This paper presents the preliminary results of the author's research on the challenges the Brazilian society faces, regarding the dissemination and use of the digital technologies of information communication. It discusses the real possibilities of democratic action through the Internet, as well as the `digital gap' between information rich and information poor countries at the international level, and between social groups, at the national levels. The social responsibilities of the information professionals encompassing that of facilitators of knowledge communication to those who need it is thereby stressed, with aims to the democratization of the use of society's information resources.
digital inclusion; information society; social responsibility