Adventures of a Gringa

Interview with Meu Rio's Alessandra Orofino

Alessandra Orofino is one of those people who identifies a problem and immediately starts planning possible solutions. She's an organizer, which is complicated in the digital age given the speed with which you can connect to a huge audience, but also given the ease of clicking "like" on Facebook can limit people's willingness to do much else. By using web and mobile technology, Orofino is not only helping organize Cariocas, but is helping change the way Cariocas interact with and influence public policy. And she's only 23.

I spoke to the co-founder and executive director of the Meu Rio organization, and she told me about how it all began and her goals for changing how Cariocas influence decision-making in Rio.

The Origins of Meu Rio

Orofino's big idea came from her different experiences abroad and at home. She grew up in Rio, and lived in Montreal for part of her adolescence. She got a scholarship to study political science in Paris, but after a year at a training ground for French public officials, she decided to go back to Rio. In Brazil, she began working for Promundo, an advocacy group against gender-based violence and violence against children. There, she gained experience in campaigning.

After that, she went India to work on gender-based violence research. In New Delhi, she worked with a local NGO and interviewed victims of violence. “I knew that I wanted to work with organizing because one of the things that were most striking to me in India was that every one of the girls I talked to felt so lonely,” Orofino said. Through her experience, she knew there was a community of people with the power to change things, while there was a lack of public policy action happening. She wanted to organize, but couldn't do that in a research role.

Her next step was to go to Columbia, where she got a scholarship to study economics. But before she left, she had an important conversation with a high school friend, Miguel Lago. It was in 2008, right after Fernando Gabeira had lost the Rio mayoral election to Eduardo Paes. Gabeira had a really interesting campaign, said Orofino, that was “pretty bold” in its premise and execution; he lost by a small margin. A group of young people were engaged in his campaign, but felt frustrated after the election, almost wanting the city not to work and "for everything to go to hell." Lago and Orofino discussed the fact that the energy of these young people wasn’t being channeled toward the good of the city to build something positive. They talked about how to organize people in Rio to become "a real power toward accountability, transparency, and participation in government, regardless of who was in power," explained Orofino. They wanted to create a voice for the city that wasn't subject to the electoral cycle.

So Orofino got to work, examining organizing efforts work in other parts of the world. She discovered Get Up, the biggest political movement in Australia that uses new and innovative tools to organize people. Jeremy Heimans, the founder of Get Up, was moving to NYC to start a new organization called Purpose just as Orofino was about to start at Columbia. Two weeks after arriving in New York, she knocked on his door, and he hired her. After starting at Purpose, she found the perfect place to incubate an organization in Rio. After working at the organization in New York, she went back to Rio to open Purpose's Brazil office and start fundraising for her own organization. At the end of 2011, Meu Rio was born.

Channeling the Power of Technology to Mobilize Cariocas

Meu Rio is an online platform that allows Cariocas to have a say in what's happening in the city. "We think about our work as translating public policy issues into a language that is understandable to broader society and young people," said Orofino. The site gives people an opportunity to act on things they think are important, and allows both organizers and users to identify areas for change and action. Meu Rio has a team dedicated to researching public policy so they can mobilize people effectively.

There are a number of different components to the organization. First, there are online petitions, on both Meu Rio and on a subsite called Panela de Pressão. This site allows petitioners to email the responsible party directly when they sign a petition. Meu Rio also does video and design work, creating short clips and infographics to explain public policy. The organization also has a blog called Blog de Olho, which serves as a watchdog for the city council. Meu Rio sends a person to cover what's happening there every day; not even the media does that anymore, Orofino points out.

Keeping an eye on the city council has helped inspire campaigns. One, for example, demanded open data from the city council. It gave in, and by July their data should be accessible. Another came out of the state legislature. Meu Rio discovered that a state-level bill had been introduced at the last minute to change the city's environmental codes. It would give the executive the power to choose which projects would go through an environmental licensing process, and which would be exempt. The criteria for deciding which ventures would be exempt would not be released to the public, nor would the bill be discussed with civil society. "It was an open door for corruption," said Orofino. The vote was due to take place the same day, but Meu Rio mobilized quickly and got 7,000 people to sign a petition and several hundred people to call their legislators. Around 150 people showed up to the vote. The legislators got scared and didn't vote, and just days later, the governor killed the bill, saying it was flawed.

Meu Rio uses technology not only to mobilize, but to have a direct impact. Last year, an eight-year-old student wrote to Meu Rio about her school, the Escola Municipal Friedenreich. It has around 300 students, and is one of the best public schools in the country along with specialized staff and facilities for the disabled. The city had decided to demolish the school to build a parking lot for the nearby Maracanã Stadium. There was no plan to rebuild the school or transfer the students, and the parents only found out through the local news.

So the organization set up a campaign to save the school and got 20,000 signatures on a petition. The campaign started attracting media attention, but even the secretary of education--who Meu Rio met with--didn't know what to do. So Meu Rio decided to try a new tactic. They set up a webcam at an apartment across the street from the school, and monitored the school 24/7 through a website with a live feed from the camera. People could sign up to be a "guardian" of the school and watch the feed, and if bulldozers showed up, those watching could press a red button to contact Meu Rio, which would send out text messages to followers in order to physically protect the school. Around 3,000 people signed up to watch the school, and using analytics, Meu Rio discovered that for the two months of the campaign, not a minute passed that someone wasn't watching the school. Public officials realized it would be a PR disaster to demolish the school, said Orofino, and gave up. The school will stay through 2013, and should it be demolished, a new school will be built in the same neighborhood.

