- By Roger Strukhoff (Originally published June 2007)

Sun Microsystems has been holding major events in Brazil for years. Dr. James Gosling, often known as the father of Java, recently gave a major presentation there. A major trade show, Sucesu (an acronym for the country's Society of Information and Telecommunications Users), is one of the world's largest. All the major technology companies have serious operations here. But will this enormous, polyglot country ever become a global technology development leader?

The country's GDP, when adjusted for local prices, is ranked as the 11th or 12th largest in the world, larger than Canada, Australia, Spain, and South Korea. Yet Brazil is still probably best known worldwide for its great soccer teams, its great Carnaval, its great beaches, and its great problems. Often cited by U.S. liberals as an undesirable example of what the U.S. is becoming, Brazil has a very large population (edging toward 200 million) but a per capita income lower than that of Mexico, and about half of that of developing countries in the Baltics and Eastern Europe.

Statistics and pre-conceptions aside, the question comes back to Brazil's ability to become a true global technology leader. Most people are familiar with Saõ Paulo's daunting skyline and its reputation as one of the world's largest cities. They may also be familiar with the country's vast natural resources, the relative proximity of the country's two major cities, and its efforts over the past 20 years to move toward a democratic, capitalistic society. Brazil is the acknowledged economic leviathan of South America, despite its singular linguistic tradition of Portuguese in a part of the world dominated by the Spanish language.

Vibrant creative communities exist throughout Brazil, in the areas of film and TV, literature, art, and music. The elevation of mere "football" into "the beautiful game" by the world's best soccer players reflect a national sensibility toward style and elegance. A young society, with a median age of about 28 (compared to 36 in the U.S. and 42 in Germany, for example), Brazil strives to be among the most competitive players on the global economic stage.

In a world currently focused on the potential of India and China to emerge alongside the U.S. as primary technology leaders, the unabashedly enthusiastic giant of South America may also soon emerge from its reputation as a regional power to become a global one.

Brazil is resident to a relatively high percentage of the estimated 4.5 million Java developers worldwide--official figures can't be found, but a good estimate says there are at least 250,000--and contains an IT community highly interested in all the major developments, ranging from the open-source movement to wireless technology to web services. Whether the country can leverage its population, its sensibility, and its drive to become among the world's leading technology developers as well as a leading technology user remains to be seen.