Handbook of research on social software and developing community ontologies by Stylianos Hatzipanagos, Steven Warburton

This might be useful:

Handbook of Research on Social Software and Developing Community Ontologies by Stylianos Hatzipanagos and Steven Warburton. Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2009. ISBN 1605662089, 9781605662084. As all IGI books seem to be very expensive, better ask the library to buy it.

The book on the publisher’s site.

Guardian article about project combatting loneliness

Guardian article:

A remarkable experiment is getting people visiting one another again, and its radical lessons could boost public services.

The article.

The project site.

BBC Memoryshare

My meeting at the BBC on Friday about timelines was useful in various ways. Most relevant to your research was Memoryshare, which enables anyone to note a memory and to see everyone else’s.

When you click on a memory, the window that then opens allows you to see the full text of the person’s reminiscence and a window of related items pulled automatically from a number of sources.

News item about growth in social networking etc.

This news item has one or two useful things about the growth in social networking and users’ difficulty in managing their various sources of connections.

Losing independence is a bigger ageing worry than dying (YouGov poll)

Hardly a surprising result, but apparently losing independence is a bigger ageing worry than dying, according to a YouGov poll.

The survey was done on behalf of the Disabled Living Foundation (DLF), who have a page of key facts with links to the sources of the information.

Visit at MoDA with Ruby

At the weekend (Sunday 6th Dec) I took my 85-year-old friend Ruby to MoDA (Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture). Only recently she started to get a bit confused, asking me several times something she would normally remember. This may also have been because she had a bad cold and still felt the after effects. I took her by car to the museum.

Even though there is only one main exhibition room there was a lot if not too much to take in for her. She was very glad about the sofa at the end of the room where she was able to rest after 15 minutes of arriving. When we entered the room she was very pleased to see a Singer sewing machine. She owned one of those! Memories came back. Then we looked at the drawers with wallpaper designs. The drawers were a bit difficult to open for her and with the light in the room she had trouble reading the labels. She wears glasses. But I also got the impression that her cataract got worse.

Ruby liked the idea of reading comments by other people, but the handwriting and the light in the room made it difficult for her to read it by herself. She quickly lost interest. In front of another display she wanted know which items were what, but didn't find any descriptions. MoDA had an A4 card near the display, which worked like a menu index, but she wasn't able to work it out how to use it.

The kitchenette, an all-in-one kitchen cupboard from the 1930s, was the highlight for her because it was large and tactile – and yes, she immediately touched it and then read out the label "Do not touch!".

Ruby definitely enjoyed herself, but with the soft and dim light in the exhibition room and the differing position of the labels and explanations of the items, it wasn't easy for her to follow the exhibition.

All in all it was a very enjoyable experience! Thanks Ruby for allowing me to write about our day.

Meeting with Garth - 74 years old

Last week I met with Garth (name changed by the editor) to have a chat about how he uses Facebook and any other social networking sites. I also ran my early design concepts (verbally) past him to gather some initial reactions.

Garth was exposed to using a computer in his 50s for work, but then never had to again. His friend inspired him saying it was so easy, so Garth also enrolled in a computer class at the age of 65 years. He had a bit of a fear using the computer and maybe pressing the wrong button, but what really helped him was when one of the computers broke and the teacher had to open up the computer unit. He then realised that all the pieces just slotted in and it was like a simple jigsaw. Proudly he explained how he had fixed the fan of his current computer since.

Now he hasn't got a fear any more, but feels frustration or anger when the computer doesn't do what it's supposed to do. (Note: we all feel that or?!) Garth doesn't mind loosing data. He keeps the most important things on his USB stick, so if ever anything happens he'd be alright.

He's an avid user of ancestry.co.uk. He has 6 grandchildren, by his two daughters who live in Australia. It's his hobby to research about the family and he keeps them uptodate (though his grandchildren don't show any interest in his research to his disappointment).
His friends on facebook are mainly his grandchildren. He sees pictures of them 'having a good time'. He feels close to them because he virtually sees them when they are relaxed and happy. In some ways he thinks it's nicer to get a message from his granddaughter than meeting her face-to-face. (There is a notion that face-to-face is more controlling and this way the grandchildren can just be as they are and they don't hide anything).