Building a Movement: Next Steps

Meu Rio is working on three different objectives, aside from their mission. First, they're trying to grow their membership base. Any time someone takes an action on the website--be it signing a petition or signing up for an event--they have to register with their email address. After only a year and a half of existence, Meu Rio has 100,000 members who have acted on at least one campaign. Around 80,00 have acted on more than one campaign, and about half are ages 20-29. 

The next step is fundraising. Orofino participated in initial fundraising rounds from around 80 individuals and a few local foundations. But it's not easy to be a non-profit in Brazil without receiving funding from government agencies or public companies. Since Meu Rio doesn't want to compromise its work, it can't receive money from the government or political parties. Now, it's trying to diversify its sources of funding, and started a campaign in April to allow people to give in smaller amounts online and to give monthly donations. Around 350 people signed up to give monthly, and Orofino wants to get to 1,000 this year. The goal is to be completely member-funded within three years, she explained.

The last step is becoming a completely independent organization. Meu Rio was incubated by Purpose, which is still an incubation partner and is technically the employer for some staff members.

Orofino's Rio de Janeiro

I asked Orofino about a worthy issue in Rio that doesn't get a lot of attention. Sanitation, she explained, is an invisible problem and a "perfect failure." Fifty percent of Cariocas lack sanitation, be it safe piped water or a connection to the sanitation system. Not only is it a public health risk, but an environmental risk for the whole city, Orofino pointed out, given that sewage ends up in the ocean or in someone's backyard. Since pipes run underground, it doesn't create electoral capital, since no one will see it. It's not as visible as other public projects, and it's not a terribly sexy issue.

Meu Rio has a campaign to change how CEDAE, the city's water and sanitation company, works. Its president, who has been there for a long time, has unchecked powers, since CEDAE isn't regulated by other government agencies. This allows the president to make major decisions, like changing the price of water or making changes to the sanitation system without any regulation or consultation. Meu Rio's campaign is still ongoing.

On the other hand, I asked her why people should be excited about Rio. For Cariocas, she said, "there’s a tremendous window of opportunity that is open now and will close soon." With lots of investment and attention, "Rio has the timing, resources, and momentum to tackle its historical challenges," she noted. The eyes of the world watching, too, she said. Since that's not always the case, Cariocas should use that to improve sanitation, education, urban mobility, and other obstacles to development.

For foreigners, Rio provides an "amazing laboratory," said Orofino. It's a city of contrasts that can remind one of Paris in one neighborhood or Nairobi in another. "What happens in Rio is relevant to the developed and developing worlds," she explained. Seeing what's happening in innovation and startups could be useful for people to implement all over the world. Plus, Rio is an easy city to feel at home in. "Rio has the willingness to lend its identity to whoever lands here," Orofino told me.

Finally, I asked about what will happen when the mega-events end. For Meu Rio, the work won’t change. "The most important thing will be to make sure that after the party is over, the people who are here are able to keep participating in the life of their city," Orofino said. "We talk about the infrastructure and social legacy of the Olympics, but not enough about democratic legacy. What does it do for democracy and participation? If we use those opportunities to create a culture of accountability and participation, that’s something that can then live on long after this window of opportunity is gone."

(Image: Courtesy of Meu Rio)

Building Startups in Rio: An Interview with 21212's Benjamin White

Because of a slowing economy, Brazil may no longer be the darling of international investors and media, but one American is hedging his bets on the Brazilian market. Benjamin White, one of the co-founders of Brazil-focused startup accelerator 21212, moved from New York to Rio in part because of his belief in the vast potential of Brazil's digital space. He's combining New York know-how and pragmatism with Rio ingenuity and creativity to build some of the most innovative startups in Brazil.

How it All Began

White previously worked as vice president of digital media at MTV and as chief creative officer at Sling Media in New York, as well as an angel investor. But after marrying his Brazilian wife in 2009 and spending six months traveling around Brazil, he began to set his sights on the South American country. At the time, "things were really shaping up in Brazil," White said. He had an epiphany that he wanted to do something in the digital space but was uneasy about investing his own money, so he spent a year building his network in Brazil and meeting companies. "I kept getting more and more convinced that the opportunity was massive," White explained.

So he and his Brazilian partners decided to start an accelerator, which has similar goals to that of an angel investor. White and his partners saw a need to bridge Brazil's experience gap, especially when it came to building digital businesses. White noted that Brazil hasn't had a long tradition of entrepreneurship, but has seen a "meteoric rise" in digital penetration. He sees Brazil's opportunities in the digital space as an "invitability story." With only 40 percent of the population online but as the number 2 country in Facebook and Twitter and exponential growth in e-commerce, "the opportunities in the digital space are inevitable."

