On Aug 31st, the Brazilian government launched its first official blog, "Blog do Planalto" (http://blog.planalto.gov.br/sobre-o-blog-do-planalto/). ["Planalto" is a geographical metonymy for the Federal Government - Brazil`s capital, Brasilia, is located on the "Planalto Central" plateau.]
The debut, although a breath of fresh air for the country`s digital communications, may disappoint those looking for a bold cross-media, open-to-participation blog. The blog does not yet receive comments from the public - the official reason being "practical dificulties to implement such interactivity" -, and it is not linked to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Orkut or any other social network, for the time being. This second feature, however, is already and explicitly planned, and shall happen on a "one step at a time" basis. Running on open source software, with its contents licensed under a Creative Commons license (Attribution Share Alike), an optimistic view of Blog do Planalto could classify it as a marvelous gambit towards Data.gov.BR.
For more information contact Daniel Do Amaral Arbix at darbix@stanford.edu