferencing business in Miami serves Colombian immigrants like himself.

"Sometimes they haven't seen each other for a long time," Biguria said. "The record is 25 years."

During sessions at AmigoLatino, a few things are guaranteed: tears, laughter and requests for more money.

Mario La Torre, who's based in Passaic, N.J., and has targeted the state's 20,000 Peruvians, said, "It's a roller coaster of feelings."

"It really is a powerful tool for uniting families," said Erika Pineda Sharron, consul general of Guatemala.

There are now 28,000 Guatemalans in the nine-county Bay Area -- among a total of 149,000 Central Americans -- according to the latest census estimates.

"Migration has been going on for decades for different reasons," Biguria said. "The result is the same -- split families."

LOGISTICS OF LOVE

For Biguria, the result is a videoconferencing business.

Since starting AmigoLatino in October, he's held exactly 100 sessions. Encounters run $30 to $40 for a half-hour, $60 to $80 for an hour -- more expensive than the widely used prepaid phone cards but less costly than collect calls.

"That's a fair price," said Glenn Adamo, a telecommunications consultant in Miami. "It's an exciting thing and an interesting thing. But it's also a logistical thing. How do you hook up critical masses of people with critical masses of people?"

Since the mid-'90s, a handful of entrepreneurs have tried. Most attempts failed because the technology was too expensive or problematic or the ventures were underfunded. These days the equipment is cheaper, and it works better.

"Now things are a lot more cost effective, so there's a greater likelihood of succeeding," Adamo said. "But it's not an easy proposition."

In December, Mario Martinez opened Enlaces, a videoconferencing service for Salvadoran families, in San Francisco's Mission District. Although the San Salvador native has had only a few clients, he's not discouraged.

"I think there's a market for it," maintained Martinez, who uses an ISDN phone line and charges from $35 for 10 minutes to $170 for 60 minutes. "I heard so many people say, 'I haven't seen my children in seven years.' I said, 'Man, that's a crime with the technology that exists.' "

Elliot Gold, who's put out TeleSpan, a teleconferencing newsletter, since 1981, said, "If you could see your family, of course, you would want to pay for this. I bet they will take money they've allocated for food."

Still, he added, success is unpredictable. "Consumer markets are really fickle," said Gold, of Altadena in Southern California.

FORMING A NETWORKING

Biguria only lately discovered his counterparts in Florida and New Jersey. Together with a Nicaraguan immigrant who operates a similar company in Charlotte, N.C., they've formed a network. Besides their home countries, they can connect to Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Spain and Japan.

Eventually, these young Latinos want their companies to be places to send money back and buy goods for their relatives -- one-stop shopping.

"Once you're able to connect families, there are a number of parallel services you can provide," Biguria said. "You're managing their relationship already."

At 34, Biguria is a veteran of Silicon Valley. He worked for Hewlett- Packard and high-tech startups before opening AmigoLatino with his savings and a loan.

The company's logo is a bus -- the kind of bulging "chicken bus" found all over Latin America.

"It's how most people travel," Biguria said. "It talks to everyone."

It talked to the Juarez family on a recent afternoon. The three children of Oakland residents Consuelo and Osberto Juarez got on a bus with their grandmother, aunt and cousins for a two-hour ride to AmigoLatino's Guatemala City office.

'SACRIFICING OUR HEARTS'

It was the second video visit since January, when construction worker Osberto Juarez saw his children for the first time in four years. For his wife,

25, it had been a three-year separation.

"Here it's living. There it's surviving -- even though we know we're sacrificing our hearts coming here," said Osberto Juarez, 28, in Spanish.

He and his wife -- who came to the United States to make enough money to support their family -- hope to return to Guatemala in two years and build a house. Meanwhile, they rent a place in Oakland's Fruitvale. He puts up Sheetrock and she works at Nation's burgers. They call home once a week, write once a month.

The videoconference uses a high-speed dedicated Internet line. It is intense and immediate, with a picture clear enough to see that 9-year-old Blanqui has lost a tooth and that 5-year-old Victor Manuel can count from 1 to 26.

There is other family news. Blanqui wants a new dress like the shiny kind they show on TV. Osberto Jr., 6, is calling out his father's name in his sleep.

And "Manuelito" is lifting the skirts of the little girls at school.

''He learned it from his dad," said Blanca Ruano, who takes care of her three grandchildren while son Osberto and his wife make their way in the United States.

TEARS AND HOWLS

Suddenly, Consuelo Juarez begins to cry. Biguria dives under the TV screen for a box of Kleenex and sister-in-law Lilian Juarez says, "Don't cry. Because when you cry, the kids cry."

It's too late. Manuelito covers his face with his hands, crawls under the table and howls like a wounded young wolf. "Usually, I just can't watch," said Estefania Biguria, who starts dabbing at her eyes and leaves the room.

Finally, everyone calms down. Gerardo Bobadilla, who runs the Guatemala City office, brings Manuelito some french fries. Osberto Jr. holds up a small Guatemalan flag. And Osberto Sr. promises to send a bicycle and robot.

"It's like you're on Santa Claus' lap and it's their chance to ask for everything," Biguria said.

When it's time to say goodbye, the children wave and Consuelo Juarez touches the screen. After they're gone, she sinks back on the couch, sad and happy.

"This means a tremendous amount," said Juarez who, like her husband, speaks no English. "The only options we had were photos or the phone. We couldn't express all our emotions."

E-mail Patricia Yollin at pyollin@sfchronicle.com.