The Rio-New York Connection

White hoped to build a bridge between Brazil and the United States through the company, both literally and figuratively. He hails from New York, and his partners from Rio, and they opened offices in both cities. They named the company after the phone codes of Rio (21) and New York (212). White believes 21212 has a distinct advantage over other similar companies operating in Brazil because of the U.S. connection. Since the United States is in a leadership position in tech and internet development, White said, it's helpful to not only source mentors and best practices from successful U.S. companies, but it's also easier to launch Brazilian companies in the U.S. (Plus, White pointed out, New York beats Silicon Valley when it comes to doing business with Brazil, given fewer time zones and flight times separating the two.) While 21212's vision is to build companies in Brazil, for Brazil, it also aims to help Brazilian companies expand to the U.S. market. Queremos, an innovative crowdfunding music platform in 21212's second class, is now setting up shop in New York, and launched as WeDemand! for the U.S. market.

The Startups

Many of 21212's companies have found something unique about the Brazilian market and built incredible web-based solutions. Pagpop, for example, is an e-payment online platform started by a dentist who was only able to accept cash and checks from patients, given the difficulty in acquiring a credit-card processing machine. (Until a few years ago, White said, there was a duopoly for these machines, but now that's changing because of legislation to open up the space.) ResolveAí is a mobile app that allows users to order cabs and track their location. "Now you can actually see if the cab is really 5 minutes away," explained White, "which is a huge confidence-builder." The company has expanded from Rio to 23 other cities throughout Brazil. ZeroPaper is a cloud-based accounting solution for small businesses, created after entrepreneurs discovered that many small business owners in Brazil either still use pen and paper for their accounts, or use Excel spreadsheets or paid desktop programs. The program is online-based, free, and easy to use. BidCorp is another example of a web-based solution for businesses. This site works as a marketplace for surplus assets from large construction companies who have trouble managing equipment. Bidcorp resells everything from heavy machinery to office equipment, helping companies become more efficient and manage their inventory. "Nobody's doing what they're doing," said White.

As of December 2012, 21212's companies had raised R$5.5 million, which has increased since. The accelerator recently accepted its third class, and now has 27 companies.

Streamlining the Startup Process

21212 is using New York pragmatism and a no-nonsense approach to building startups, in what White calls an ecosystem-building mode. "Our number one basic thesis is that there's an abundance of opportunity in Brazil and a dearth of resources," White explained. So 21212 is working to take advantage of mentors and lessons from abroad from people who built similar businesses to apply them in Brazil.

One thing the company is doing is systematize the process of starting business."There are all sorts of barriers to doing business in Brazil that you have to figure out how to overcome in order to seize the opportunities," White said. "Setting up a company in Brazil is notoriously difficult," he noted, "and is a huge obstacle for startups." It can take months. So 21212 sought to become as efficient as possible, with one Brazilian and one American lawyer on staff doing the exact same paperwork for all of the startups. The system is now so efficient that the company is able to do it faster than almost everyone they know. From an investor's perspective, White says, "I want my founding teams working on their product and their business, not at the cartório for three weeks straight."

Visas are another obstacle, since there's a lot of interest from foreigners who want to work in Brazil but it's difficult to get visas for them to work with startups. From the policy side, "The jury is still out if there's the political will to do what's best for the country," White explained. "For me, it's clear you have to open up and bring talent in."

Rio: Brazil's Silicon Valley?

For White, Rio is a natural location not only for an accelerator, but as a potential Silicon Valley in Brazil. Since companies have to import talent and foreign money, Rio is the place where that can happen, White believes, because foreigners want to go there to have the full Brazil experience. "It's an emotional, lifestyle thing, not a bottom line, money-making thing," White said, "but it's probably more powerful of any other aspect of 'why Rio' question." Botafogo, where 21212 has its offices, is becoming the city's tech hub with a growing number of startup companies. "Startups cluster to rely on each other," White noted. Botafogo has the advantage of being more "homey" as well as being a convenient location with easy transportation, near the airports, and close to other parts of Zona Sul where international visitors stay. White notes that São Paulo is close enough to do business, but isn't as appealing for foreigners coming from big cities. "If you need to get your best talent to work in Brazil, Rio is a much easier sell," he said.

Image: Courtesy of 21212

Pedro Franceschi, Brazil's Tech Wunderkind

While he may seem like just an unassuming 15-year-old high school kid from Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Franceschi is in fact one of Brazil's rising tech stars. He started learning about computers playing on his dad's Mac when he was just three and started learning programming when he was eight, and became what TEDx referred to as one of the world's youngest hackers, when he began jailbreaking iPhones and iPods at the age of 11.

Pedro began to explore the possibility of unblocking mobile devices when he managed to get an iPod Nano to run video, and then began to jailbreak other devices. He began charging schoolmates R$50 to unlock their phones and iPods, but gained national and international attention when he began developing mobile apps. First, at age 12, he created Quick2GPwner, which received 17,000 downloads in just five days. He then created an app called QuickOiB, which allows you to install Linux on an iPhone or iPod Touch, which received 25,000 downloads in two weeks. He soon gained attention in Rio's tech community, and began working as a software developer at Brainjuice in Rio.

In 2010, Pedro spoke at Rio's TEDx conference about his achievements, giving him even more opportunities to develop apps. He got a job as a developer at Sync Mobile soon after, where he worked for a year, and now works at M4U, which provides mobile payment systems. He also continued developing his own apps -- all the while going to school.

 

Since then, Pedro has been developing more apps, like ones to more easily scroll or change between iPhone apps, and an app called iUsers to create a multi-user solution for iPads, like you would use on a shared computer. Also, Pedro documents his new projects on his blog and on Twitter.

