In May of 2000, Peter Knight participated in the Second Global Forum on Democratic State and Government in the 21^st Century, which was hosted by the Government of Brazil and opened by a speech by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

With growing interest in e-government, and cognizant of the important responsibilities which electronic governments can play in furthering the education and training of their citizens, Peter Knight has been working to develop new business opportunities for Knight-Moore in Brazil and to set up new Brazilian companies to work in this field, with a base in Rio de Janeiro. He has also been promoting the concept of Rio de Janeiro: Inteligent City, Intelligent State. See a presentation on this topic in English given at Universidade Castello Branco in May 2000 or a more developed Portuguese version done in December 2000.

In March of 2001 four Brazilian delegations (from the Federal Government, Government of the State of Bahia, Government of the State of  Rio de Janeiro, and Government of the City of Rio de Janeiro) participated in the Third Global Forum: Fostering democracy and development through e-government in Naples, Italy. Peter Knight was a member of the Rio de Janeiro City Government delegation. See more information on this event, photos of  the Brazilian participants, and their presentations and papers. He is currently working with PRODERJ, the Rio de Janeiro State Data Processing Company, to organize a major international forum entitled The Citizen and His/Her Electronic Governments, was to be held in Rio de Janeiro 3-4 September 2001. See the preliminary program for the conference in English or in Portuguese. The Forum has been postponed, and the new program and date will be posted here when they are known.

Following up on previous contacts, in April 2001 Peter Knight organized a series of meetings in Brazil for Jeff Cummings, Vice President for International Operations of a leading international e-government software and consulting firm, EzGov, headquartered in Atlanta and having offices in London and Amsterdam. Peter Knight is currently an authorized seller of EzGov software and services. Taco de Vries, then Director of Sales and Development of TrustWorks Systems, participated in meetings in Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.

In August 2002 Peter Knight, under a consultancy with the World Bank, delivered a paper on e-government and citizen empowerment in Brazil to Yasuhiko Matsuda, Senior Public Sector Specialist in the  World Bank's Brazil Country Management Unit in Brasília.

In February 2003, Telemática e Desenvolvimento Ltda. began work on developing a public-private-NGO partnership to develop a network of telecenters in the Amazon Region to bring e-learning, telemedicine, and other e-government services to a the population of Brazil's most isolated region through satellite-based digital television and broadband Internet connections.

Below are some photos from the April 2001 meetings in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Campinas, and São Paulo.

Left to Right: Taco de Vries, Jeff Cummings, Hélio Brasileiro (Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration for Governmental Action), Solon Lemos Pinto (Executive Chairman of the Federal Government's e-Gov Commission), and Tatiana Rosito (Advisor to the Chief of the Presidential Staff)  in Hélio Brasileiro's office at the Planalto Palace in Brasília	Jeff Cummings \and Taco de Vries after the meeting at the Planalto Palace in Brasília
Jeff Cummings presents EzGov to Paulo Emílio de Oliveira e Silva, Director of Voga Voga Consultoria e Informática and Luiz Flaviano dos Santos, Director of Public Sector Marketing, IBM Brasil, and Taco de Vries	Taco de Vries presents arguments for an alliance between TrustWorks Systems and Módulo e-Security, the leading Brazilian network security firm at Módulo's Rio de Janeiro offices
Jeff Cummings presents EzGov to group at Infomática de Municípios Associados in Campinas, São Paulo	Ali Chahin and Jeff Cummings discuss EzGov at the Secretariat of Finance of São Paulo State Government

[e-Government in Brazil] [e-Learning in Brazil] [Brazil CAE] [Brazil PPPs]

[African Cultural Heritage] [Consultancy]