E-Governance Transparency in Brazil – The Lack of Usability Is Detrimental to Citizenship

  • Cayley Guimarães
  • Leandro Daniel Reis Silva
  • Diego Roberto Antunes
  • Rodrigo Formighieri
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 8522)

Abstract

Brazilian law requires that all cities with over 10.000 habitants divulge via Internet information regarding budgetary and financial information. Such information is an acquired social right that provides an arena in which to debate, demand for rights to be implemented, review policies and practices, among others, to guarantee that transparency and citizenship rights are respected. The transparency (government accountability) such mandatory e-governance (democratic, quality tools for State-Citizen interaction) information is still elusive. Only 14 percent of the cities required do so; and only 75 percent of those who divulge do it via Internet. This research surveyed the sites for availability and compliance with the law. It also analyzed the usability (both via Heuristic Evaluation - of 15 sites; and User Testing – with 5 users performing 4 tasks each on 3 different city sites). This research shows a direct link between the lack of usability and the lack of transparency and citizenship.

Keywords

E-Governance Transparency Usability Citizenship 

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Cayley Guimarães
    • 1
    • 2
  • Leandro Daniel Reis Silva
    • 1
    • 2
  • Diego Roberto Antunes
    • 1
    • 2
  • Rodrigo Formighieri
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Informatics DepartmentFederal University of ParanáCuritibaBrazil
  2. 2.PRODEMGEBelo HorizonteBrazil

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