Pedro was in the headlines again this week when he managed to implement a solution--without jailbreaking--to get Siri, the iPhone 4S voice recognition system, to understand Portuguese. Though the 4S was recently launched in Brazil, Siri doesn't work with Portuguese yet. So Pedro managed to reverse engineer the API for Nuance, voice recognition software used by Apple, and got it to work so that Siri recognizes Portuguese, responds correctly in English, and displays her answers in Portuguese.

 

I had a chance to catch up with Pedro before New Year's, and he was kind enough to share some thoughts.

Interview

When you finish high school, what and where would you like to study?

I'd like to do computer science. I'm thinking of PUC-Rio or UFRJ, but if the sky was the limit, I'd possibly pick MIT.

How many hours a day do you spend working? What do you like to do when you're not working or in school?

I spend almost all of my free time working. When I'm not in school, I'm working, and when I'm not working, I'm in school. But working and programming is what I most like to do, so I don't see a problem with it. Eventually I do go out with friends, of course.

You've worked for several tech companies. What types of projects did you do?

The majority of the projects I develop are related to the iPhone. At Sync Mobile, for example, I developed an events app called LiveSync, which won the Campuseiros Empreendem Award. [This is an award from Brazil's Campus Party, the biggest tech event in the country]  At M4U, where I work now, I develop mobile payment apps for the iPhone.

Have you ever been in touch with Apple? If you had the opportunity to work for Apple one day, would you want to?

I have, yes. However, I don't know if I'd work there. It really must be a unique experience, but at the same time it's a very complicated place to work. You need to deal with all types of situations when you work at a company of that kind, and with the history of quality that Apple has. But I believe at the end of the day I would end up accepting the opportunity.

Why do you think it's important to fiddle with Apple's operating system, since it's such a closed system?

The cool thing about working with the iOS is to prove that it can do things that Apple doesn't allow, and that's a big motivator. An example of this getting Siri to understand Portuguese.

What do you think are the advantages and challenges of working with technology in Brazil?

The advantage is that this market isn't very developed in Brazil, and there are really so many cool things that you can do. At the same time, one of the problems with this market is that since it hasn't been as developed yet, there's not enough investment for it to grow, though that's changing with time.

Read the interview in Portuguese after the jump.

Q&A With Cristiano Casagrande

I lucked out with yet another Q&A this week, this time with Cristiano Casagrande, a gaúcho social media manager who founded and runs the ph14 social media agency. I asked him about social media trends in Brazil, as well as the Twitter feed he runs to divulge important Brazilian news in Portuguese. Read the translation in English, or the original in Portuguese (after the jump).

How did you get the idea for the @brazilians Twitter profile? What's the idea behind it?

The @brazilians profile was created in 2008, when Twitter was just starting to catch on in Brazil. At the time, it was possible to find every Brazilian on Twitter on this site. The idea was to share news about Brazil using a new tool that was impressive because of how quickly you could spread information.

How did you start your career in social media?

I started casually, by writing blogs, and I was always interested in what they call web 2.0. When Twitter came around, I recognized its potential as a new form of communication that would become social media, and I began to look for clients who wanted that type of publicity.

Brazil is one of the countries that uses Twitter the most, with the most "influential" users in the world (Rafinha Bastos, Twiter da Vovó). Why is it that Brazilians like and use Twitter so much?

It's true, Brazil stood out early in social media and I believe that Brazilians have a trait in which they like to communicate all the time with everyone and about everything. Another important aspect is local humor, which is why comedians' profiles are so popular. Brazilians like to laugh and make others' enjoy themselves. 

Which social media site will become (or is becoming) more popular in Brazil?

Here, all of the sites that allow interaction are growing a lot. Foursquare, which is a novelty, was adopted in practically every city and its use is only limited by the fact that it's restricted to smartphones and GPS connections. LinkedIn just passed 6 million local users and opened an office in São Paulo at the end of last month. The same thing is happening with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, which have some of the largest user bases in the world in Brazil.

Although Orkut is still the most used social network in Brazil (well, depending on your source), many Brazilians are now using Facebook. Do you think they'll keep using both, or that they'll switch to Facebook? And what do you think about the so-called "Orkutization" of Facebook?

Orkut is outdated, both from a technological standpoint and in number of users. It was the pioneer of social networks in Brazil, but now it's being replaced by Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. It's hard to say with certainty if Facebook has more users, because IBOPE only measures residential access without using data from internet cafés, for example, but it's just a matter of time. There's a new model for social media, and Orkut is not included in it.

With respect to "Orkutization," it's a natural process that occurs when anything becomes popular. With Twitter, the same thing happened, and even so, it didn't lose importance. Nowadays, social media allows us to select the information we want to receive and Facebook realized this when it created ways to follow and unfollow users like Twitter has been doing since the beginning. This was also adopted by the newcomer Google+.

Democratizing Technology in Brazil: Basic Access

I'm starting a new series about the democratization of technology in Brazil, and I'm kicking it off with a post on basic access.

Though Brazil is one of the world's largest economies with one of the largest populations of internet users, there are still a surprising amount of people with limited or no access to the Web. A recent study from F/Radar found that only 51 percent of Brazilians 16 years and older access the internet, and this percentage grew by only 4 percent since 2008, indicating a "stagnation" in internet usage.

