Reflections from Ramon Chaves (2025 dg.o Travel Grant Awardee, Ph.D. Student at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Programa de Pós Graduação de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computação)

“Resilience, Inclusion, and Innovation: Latin America’s Pillars at DG.O 2025″
The DG.O 2025 Conference event in Porto Alegre marks a significant milestone. It stands out globally as the first such gathering in the Global South, featuring keynotes and panels on major Latin American initiatives, including high-impact projects from Brazil, Chile, and beyond. Locally, it highlights urban governance achievements: Porto Alegre gained international recognition for its resilience following the late-2024 floods and its pioneering urban administration, most notably the participatory budgeting process initiated in the 1980s, which became a global benchmark for civic engagement well before digital technologies became widespread.
In this event, the Digital Government Society has expanded its efforts toward greater inclusion by offering travel grants to researchers from medium and low HDI countries. One of the recipients this year is Ramon Chaves, a PhD student in the Systems and Computer Engineering Program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Chaves succeeded in having two papers accepted at the conference.
The first paper by Chaves presents a comprehensive literature review and taxonomy of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in the public sector. It maps how innovation and collaboration manifest across different government functions. The taxonomy serves as a helpful framework for future research. According to his review, AI in the public sector is primarily used for predictive analytics, data visualization, and automating repetitive tasks, especially in economic affairs, health, and public security. Most AI implementations address administrative or routine processes. Chaves argues that there is substantial opportunity for broader AI adoption with transformative and disruptive public management innovations, which could significantly enhance service delivery and benefit society.
The second paper explores the case of Lemobs, a Brazilian GovTech startup, and its participation in public technology procurement processes, including those by Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU) – (the Federal Court of Accounts), Correios (Brazilian state-owned postal service), and Copasa (Brazilian sanitation company), using its most relevant product, Sigelu. The lessons learned in this work highlight that project proposals perform best when scope and budget are set in stone, and blurred requirements make your product less competitive. Success also depends on multidisciplinary teams with demonstrable achievements and solutions that blend technological readiness with fresh ideas tailored to specific public-sector needs. Pushing a product to the technological frontier is desirable, but it pays dividends only when it addresses concrete government challenges. Straightforward, engaging storytelling, delivered through polished video demos and succinct slide decks helps evaluators instantly grasp a proposal’s practical value.
The last paper was awarded Best Paper in the new “Digital Government Ecosystem Cases: Collaboration for Enhancing Transformative Innovation and Overcoming Challenges” track, underscoring its impact on the field.
Choosing Porto Alegre as the host city for DG.O 2025 propelled Latin America to the forefront of digital-government innovation, highlighting resilient cities, a longstanding legacy of participatory urban governance, and a strong commitment to academic inclusion. Ramon Chaves’s award-winning research emphasizes how AI and Govtechs like Lemobs redefine public-sector innovation while illustrating the Digital Government Society’s concrete support for early-career scholars.”