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Abstract
Municipalities interested in communication, education and social development seek to contribute to citizenship by planning, structuring, storing, and providing access to information. Starting with an overview of the global background to discussions on digital cities and the relation between digital cities and public policies, this article seeks to analyze and describe municipal information planning based on a project carried out, between 2009 and 2014, in the municipality of Vinhedo, São Paulo, Brazil. The study stresses the importance of adopting a project design methodology and implementing projects collectively at a municipal level to increase the efficiency of municipal management and implementing the strategic digital city concept, thereby increasing public space and governability and, consequently, citizens’ quality of life. The results show that municipal information planning projects constitute public policy.
Notes on Contributors
Denis Alcides Rezende is a professor at the postgraduate program of urban management at the Pontifical Catholic University in Curitiba, Brazil, and research professor at the School of Public Service, DePaul University, Chicago.
Mario Procopiuck is a professor at the postgraduate program of urban management at the Pontifical Catholic University in Curitiba, Brazil.
Frederico de Carvalho Figueiredo is a doctoral student in the postgraduate program of urban management at the Pontifical Catholic University in Curitiba, Brazil.
Notes
1 The IBCD was created in 2010 by Wireless Mundi in partnership with the Center for Telecommunications Research and Development (CPqD). It consists of established indicators based on a methodology that takes into consideration technological aspects of connectivity and the use of digital services. The index ranks municipalities on a scale from 1 to 6 (1- basic access; 2- telecenters; 3- electronic services; 4- preintegrated; 5- integrated; and 6- full). The following nine variables are used in the index: (A) Presence of primary equipment (PCs, printers, internal networks etc.); (B) Internet access (telecenters, hotspots, kiosks, and IT laboratories); (C) Geographic coverage and connection in the municipality; (D) Accessibility, usability and intelligibility; (E) Bandwidth; (F) Public and private services; (G) Integration in public services; (H) Integration between communities and new public space; and (I) integration between cities, states and countries. Vinhedo achieved a score of 3 on this scale in terms of infrastructure, the same score as the municipality of Curitiba, which occupied first place in the ranking.