Ciao ciao, Andrea.
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Brazil is an expanding nation. Heading West from Sao Paulo toward Assis,
the highway is dotted with construction workers expanding, renovating and
maintaining the main communication channel between distant and remote
places. Only the city of Sao Paulo numbers more than 19million people,
distance between friends in the same school can reach up to 38kms. The
country is growing, buildings are built, milkshakes at macdonalds are a
positive feature in the life of some Brazilian, WalMart and Carrefour
cheaply serve countless people. From the words of Taliso, a 21 year old
studying biotechnology, before there were desperate people - now they are
poor. The drive to improve ones social status is rampant. Television
alongside the internet is fundamental in accommodating and guiding part of
this evolution. Wireless is available on the bus from the airport to the
main station, down at Barra Funda. The family who I had the pleasure to be
a guest of lived in a tiny house 40kms from the inner city ring of Sao
Paulo. The expensive, yet organized and frequent metro could be heard on
the background while sleeping. The main income for the family was the
father, a factory worker who dreams of visiting Spain to discover his
origins. In an atmosphere of hospitality and tasteful food, the main
attraction in the house was a shiny new Sony Bravia with Internet
capability. A function yet undiscovered by the house owner, regarded as
complicated and for him, useless. Of a different mind his two children, who
eager to learn English buy pirated DVD off the numerous vendors
continuously chased by the Police. Their is a desire to know, to grow and
to see the world. Internet merged with Television has an important social
potential. It would allow a kid growing up in the outskirts of Sao Paulo to
listen, hear and learn Norwegian by streaming Nine Lives - a 1957 film
about a world war two hero, something which now still requires another
piece of hardware. Also, streaming internet to a tv set would allow open
course content to be accessed - imagine a group of students in the remote
amazonian city of Manaus viewing full screen a physics lecture from MIT
just using their home set. For a teenager is not so difficult to use a
computer, but what if the same content could be accessed - albeit with a
645kbs connection, by the house owner, who would be able to appreciate the
beauty of the net, without all the problems that a PC brings along - small
icons, urls, not responding messages, small qwerty keys and so on. Also,
this kid who buys pirated DVDs for 5$ each could benefit from purchasing
the same online at 99cents, saving money and respecting the law. Brazil is
a country in renovation, people want and work for Plasma 40 inch tvs to
replace the old tube, internet access is offered free at train and metro
stations - there are rooms with computers freely accessible by anyone with
fast Internet. A PC is still technically difficult to use for someone who
grew up farming when computers didn't even exist - but, Television
connected to the Internet with its simple remote, big screen and comfort of
position, facilitates greatly the accessibility to content which few years
ago seemed unreasonable even for people who were not completely technically
incompetent. As the models released at IFA in Berlin show, Internet and
Television have just started - or are starting, their long lasting
marriage. This marriage will bring unprecedented possibilities,
liberalizing an industry still highly locked in access costs, often
organized in a medieval corporative manner where the tv schedule is decided
by share of audience - and not, most of the times, by the content.
- [FC-discuss] Internet TV and evolving countries af529
