IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

"Mehr und mehr ist von freier Software die Rede, besonders im öffentlichen Bereich und in den Unternehmen, aber immer weniger von Windows", so die Manager. Beide Firmen sehen dies als eine unmittelbare Reaktion auf die derzeitige Politik der Regierung, Ministerien und öffentliche Verwaltungen auf den Einsatz von freier und quelloffener Software zu verpflichten. Ermutigt durch diesen sichtbaren Trend hat Novell gestern Novell Linux Desktop (NLD) in Brasilien auf den Markt geworfen. Darin sind die wesentlichen Office-Komponenten wie Textverarbeitung, Internet-Tools und weitere Programme enthalten.

The left wing local authority has opened almost 100 "telecenters" - free Internet cafes - where any of the city's 20 per cent unemployed can enjoy up to one hour's free surfing a day.

An 18-month eHealth pilot project in one of Brazil's poorest areas has found that integrating technology into the healthcare system brought better access to vital healthcare for patients who need it most.

Run by the non-profit New Cities Foundation, the Urban eHealth Project also found the technology could bring major economic savings for the health system as a whole, as well as increased efficiency for healthcare workers.

In its latest move to increase engagement with the global public and promote democratic access to information, the federal government of Brazil today launched 'Portal Brasil' (www.brasil.gov.br) -- the new official website of the Brazilian State.

"The world has entered a new era of open, interactive, real-time communication and with the launch of Brazil.gov.br, Brazil is ready to harness the opportunities presented by digital media to apply those qualities to official State communications," said Secretariat for Social Communication Minister Franklin Martins.

During the election, approximately 7.5 million of voters will use biometric machines that will identify them by scanning fingerprints. Brazil’s election authority, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, has committed to using biometric technology to eliminate the possibility of someone taking someone else’s place to vote, making it practically impossible for voter fraud to be committed.

The study, by the New Cities Foundation, looked at the effects of bringing state-of-the-art health care diagnostic tools to sick and elderly residents of Rio's Dona Marta favela, an underserved shantytown up a steep hill from most conventional health care services.

The Brazilian federal government is drafting a decree that will force government agencies to migrate to open source software, according to reports.

In a pilot program, around 7.5 million of those voters will use biometric machines that will identify them by scanning fingerprints.

Brazil's Federal Election Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral – TSE) says it intends to have every voter in the country use biometric machines by 2018. However, experiments with the machines have found that the machines have difficulty registering some people's fingerprints.

Internet2 today announced a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP), the national research and education networking organization of Brazil, to facilitate international telehealth and telemedicine collaborations. The MOU builds on the organizations' existing long-term networking partnership that was established in 2000. The new MOU was made official today at a ceremony held in conjunction with the annual Internet2 Fall Member Meeting in San Diego, California.

With more than 5 million sq km, the Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises the largest biodiversity on the planet.

Establishing e-government and aviation infrastructure to support economic growth in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil, is the goal of two separate USTDA grants awarded today. One grant was awarded to the State's Economic Development Secretariat to further the development of an administrative data center. The other grant was awarded to the Transport and Public Works Secretariat for the expansion of the PROAERO Small Airports Network Program.

The 172 Brazilian municipalities that pre-registered to participate in the federal government's Minha Cidade Inteligente (my smart city) program have submitted technical projects and due documentation for the implementation phase, the ICT and innovation ministry said.

The deadline for the submission of projects was June 30. By the eve of that date, just 38 out of the 356 localities that expressed interest in the program had presented their projects.

The Brazilian government has launched a new national strategy to bring connectivity to the country’s 140,000 state-run schools.

The National Strategy for Connected Schools aims to connect all schools in Brazil to the Internet by the end of 2026, with quality targets to ensure that all students in the country are guaranteed access and can use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for educational purposes.

New development has also taken place in the vast majority of public sector bodies, says study.

Adoption and use of open source technologies is more common in Brazilian federal government bodies rather than their state-level counterparts, according to a new study.

Open source is more common at federal level, seen in 93 percent of organizations, while 78 percent of state-level bodies use it, according to the findings of the E-Government ICT edition carried out by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br).

Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications has signed a 60-month contract with Telebras to provide a continuous bidirectional data transmission service for the expansion of the Electronic Government Program (Gesac). The goal is to bring broadband internet to all Brazilian regions. For this, Telebras will provide its connection infrastructure, which involves the company's fibre optic network and the Geostationary Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite (SGDC).

Overcoming state dependence may be crucial for digital innovations to transform democracy by engaging more citizens in the political process.

Latin America has always been a region of deep contradictions, and this is especially true when one considers its politics and democracy. Despite its authoritarian past that continues to show through in some political practices and institutions, the region has experimented with democracy in very innovative ways in recent years. Likewise, whereas the region still suffers from deep social inequality and is not yet free from poverty and hunger, Latin America is the world’s third largest regional online market and its internet penetration rate is above the world’s average, half of which is due to intense smartphone usage.

A total of 31 European and Brazilian cities have teamed up to create a new initiative, dubbed Open & Agile Smart Cities Task Force (OASC), designed to make it easier for city councils and startups to improve smart city services. The initiative will be presented at CeBit in Hannover and will be based on the EU-funded Fiware open source platform. Fiware offers cloud-based building blocks that can be used to develop and deploy advanced internet applications for transport, energy efficiency, environmental or e-health services.