Still, there was an expansion in access. The most recent numbers from IBOPE show that 77.8 million Brazilians accessed the internet this quarter, a 5.5 percent increase from the same period last year and a 20 percent increase from the second quarter of 2009. It also revealed that Brazilian internet users spent an average of 69 hours online last month. An increase in number of users and a rise in hours spent online per month reflect year to year trends, as we'll see below.

From 2008 to 2011, home internet access grew from 21 percent to 29 percent of the population, and home broadband access grew from 12 percent to 31 percent. Also, there was an increase in daily internet usage: in 2008, 32 percent of users accessed the internet daily, compared to 41 percent in 2011. An annual study by CETIC, the Center for Technology and Information Studies, found similar results for 2010. It found that home internet access reached 31 percent in 2010, though that's around 60 percent less than home internet access rates in Germany and Japan. The study also found that of those who accessed the internet in the last 3 months, 60 percent access the web daily, meaning that 1 in 4 Brazilians over the age of 10 use the internet each day. Of those internet users who access the web daily, 56 percent accessed it from home, 27 percent from someone else's house, 22 percent from work, and 35 percent from lan houses (internet cafés). Brazilian internet users spend a lot of time online - in May 2011, Brazilian internet users spent an average of 48 hours and 17 minutes online, more time than in any other country, according to an IBOPE Nielsen study.

Yet there's still a class divide in access. According to the F/Radar study, 62 percent of the A and B classes now have a fast internet connection at home, compared to only 22 percent of the C class and 4 percent of the D and E classes. While members of the A and B classes use the internet an average of 5.3 days a week, members of the C class only use the internet an average of 3.7 days a week, and members of the D and E classes use it an average of 2.8 days a week. According to the CETIC study, 90 percent of the A class had home internet access in 2010, compared to 24 percent of the C class and 3 percent of the D and E classes. There was also a geographic divide: 36 percent of households in the Southeast had home internet access, compared to 11 percent in the Northeast.

The first key to expanding internet access is being able to afford a computer. President Dilma has made it a priority of her administration to decrease the price of electronics, particularly computers and tablets. Just this week, she announced her goal to have broadband internet in 40 million households, or 70 percent of the population, by 2014. With a strong real, high demand, and the ability to pay in installments, computers have become more affordable, despite continually inflated prices (and taxes) for electronics. According to the F/Radar study, 44 percent of Brazilian households had at least one computer in April 2011, a four percent increase from the same period the year before. Brazil is now the third-largest market in the world for computers, and 7.46 million computers were sold in Brazil this year alone. Over 50 percent of the computers sold in the second quarter were desktops, but laptop sales increased 27 percent in the second half of 2011, compared to the same period in 2010. On the Casas Bahia website, a popular electronics store, one of the cheapest available PCs with a monitor was R$699 (about US$416).

The next step is to make internet access more affordable. Taxes account for a large percentage of costs of internet plans, sometimes amounting to more than 30 percent of the total plan. To give an example of costs, NET, one of the major providers, has monthly plans that start at R$55 for 1 mega, R$130 for 10 mega, R$180 for 20 mega, and R$400 for 100 mega. In an effort to lower costs, the Brazilian government launched the National Broadband Plan in June, which is being rolled out across the country. The plan would create internet packages between R$29.80 and R$35 per month for a connection of 1 megabyte per second. Some companies have already begun offering the plan, like Claro, which is offering R$29.90 per month for 1 megabyte per second using a modem, which must be purchased separately. (The modem costs at least R$70.) TIM will have a similar plan this month, at R$35 a month, and NET is now offering a R$30 a month plan for 512 kilobits per second (less than 1 mega). Even without the plan, costs have been gradually coming down, and more members of the C and D classes now have broadband access; according to a Telefónica exec, 75 percent of new broadband plans in the past six months were purchased by those in the C and D classes.

But there are catches to expanding access. Anatel, the national telecommunications agency, wants to charge extra for "heavy users" and to tax companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple that involve high data loads and can saturate networks. As for the National Broadband Plan, there will likely be limits. The plan includes a download limit of 300 MB per month, and possibly lower quality service than higher paying plans. The plan isn't fully national yet, and coverage is by city, and only a certain number of cities are offering or plan to offer the low cost plan.

Traditionally, expensive internet plans and computers led to the creation of lan houses, or internet cafés, where people could access the internet quickly and cheaply. They later became a popular place for gamers, especially younger players. But even with the expansion of internet in homes, lan houses are still important -- according to a recent TNW article, there are nearly 100,000 lan houses in Brazil that serve between 30 and 35 million internet users. These small businesses aren't just important for low-income communities, but also rural areas. The government is exploring plans to expand high speed internet by satellite to lan houses in rural areas, particularly near schools.

Another method to avoid expensive internet plans is to use open Wi Fi connections. But it's illegal to share a Wi Fi connection unless you have a private license, which costs R$400. There have been cases in which Anatel and the police have actually confiscated computers that share Wi Fi and charged fines for thousands of reais. Though it's on a small scale, it's quietly occurring with very little media coverage.

In short, falling prices for computers and internet access have allowed millions of Brazilians to connect to the Web, and with new legislation and cheaper plans, even more will have access. But a visible gap still exists between social classes, as well as urban and rural dwellers, and it will be a continuing challenge to expand access and to improve quality of service. As millions of people gain regular internet access for the first time, an enormous opportunity exists not only for businesses, but also to democratize a fundamental service and what is now considered a basic human right.

