The impact of mobility in Brazilian infocenters: Acessasp case study

Abstract

AcessaSP program is one of the biggest digital inclusion program in Latin America. It provides Internet access to poor population through infocenters located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. AcessaSP began its operation in July 2000 and there are currently 737 infocenters fully implemented in 555 municipalities. AcessaSP digital inclusion program offers presential activities and a virtual environment dedicated to a community of more than 2.5 million registered users assisted by 1,116 monitors. Besides offering the opportunity to Internet access, the program also contribute to the social, cultural, economic and digital learning development of low income citizens in the State. Since 2003, a periodical survey called “PONLINE” is carried out in order to feed a database related to the users profile, needs, expectancies, habits and attitudes in relation to the program and the use of Internet. It is also used as a management tool for monitoring, improving and innovating the process. An important phenomenon has been observed in AcessaSP environment in the last few years: the emergence of mobility. For this study approach, mobility issue is considered from two factors: the growth and expansion of wireless connections and the broad access to mobile platforms, such as smartphones. These two characteristics are facilitating the emergence of new learning spaces and timing, which leads to the need of a wider and deeper understanding of this challenging scenario in terms of new uses and literacies. For these reasons, AcessaSP is investing in a strategy named “Acessa sem Fio” (Wireless Acessa), in which wireless connections are provided in cities with the program's infocenters. Though, there is a lack of systematic information regarding the impact of this shift from physical to virtual concept. It is still poorly known how mobility can affect the program users' appropriation and interaction with Internet. In this sense, this study aims to offer a framework to a qualitative researcah to better understand user's habits and attitudes regarding wireless connection to Internet. Relevant outcomes are expected to be revealed in order to collaborate to a better understanding of this new scenario, mainly those ones related with the new role of infocenters in AcessaSP communities' life. The framework can also provide requirements for designing digital inclusion public policies in order to popularize and democratize the World Wide Web with wireless connection. This can be the basis of further research on public policies for wireless digital inclusion.