O impacto do Telecentro da Manhiça na comunidade local, 1999 à actualidade

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the impact of the Manhiça Telecentre on the local community from 1999 to the present day, from a social point of view. The telecentre is located in the Manhiça district and was created with the aim of making available and disseminating the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to the region's inhabitants. The introduction of this centre was intended to respond to a phenomenon that is occurring worldwide and which is generically known as "globalisation", where ICTs have come to play a predominant role in the socio-economic development of societies, mainly in reducing the digital divide between town and country. The main focus of approach in this work will be community access to Internet and e-mail services. Once the research was carried out, it was found that the telecentre has managed to raise interest in the use of ICTs in some social groups, the more educated ones. However, at the social level, ICTs have not yet produced considerable results so as to make them indispensable to the population's activities. This situation occurs because most of the population does not have enough financial resources to take advantage of those services offered by the telecentre. Illiteracy, the low level of schooling and local socio-cultural habits also contribute, to a large extent, to the fact that the community does not assume the importance of ICTs in promoting rural development. In this way, the telecentre is frequently used for other services such as photocopying, faxing and community radio, which are not connected to new technologies and thus end up limiting the role of the centre as a disseminator of ICT (TRADUÇAO NOSSA)