Planning for real: ICT as a tool in urban regeneration

One of the major worldwide issues in the informal settlements has been spotted in the absence or weakness of community awareness. The problem can be analysed through different perspectives, related to security and social behaviours, environmental care and energy consumption. In such a complex scenario, it has been considered that one of the biggest difficulties for the planning units of municipalities in metropolitan areas, who deal with illegal and marginal settlements upgrading projects, is to face with frictions and resistances in some degree to their decisions, projects and actions. In order to increase the awareness of citizenship, ICT can be considered as a revolutionary support in this context. Low cost and friendly tools could help to upgrade the educational level of low incoming people, opening the communities and increasing the sense of belonging to a urban context as well as a neighbourhood. Digital democracy through digital inclusion and e-learning can be aimed in order to let citizen know, participate, share, improve or criticise projects and actions. The paper reflects on a project submitted by the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and the Universidade Federal do ABC (SP – Brazil) to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Scientific Research Ministry of Brazil, whose objective was to provide technological solutions for digital inclusion within the favelas of Osasco (SP).