A Sociedade da Informação e do Conhecimento: Análise de Enquadramento no Algarve[The Information and Knowledge Society: Analysis of guidelines in the Algarve]

The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a crucial role in the world today. Globalization as we know it and the emergence of so-called Information and Knowledge Society are the direct consequence of radical technological innovations that led to the development of the Internet and revolutionized the dominant paradigm for accelerating the flow and increasing the intensity of contacts and exchanges. However, in this new society old problems remain, the exclusion takes new forms, the info-exclusion, generating a Digital Divide. Noting the importance of ICT to a wider integration, the EU has given emphasis to actions on this issue, in particular with the Lisbon Strategy and the eEurope Action Program. In Portugal this interest has been felt with the establishment of an Operational Program Topic in the CSF III (originally called POSI then renamed POS_C). This work aims to summarize the end of this issue by introducing a look on the Algarve region, compared with other regions of the Atlantic Area in central aspects as the behavior of citizens, firms, municipalities, schools, museums and the tourist accommodation.