Q&A With TNW's Anna Heim

The tech scene in Brazil is one of the most exciting in the world, and one of the best and brightest new Brazil tech writers is Anna Heim, a French expat and polygot who covers Latin America for The Next Web. She writes about countries throughout the region with a focus on Brazil, and has written about everything from e-commerce and smartphones to Orkut and lanhouses, as well as following some of Brazil's fastest-growing startups. I caught up with her recently to find out more about her interest in Brazil and technology, and about life as a gringa in Rio.

So you're French and work at a Video On Demand site. You've also lived all over the world. What brought you to Brazil? And how did you become interested in web technology?

It's true I used to work at a video on demand website in London, but that was before I came back to Brazil for a few months in March this year (I left two weeks ago).  I'm saying 'coming back', because I've lived in São Paulo and Rio for 18 months in 2006-2007.

My initial connection with Brazil is through film: I'm a fan of Latin American cinema in general, and Brazilian movies in particular. I did an internship in Brazil after my Film & Business degree and ended up staying for one more year, working at Rio Film Festival first, and then at an indie film distribution company, where I was selling Brazilian short and feature films to foreign distributors and broadcasters.
As for my connection with web/tech, it was mostly a hobby until recently; I spend a lot of time online (especially on Twitter) and I love to follow breaking news and trends. This is how I connected with Blue Bus, which is a Brazilian niche media (it's read mostly by advertisers and creatives). I wrote for Blue Bus from March to June, and started writing for The Next Web in May about the Latin American web/tech scenes, with a particular focus on startups. (I was already somewhat familiar with the startup culture as the company I was working for in London was one.)

What do you like most about living in Rio?

Unfortunately I'm not there at the moment, although I've lived there for one year and a half in total. As I'm sure you know, living there is like living in a postcard. It may sound like a cliché but the scenery is one of the things I enjoy the most: walking along the beach, seeing the morros in the background... I'm writing this and already feeling 'saudade'! I also enjoy the Carioca culture and how relaxed, friendly and informal it is. Although I like my gym, the city isn't as superficial as some think. I have a few close friends, the cultural life is quite vibrant, there are many French and foreign films at the local theaters, and from a tech/startup perspective there are some very interesting companies in Rio.

You really are quite the polygot (since you speak French, English, Spanish and Portuguese). How did you become fluent in Portuguese?

Thanks! I studied Portugal's Portuguese in Paris at Instituto Camoes for a few months but I only started speaking when I arrived in Brazil. Being fluent in Spanish helped me a lot (but my Spanish isn't that good anymore...)

You write for TNW, a tech site, about a number of topics but also about Brazil and Latin America. How long have you written for them (looks like maybe just a few months?) and why do you enjoy it?

I've been writing for The Next Web since May and I'm enjoying it very much. Besides the fact that I love to write about stuff I'm interested in, I also get a chance to connect with movers and shakers in the LatAm tech space. I'm very grateful for all the help I've received in connecting with the right people for my articles. I've found the local startup communities to be very supportive and it's a great opportunity to let people know about what's going on in the region, which is getting a lot of momentum.

You also write a blog on Le Monde about Brazil, in French. What topics are most important to you to convey to a French audience?

I do have a personal blog on Le Monde, where I write from time to time about culture, film, media, life in Rio, the connections between France and Brazil and the image of Brazil abroad. To be honest, I mostly write about what I am interested in and I don't really think about my audience :)

What do you think is the biggest misconception that foreigners have about technology or internet in Brazil?

I'm not sure there are any misconceptions, but probably a lack of knowledge of the local ecosystem and its specificities. Foreigners still have a limited knowledge of all that's going on, although investors and foreign companies are showing a growing interest in Brazil. I hope that my articles will help spreading the info about the local tech/web scene.
 
What do you think is one of the most interesting internet or tech trend in Brazil, and why?

Social interaction is very important in Brazil, and social media has been very successful in the country. Along the same line, I think crowdsourcing (the power of the crowds) could do very well. It could have a big impact on many areas, from film to design and politics, and even change the way we work. I've written a post about it a couple weeks ago, called Beyond the Buzzword: How Crowdsourcing Can Disrupt Brazil.

To read all of Anna's work on TNW, click here.

The Incredible Doctor Nicolelis

He's a scientist, researcher, professor, author, social entrepreneur, and activist. When he talks about his work, he doesn't just talk about the implications for potential beneficiaries; he talks about the implications for humanity. He's won dozens of awards, from highly prestigious honors from Scientific American to the Ordem de Rio Branco; many hope he will be the first Brazilian to win the Nobel Prize. Amongst his many accomplishments, the most notable include his ground-breaking neuroscience research, which will one day very soon allow paralyzed people to walk again, and his foundation, the International Institute for Neuroscience of Natal, has already given thousands of underpriviledged children in Brazil's Northeast the opportunity for a sophisticated science education. He is arguably one Brazil's most famous and accomplished scientists, if not the most famous of his time, whose work could literally change the world. And it's possible you've never heard of him.

At first glance, Dr. Miguel Nicolelis is just another Brazilian expat living in the US. A paulistano born and bred, a passionate Palmeiras supporter, and a fervent patriot, he lives in North Carolina with his family, where he teaches and works at Duke University. But in reality, he's a superstar of science and education, a dreamer and utopian putting his ideas into practice. He was recently featured on the Daily Show, which inspired me to do some research and get in touch with him (sorry, readers outside the US - I couldn't find this on Youtube). It's possible I'd seen his name here and there, but it was really the first time I'd heard about his work.

