Information technology for and by low income communities in Sao Paulo Ricardo Y Kobashi Committee for the Democratization of Information Technologies Sao Paulo CDISP Rua dos Carmelitas 140 ZIP 01020 010 Sao Paulo SP Brazil www cdisp org br kobashi cdisp org br Abstract Technology for and by communities CDISP Who we are The Committee for Democratization of the Information Technology Sao Paulo CDISP is a non governmental not for profit organization that since 1996 has brought information and communication technologies to underprivileged groups in Sao Paulo Through its Information Technology and Citizenship Schools EIC CDISP executes programs with the goal of reintegrating members of the communities diminishing the levels of social exclusion that they endure Access to information and communication technologies helps in promoting citizenship in improving education and health and in reducing violence in low income communities For the past five years this motto has been enough to explain what we did and guide to our work Not anymore We have eventually realized that what we were doing was only part of the job Or worst there were parts of the job we were not even aware of EICs offer classes and activities that promote the transformation of excluded communities members into active and informed participants of the information society The idea is to use modern technologies as a good pretext to spark community reflection and development When we say that we give access to information technology are we talking about use or are we referring to technology design and transformation as well Is the digital divide about computer literacy But what is computer literacy Is Internet access only about connecting computers or does it also involve local content production and dissemination Today CDISP has more than 55 EICs operating in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area There are about 180 communities in the waiting list These are questions we are trying to answer with our projects and daily experience And the answer is getting very clear bridging the digital divide and promoting full community development goes well beyond mere access It requires providing underserved communities with the power they need to use transform and design information and communication technologies ICT towards their own community development and in addition to that the power to harness ICT itself to facilitate the creation improvement and dissemination of local tools and methods Figure 1 CDISP meeting bringing together volunteer educators community members and leaders ICT professionals and others 1 administrative assistance On the other hand schools are to be self managed and selfsustained Community members are also expected to contribute to CDISP s mission achievement by assuming active roles in CDISP activities such as elections barn raise parties assessments campaigns and so on Community commitment There is no such a thing as a School of Information Technology and Citizenship without local community commitment And this concept lies at the core of our work For CDISP schools are the road not the destiny Rather than offering computers to everyone CDISP expects community members to take the initiative and write up a simple proposal introducing themselves and describing what they would like to do with the technology Once the proposals are received members of the new community are invited to join in CDISP s training workshops and computer donation campaigns Community support constitutes an important component of an EIC creation And who decides if the new EIC is ready to start A group made of CDISP employees volunteers and representatives of the existing EICs leaders make this decision Today they ask for help tomorrow they help Most of the computers distributed to EICs are refurbished A good number of the computers donated to us arrive broken dirty requiring upgrades software installation etc Sometimes we have more than a hundred computers in our stock waiting for maintenance So much work to do that we would have to spend our scarce resources hiring a technician Not any more Today we rely on Mutiroes barn raising parties Whenever required we invite ex and current students from EICs computer maintenance classes to spend a weekend at CDISP lab For one or two days we have young people from different communities and regions of Sao Paulo working together teaching each other having a good time and of course fixing computers for the next batch of CDISP EICs Figure 2 Two students per computer using the lack of resources to encourage cooperative learning As much as CDISP relies on community engagement for the construction of new EICs each EIC is in itself a powerful tool for community development and organization We know that and we push that idea as far as we can CDISP encourages cooperation and selforganization by helping EICs carry educational activities that address local problems and by organizing events for the exchange of experiences intra and inter communities Figure 3 Mutiroes old and current computer maintenance students working together for a new EIC The value of diversity It should be noticed that CDISP does not do philanthropy EICs are the result of partnerships On the one hand CDISP helps in the initial organization of the school by providing free machines software wiring and permanent technical pedagogical and CDISP is very concerned about young people We know that crime and drugs appear as an attractive economical alternative very early in life Studies indicate that this is especially true 2 for 13 to 20 year olds For this reason they constitute one of ours major target publics E Government and social inclusion And besides that we still have a larger challenge Exclusion is a social problem and we have to face it We need to reach out to audiences from all social levels origins and creeds to achieve our mission And we have learned how to take advantage of this situation Brazilian government is using information technologies and especially the Internet to promote social control and participation http www brasil gov br Our election process is already 100 digital All income and expenses of the Brazilian federal government are stored in the SIAFI Financial Administration Integrated System a network system that can be easily accessed and that already supported several denounces of corruption In the fiscal year of 2000 2001 more than 10 million Brazilian contributors have sent their tax declarations through the Internet http www receita