Tag: wired

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News December 2001 In a poor neighborhood in the city of Olinda, artists, dancers and musicians are embracing technology as a way to help youth imagine a way out of poverty. A group called Leo Coroado, which has sung and danced “maracatu” since 1863, is trying to fight poverty and violence by using its music to educate citizens in Olinda’s neighborhood of guas Compridas. Now, with the help of computers and the Internet, they intend to expand their approach. Maracatu is a style of dance and music from the state of Pernambuco, in the northeast part of Brazil. But maracatu is still not very popular nationwide. (Click on the sound file to hear a sample.) With the music of maracatu, Leo Coroado tries to attract people, most of them youngsters, into cultural conviviality. With the technology, they want to give the youth work, education and self-sufficiency. “It’s a whole new world for us,” said Afonso Gomes Aguiar, 53, Leo Coroado’s president. Gomes doesn’t know how to deal with “those machines,” but he’s certain they’ll change people for the better. Leo Coroado is implementing a technology infrastructure in the neighborhood. Volunteers teach local residents the basics of how

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News October 2001 Satellite Internet connections have, for the first time, arrived in order to expand the country’s Web penetration. Universo Online (UOL), the biggest ISP in Latin America, joined forces with Star One and Gilat Satellite Networks in an effort to expand Internet access at distant locations of Brazil. Only 5 percent of the country uses the Net on a regular basis, according to a recent survey. The satellite connection service, UolSat, works through Star One’s structure, and Gilat’s equipment. UOL is the content provider. Net users in Brazil predominantly use phone lines and traditional modems. Bigger cities already have some broadband options, mainly based on cable and ADSL. Broadband in Brazil is offered by national phone operators only. While corporate users don’t need to pay an ISP to gain a login and password, residential users must pay their phone company and an individual ISP at the same time -– which increases the final costs and scares away most home users. The biggest problem in Brazil, though, is the lack of infrastructure. While bigger cities have tons of lines and Internet alternatives, many smaller cities –- especially in distant regions of Brazil –- don’t even dream

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News August 2001 The Brazilian government might again get into a worldwide fight about anti-AIDS drugs. Now it’s over Nelfinavir, a drug from the Swiss laboratory Roche. Last June, the World Trade Organization defended Brazil in the so-called patent war between American laboratories — which had the support of the U.S. government — and the Brazilian Health System. After a series of discussions and international meetings, Brazil’s proposal was accepted: The country would be allowed to break American patents on anti-AIDS drugs only for situations agreed upon as incontestable. This time around, the health minister of Brazil announced the possibility of producing a generic alternative to Nelfinavir, or breaking its patent. The proposal was made public after the Brazilian government had no success in asking Roche to lower its prices. Brazil has the support of the United Nations and the WTO. Each pill of Nelfinavir costs the equivalent of US$1.36, but the drug is only one of 12 medications that comprise the anti-AIDS cocktail. There are about 600,000 HIV-infected people in Brazil, according to the Brazilian National Coordinate for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Brazil spends about $90 million alone to buy Nelfinavir from Roche, according to

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News August 2001 If you lived in a house with no running water, no electricity and not many amenities, getting access to the Internet wouldn’t seem to be such a high priority. But that’s what’s happening in Amapá, a small state in Brazil near the Amazon region, where a project called “Navegar” provides Web connectivity to riparian, poverty-stricken communities. The Navegar Project consists of a boat with a computing laboratory and a satellite antenna for the Web connection. The boat has eight desktop computers, a GPS system, a digital camera, a scanner, an ink-jet printer and two Web cams. It’s all inside a three-floor, wooden boat, a type of boat common in the north of Brazil. And the boat provides room and board for 20 instructors. Amapá’s neighbor states, including Amazon and Pará, are known for their lack of infrastructure. Only a few of their cities are linked with roads or airports. Their transportation system is usually river-dependent and based on boats. The north of Brazil, which includes the rain forest, is the less-advanced region of the country. According to Amapá’s government, the Navegar project uses advanced technology to reduce the geographical distance among riparian villages. Since

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News August 2001 Free ISPs in Brazil have been falling apart for quite some time, despite the growing number of Net users. Recently, Internet Gratis (iG), the biggest of the free ISPs, acquired hpG, the biggest free Web-hosting service in Brazil. Two free services getting together won’t make a profitable business, right? Wrong. Both may be running toward profitability. Last month, iG may have turned a corner, after the announcement of the break-even for May and June. Break-even numbers are being audited by PriceWaterhouse, and official numbers will be revealed at the end of the year. “The perfect wedding,” said Nizan Guanaes, iG’s president. HpG has about 540,000 hosted sites on its servers. One year ago, there were only 37,000. And HpG said they have 270 million banner ads each month. The portal was launched in 2000, following the example of Geocities. People could create their own personal websites online, without too much technical knowledge. It’s not a killer app, or even a new resource, but hpG provided a reliable service. Also, the hosted pages have unlimited space for storage. Maybe that’s what made hpG well known in the Brazil. “We were moving toward full break-even for

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News July 2001 Efforts to connect Brazil to the 21st century continue in earnest as governments and non-governmental organizations endeavor to provide Internet access to poor and rural areas. According to Brazilian Planning Minister Martus Tavares, the government is about to invest $400 million this year to expand Internet use in Brazil. “The idea is to reduce the exclusion of 160 million Brazilians who are outside of the fastest growing sector in the world,” Tavares said. According to government studies, about 11.1 million of the more than 160 million Brazilians are currently online. Despite usage figures that seem low by U.S. standards, the Brazilian government has one of the most developed Internet policies. The government intends to cover every large city — those with populations of at least 600,000 — with Internet terminals, which will be found mainly at post offices. Meanwhile, Brazil’s non-governmental organizations are doing their share to extend the Internet. A non-governmental organization called Viva Rio has launched the Viva Favela portal, whose primary objective is to extend Internet use among those who can’t afford to buy a computer or even a phone line. Net access through Viva Favela is available through a broadband