The Brazilian Association of Distance Education - ABED is a non-profit scientific organizatin established in June 31, 1995 by a group of educators interested in distance education and new learning technologies.

Its main goals are:

• Stimulating the practice and development of distance education projects in all its forms;
• Encouraging the practice of the highest quality of services provided to students, teachers, institutions and companies that use distance education;
• Supporting the "knowledge industry" in Brazil, aiming at reducing unequalities caused by isolation and distance from large urban centers;
• Promoting the use of different media in delivering distance education;
• Fostering a spirit of openness, creativity, innovation, credibility and experimentation in the practice of distance education.

The target audiences of ABED are organizations, companies, universities and people interested in discussing and deepening distance education-related knowledge.

In order to achieve this, ABED organizes conferences, seminars, scientific meetings and courses geared to the systematization and dissemination of knowledge about DE.

ABED is a member of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science - SBPC and member of international institutions, among which the International Council For Open and Distance Education - ICDE, for which it organized in São Paulo, in the year 2000 the international meeting for leaders of organizations that use distance education. This meeting was held together with the 7th International ABED Conference and the ICDE Latin-American Conference.

The ABED webpage in the Internet brings the "Brazilian Magazine on Open and Distance Learning", in three languages dedicated to DE scholars, texts and works on DE, calendar of events, clipping of news from main newspapers, links related to DE and distance courses addresses. The webpage is constantly updated always with a focus on its members and people who intend to get involved in this area of pedagogical knowledge (www.abed.org.br).

ABED is made up of the following categories of members: Individual Members: individuals interested in the promotion of distance education as an instrument of progress in democratic societies; Institutional Members: organizations interested in ABED objectives; Honorary Members: individuals or organizations of recognized knowledge that, for this reason, are honored by ABED and Supporting Members: organizations that provide significant support to expand the work performed by ABED.

Therefore, the greatest goal of the Association is to increase shared knowledge about distance education and the belief that this education mode is already a reality and the education paradigm that fits the great changes of this millennium.

ABED administrative headquarter is located in São Paulo, but 16 Centers located in different Brazilian states provide the national representation of the Association, enabling broad coverage for its activities.