PUBLIC SERVICES AND INFORMATION TO THE CITIZENS' PORTAL IN BRAZIL: A DESCRIPTION OF THE USERS' PROFILE

Abstract

In the information society, citizens must have access to computer tools and telecommunications, combined with knowledge of use, allowing them to receive, produce and transmit information and make use of electronic services. Since the 1990s, Brazilian governments invest in building portals to provide services, but it remains unclear who the users of electronic public services are. This research has raised the profile of those users. We obtained a sample of 4402 valid forms, from users of 70 government web-sites throughout Brazil. The results of the study show that, although it’s not possible to state that electronic public services are excludent, i.e., that there is a digital divide, the sample of people who answered the questionnaire is not similar to the Brazilian population. Services are available for a limited group of users. However, some segmentations show that there is a high willingness to use these services; when people cannot access those electronic services from home, they use them when they are at work, when in the homes of friends or relatives as well as in telecentres or cyber-cafes. Also, the profile of people attracted by the provision of electronic government services is different from that of people attracted by the Internet in general.