The municipalities of the Greater ABC unaware of the potential of the Internet as a channel of communication with the population. The authorities also seem to ignore that 25% of Brazilians over 16 years used the Internet to interact with public in 2007, as indicated by a survey conducted by CETIC (Center for Research on Information Technology and Communication).

Although all administrations in the region have site, communication with residents via the Internet - made by e-mail - is available only by Santo Andre, Sao Caetano, Diadema and Ribeirão Pires. In other cities - St. Bernard, Maud and Rio Grande da Serra - the citizen who want to take any questions, make complaints or suggestions to the mayor or secretaries have only one option: the phone.

"Lack of communication strategic planning. In general, the areas of communication of municipalities and chief executives do not give due importance to the subject. They care about education, health and forget that communication can be used to solve these problems, "explains political scientist Savio Hackradt Ximenes.

The scenario that seems daunting, tends to change. "Already there are government agencies that interact with the population and this will multiply." One example is the state government of São Paulo announced that on Wednesday the official launch of a Twitter profile - miniblogs service, which has about six million User in the world. In the address ( http://twitter.com/governosp ), registered users will receive updated information about open tendering, cultural agenda, among others.

The government of Sao Paulo will also publish all the YouTube videos and campaigns, such as is done by the Federal District government. "