Digital Conversations: the Mediations of Internet Use in the Telecenters of the Projects Faróis do Saber and Paranavegar

Abstract

This research explores the digital mediatisation process in free and public access telecenters, with technicality as constituent mediation of significations produced by Internet users in the everyday life of material and symbolic conditions, which configures the ambience. The empirical approach focuses on the digital inclusion experiences of the city of Curitiba (Faróis do Saber, Portuguese for knowledge lighthouse) and Paraná State Government (Paranavegar). The methodological set includes Webgraphy, Mediagraphy and deep interviews, which allowed to measure the browsed cyberspace and the time spent in each site. In 5650 minutes of navigation by 136 Internet users, mostly children, teenagers and youth, who featured the ambience in telecenters as a place where the digital spatiality is mainly for conversation purposes.