The Daily Show - Miguel Nicolelis

Dr. Nicolelis is best known for his neuroscience research that shows that brain signals can be used to create movement using prosthetics. His Walk Again Project is an international effort for neuroscience study and for developing the technology necessary to enable victims of paralysis and neurological disorders to move using a full body suit. His new book, Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines---and How It Will Change Our Lives, describes his research and the future of "technology-driven human evolution." His neurological experiments with monkeys are world-famous and have garnered attention and funding for further research on neurological disorders and Parkinson's disease.

 

I was pleasantly surprised when Dr. Nicolelis agreed to speak to me, and soon discovered that he's always eager to share about his work in Brazil. We chatted on Skype (in Portuguese) about his foundation, his thoughts on life in Brazil and the US, and his plans for the future.

First, we discussed the Campus do Cérebro, or The Brain Campus, which is part of the Natal Neuroscience Institute. Right now, the campus consists of a medical center for women, which treats 16,000 women a year providing pre-natal treatment and services. These women are the first step in his "Educação Para Toda A Vida," or Lifelong Education program. The women receive pre-natal care, and then their children are funneled into the school program on the campus, providing a birth to college trajectory that Dr. Nicolelis hopes will transform lives. There are currently two pilot schools with 1,000 children, where students from public schools attend part time to learn about science. The institute also built a school in the interior of Bahia for 400 children as a part of a pilot project there. In December 2011, a new school will be ready to serve 5,000 children, essentially serving the entire town of Macaíba, which will provide a full time education from nursery school through the end of high school. Children born into the pre-natal program will attend the school to begin the Lifelong Education program in earnest. Dr. Nicolelis hopes to expand the education program by building twelve other schools in other regions of the North and Northeast of Brazil.

But it doesn't end there. The campus also includes a neuroscience institute, which is home to about a dozen Ph.D neuroscientists working in conjunction with Dr. Nicolelis' program at Duke and partners at the Hospital Sírio-Libanês in São Paulo on neuroscience research and Parkinson's therapies. The institute has attracted Brazilian and foreign scientists alike, and a new 14,000 square-meter building is under construction to create 45 new labs for the Neuroscience Institute. An Advanced Studies Institute is underway, which will aim to study and develop neuroscience technology. The Swiss government donated a supercomputer, and when everything is complete, the institute will have the fifth most powerful supercomputer in the world. And there's even more! The institute is constructing a sports park for children, which will be the largest sports park in Brazil's Northeast. They're also constructing a planetarium and observatory for children.

Next on the agenda is to expand the project to create the Cidade do Cérebro, or the Brain City. The institute has completed the first phase of creating the Brain City, which will be a neuro-technology industrial park to produce highly advanced technology and products for the "brain industry." The industrial complex will be built 10 kilometers from what will be the largest cargo airport in Brazil and Latin America, the Aeroporto Internacional São Gonçalo de Almirante. The airport already has one landing strip and construction is underway. The Brain Institute will have something of a symbiotic relationship with the airport (even though the institute was established before the airport was planned), and there's a free trade zone right next to the airport, which will allow for the production of supplies, parts, and products needed for production in the industrial park.

Even with the institute's success so far, Dr. Nicolelis has pulled off a stunning feat in one of Brazil's least developed regions where non-profits and other organizations struggle to survive. How did he pull it off? The first is with a wealth of funding. The Safra family is the main sponsor (the institute's official name is "The Edmond and Lily Safra International Neuroscience Institute of Natal"), and partners include the Swiss government, the Hospital Sírio-Libanês, amongst others, as well as private donors from all over the world. Dr. Nicolelis has also helped sell educational projects around Brazil, which would create schools within businesses that wish to educate workers, and in some businesses, invest in the education of their employees' children. The institute also receives funding from the Brazilian federal government ($25 million is expected this year), which largely comes from the Ministry of Education, which is fortunate considering a 23 percent cut in the Ministry of Science's budget this year. Also, Dr. Nicolelis is the institute's official fundraiser - "eu sou o único fundraiser dessa brincadeira," he joked. "It's a mystery," he says, "but somehow it works." Using simple, low cost methods, he's raised R$125 million for the project.

Not only has Dr. Nicolelis had luck with funding, but he's been able to attract talented scientists to work far from Brazil's developed urban centers. With the economic crisis in Europe and the US, he's also been able to attract foreign scientists. Science infrastructure is taking off and jobs are more competitive, so Brazil is actually able to start reversing brain drain, Dr. Nicolelis explained to me. By offering better conditions in Natal than in Rio or São Paulo, with modern labs and equipment, he's been able to find young talent, though it can be a difficult mission. Plus, he says, he's able to offer a "great adventure."

The project certainly has had its challenges. Dr. Nicolelis has had to square off with local politicians who he says simply aren't interested in bettering the lives of their constituents; the project receives no municipal or state funds. There's the endless bureaucracy typical in Brazil, as well as people who tried to make him give up. The city government has not been very interested in helping with the project; one of the two branches outside of downtown Natal is located on a dirt road that the city still hasn't gotten around to paving, and when it rains, Dr. Nicolelis told me, "it becomes a river of mud." He's tried speaking out to the press to protest the local government's lack of cooperation, given the institute is the largest project in the state and one of the largest in the country.

