Categorization of Brazilian Internet Users and Its Impacts on the Use of Electronic Government Services

Abstract

This paper aims to categorize Brazilian Internet users according to the diversity of their online activities and to assess the propensity of these Internet users´ groups to use electronic government (e-gov) services. The Amartya Sen's Capability Approach was adopted as the theoretical framework for its consideration of people's freedom to decide on their use of available resources and their competencies for these decisions, leading to the use of e-gov services. Multivariate statistical techniques were used to perform data analysis from the 2007, 2009 and 2011 editions of ICT Household Survey. The results showed that Internet users belonging to the advanced and intermediate use groups were more likely to use e-gov services than those who belong to the sporadic use group. Moreover, the results also demonstrated that the Internet user group of intermediate use presented a higher tendency to use e-gov services than the Internet user group of advanced use. This tendency is possibly related to the extensive use of interactive and collaborative activities of leisure and entertainment performed by this type of user. The findings of this research may be useful in guiding public policies for the dissemination and provision of electronic government services in Brazil.

Google Health Trends performance reflecting dengue incidence for the Brazilian states

“…Given the heterogeneous Internet access throughout Brazil, we analyzed the role that accessibility could play in explaining our ability to track dengue incidence via GHT. Since 2005, Brazil has monitored the accessibility of their population to information and communication technologies [59,60] [61]). We analyzed data from the 2015 survey, which included a sample of 356,904 individuals and 151,189 households distributed across the country and was subsequently extrapolated to a total of 177,657 million people and 68, 037 million households [61,62].…”

Virtual Microscopy as a Learning Tool in Brazilian Medical Education

“…A crucial concern of this study was to assess whether the tool accessibility would be similar, in the context of the social diversity that is found in Brazil (Araujo and Reinhard, 2016; UNESCO, 2019). Despite socioeconomic differences, the results obtained have shown that most of the students had access to the Internet and computers outside the RPMS campus.…”

“…Concurrently, Brazil has experienced a rapid increase in the number of private medical schools, with considerable discrepancies in teaching‐learning methods and quality‐standard maintenance between public and private schools, as assessed by the National Examination of Students' Performance (ENADE) (Scheffer and Dal Poz, 2015; Antunes Dos Santos and Nunes, 2019). In addition, Brazil maintains immense socioeconomic inequalities that reflect upon the households with Internet access: extremely high in the upper social classes (A and B) and much lower in C, D, and E social classes (Araujo and Reinhard, 2016; UNESCO, 2019). Therefore, in developing countries, such as Brazil, online laboratory platforms are still in the process of implementation.…”

“…In 2016, only about 10% of underprivileged classes (D-E classes) had high-speed internet access at home. Even considering A-B classes (upper classes), around 50% of households included internet users (Araujo and Reinhard, 2016). Therefore, in face of Brazilian social and internet inequalities, and considering the remote education needs in the current world pandemic, the main goal of this work was to verify student's perceptions such as handling, suitability, learning effectiveness and pleasure, and academic performance, assessed upon VM implementation at Ribeirao Preto Medical School of the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil.…”

Use levels of electronic government services among German citizens

“…At the individual level, the e-government literature discusses indicators of a person's general inclination to surf the internet, her equipment with modern internet access appliances and her overall computer literacy as facets of an individual's general internet-related experience level, which may explain differences in the use intensity of e-government services between individuals. Most earlier work found that these facets are significantly positively associated with the use level of e-government services (Anduiza et al, 2010;de Araujo and Reinhard, 2014;Azam et al, 2013;Bélanger and Carter, 2009;Colesca and Dobrica, 2008;Fu et al, 2006;Hansen and Reinau, 2006;Nam, 2014;Reddick, 2005;Taipale, 2013;Van Dijk et al, 2008;Van Dijk et al, 2007;Voutinioti, 2013;Wang, 2002;Zhao and Khan, 2013;Zheng, 2015). Thus, we test the following three propositions:…”