CÂMARA VIRTUAL PORTAL (Virtual City Council Portal): The citizen participation in the legislative branch of Frutal

Abstract

Although Information and Communication Technologies foster new forms of sociability and social practices, their applications for the formation of an interactive citizenship (MARTINEZ, 2001), which is capable of solving the asymmetries between the government and civil society, are still restrictive and little explored. As an alternative to shortening these distances and allowing the citizen space for deliberation on the matters competent to the legislative procedures of their locations, the Câmara Virtual portal was created. It is a web solution with a special focus on the production of support material for the understanding and dissemination of the proposals made by the council members, in a language accessible to the population. A pilot project was implemented in the city of Frutal, State of Minas Gerais (MG), which, in the future, may be applied to other locations in order to foster participatory culture, especially that of the region. As a methodology, we used exploratory research on e-government and software engineering processes based on Agile Methods, considered adequate to deal with frequent adaptations of functionality. From a usability test, we noticed a deficiency in the population’s own interest in consuming and deliberating on local politics. Considering this, the project listed as its priority agenda the process of dissemination and awareness of the population about the portal. Although the portal is currently off-line, due to financial and technical issues of the university, we consider this initiative feasible and important to foster the exploration of other projects. 

KEYWORDS: Câmara Virtual (Virtual City Council); Interactive Citizenship; Web; Frutal.