Still, where many others have failed, Dr. Nicolelis has had incredible success. His advice for social entrepreneurs? "You have to have a huge obsession," he says, "since it's easy to give up." You risk running yourself down; he himself has struggled with the physical and emotional drain over the years. For Brazilians, you have to have the passion and desire to give back to your country, which he says is very important, since Brazil helped get him where he is today. You must be obstinant, determined, obsessive, and compulsive, and you can't conjugate the word "desistir" (to give up). As soon as you really consider giving up he says, you will. In his experience, though, the success of seeing 2,000 childrens' lives radically changed, 20,000 mothers receiving medical care, and the Brain City coming to fruition, Dr. Nicolelis developed something of a force to persevere. "Other projects started around the same time ours did," he told me, "and ours is the only one that survived."

To understand just the state of science in Brazil, two recent articles are helpful: GlobalPost's recent coverage and also a fantastic piece from Science Magazine. There's much more happening than you might think, though many projects are in agriculture and biofuels, as opposed to other fields. But Dr. Nicolelis plans to change that.

In 2010, Dr. Nicolelis published what he called the Manifesto da Ciência Tropical, or the Tropical Science Manifest. In it, he outlined his ideas and goals for developing science in Brazil, including science education, development for science instructors, expanding university research opportunities, technology institutes, building "Science Cities," joint ventures, expanding the Brazilian space program, and much more. It's such an expansive list that it seemed like the type of thing a minister or politician would come up with. So I asked if he has any political ambitions. "No," he answered emphatically, "my only ambition is to do things to transform people's lives."

Dr. Nicolelis is also spearheading the Comissão do Futuro da Ciência Brasileira, or the Future of Brazilian Science Commission. It's a government-organized group made up of Brazilian and foreign scientists, researchers, journalists, and professors to help transform science in Brazil. The first goal is to get an overview of the current state of science today and to identify problems hindering those working in the field, and then come up with a detailed list of goals and suggestions for what needs to change in the next decade. This way, Dr. Nicolelis says, Brazil can transform its human potential into knowledge and products that contribute to both the country and all of humanity. It's the first time the Brazilian government has invited scientists to head a commission outside of the Ministry of Science, and it's the first time Brazilian and foreign scientists will come together to discuss the future of Brazilian science. He added: "The good thing about being a scientist is that you already think way into the future." The first meeting is planned in the next few months, with an international meeting planned for the end of the year, though bureaucratic woes are slowing things down.

In addition to the commission, he's in talks with the Minister of Education to begin producing iPad software and apps aimed at science education. Since equipment is one of the most expensive parts of science education, he wants to create apps that function as equipment to reduce costs, and eventually create a science apps industry in Brazil.

One of Dr. Nicolelis' dreams is to inspire passion for science in his fellow countrymen. The 2014 World Cup presents both a goal and opportunity for Dr. Nicolelis' Walk Again Project, which he has called the "Tropical Moonshot." What's missing in Brazil and the US, he says, is a program like the space program of the 1960s that galvanizes society to get people excited about science, and a program that really has the power to change the fate of humanity. The brain, he says, is similar to space in terms of magnitude and complexity, so he dubbed the project the moonshot. After all, the Apollo space program was what originally inspired him to become a scientist, and helped inspire interest in science the world over.

So Dr. Nicolelis' plan is to ask the Brazilian government permission to participate in the opening of the World Cup. He hopes that the full body suit that will allow paralyzed people to walk will be ready by then. His vision is for two young Brazilian quadriplegics, outfitted in the full body suits, to walk out onto the field with the soccer players. Just the thought is enough to give you goosebumps. "If Brazilians can make a human walk that couldn't walk before, Brazil will prove it's another country," he said. This way, he can demonstrate that science can be used for transformation, to help humanity. I asked if he'll be ready by then. "I guarantee it," he told me. "I want to surprise the world."

Though he spends most of the year in North Carolina, his Brazilian heritage is very important to Dr. Nicolelis, and he makes a point of adding it in to all of his appearances and speeches abroad. "Para mim, essa brasilidade é muito profunda, muito importante," he explained. Brazil gave him the opportunity to do his work, and he wants Brazilians and foreigners alike to know that those opportunities exist. "It's important to create the image that Brazil produces scientists, not just soccer players and samba dancers."

An equal opportunity critic, Dr. Nicolelis expressed frustration with bureaucracy and local politics in Brazil, and also life in the US. He says in the 22 years he's spent in the US, a lot has changed, and things are very polarized. "It's hard to have certain opinions," he said, and described what he called "cultural oppression," caused by a bitter and polarized, even backwards environment driven by the extreme right. He also witnessed how American universities have become big businesses, a far cry from what he said used to be "intellectual paradise." Intellectual life is important, and as a "guy from the left" he dislikes how things have become so much about money. When he's not in Brazil, he really misses the human warmth and Brazilian way of life.

With his track record, Dr. Nicolelis seems likely to be able to accomplish amazing feats, ones that are already changing people's lives. He's determined but pragmatic, and though he possesses a brilliant mind, is humble and self-effacing. He's living proof that while it may not always seem that way, anything is possible in Brazil.