When he writes to his grandchildren he only writes 3-4 lines so it doesn't “bore or scare” them. He usually uses the comment box. He always writes back to them as soon as possible when they have written to him. (I noticed that he didn't distinguish between messages and comments and I think he only uses comments and didn't even know about messages or any of the other features).

Overall he disapproves of Facebook and he only does it for his grandchildren. He doesn't like seeing all the pictures of his oldest grandchild drunk at a party. He also wondered why the friends of his grandchildren would invite him. He thinks that it must the cool factor when he accepts it because they'd have a friend from another part of the world.

He doesn't use Skype yet. He plays solitaire or "free cell" quite a bit, well lots!, but he is not interested in multiplayer games - maybe when he's lonely one day, but he doesn't feel that way now.

He wouldn't know what to do without a computer - loves his computer so he can be in contact and research his family history. He uses the message board in ancestry quite a bit, where people you don't know can email you because they found a something of interest in your family tree. But it seemed that he didn't perceive it as anything similar to Facebook where you can connect with people.

I asked him what elements a website should have so he likes to be in contact with his grandchildren and other friends. He said lots of pictures, emails (for letter writing) and comments for 2 line messages and images that you can view in a slideshow. I explained the ‘weather idea’ to him. He wasn't too interested since the weather is always nice where his relatives are in Australia and he has mostly rain. He was more interested in understanding the time differences at a glance.
He very much liked the idea of showing visuals that could trigger memories. He continued telling me about a pressure cooker his sisters used and he will never forget how it looked before and after. He would like to be able to write about his memories and could also imagine expressing them in different ways. (I ran out of time to ask him in which other ways)

Weekly updates of ‘memory reminders’? He wasn't sure about the weekly timing. Garth thinks that he might use it at the beginning but then it might become tedious in the long run. (Here I got the impression that it's really important to allow people to choose the time frame they like to browse in. An idea that I'm already working on).

Useful meeting with Age Concern Barnet

It was good to meet Mark Robinson and Lisa Dubow from Age Concern Barnet.

They are happy to assist me with my research. Firstly, they will send out in their (paper based) newsletter the invitation to take part in the online survey.
In January I will be able to sit in one of their computer classes.
I told them that I plan to run some early concepts past computer users and would like to hold a user workshop latest near April for this. Age Concern Barnet offered that I can use their computer room as a location for the workshop. The computer room is a fairly large room where they have 4 computers.

I asked them about the types of computer classes they offer. They have a beginner class (which means real beginners i.e. questions such as where to switch on the computer are dealt with) and one advanced class, where people usually want things like having images scanned in. The classes are small in numbers (4 people at the time) and "organic" i.e. not structured like normal classes, but responding to individual wishes & needs. When I asked what the motivation is for people to come to the computer classes Lisa explained that there are some people who know from their grandchildren (or other younger people) what is possible on the computer but don't want to have it shown by them because they are too quick in explaining. The main motivation for learning using a computer is to stay in contact and to communicate with relatives.

The people who come to the Barnet day centre events are ‘in very general terms’: female, white and over 75 years. In comparison Age Concern Barnet have for their computer classes more men and people from different ethnic background joining them.

I would like to thank Lisa and Mark for sharing the information with me.

Screen reader user survey results

WebAIM's second screen reader user survey received 665 responses and highlighted many insights into real-world screen reader usage. It explores a range of criteria around screen reader usage and preferences and is a must-read for anyone working in accessibility.

Read survey results

Sleep changes with aging

A little note aside, but I thought it might be interesting...

Aging is associated with well described changing in sleep patterns.

• Total sleep time decreases, elderly sleep less
• It takes longer before falling a sleep
• Elderly go to bed earlier and they awake earlier
• Their sleep architecture has changed, the slow wave sleep on EEG is reduced, REM sleep is reduced
• They’re easier aroused from sleep
• They sleep fragmented with many arousals
• Daytime napping

Also the prevalence of many sleep disorders increases with age e.g. Insomnia.

Read abstract from the Sleep clinic in Montreal here

SimpliciITy - a simple computer interface for people over 50 years

A new computer system aimed at older generations is being launched to encourage more people to use the internet. The operating system is constructed from Linux.

read article here

View what the software developer Liam Proven says.

View what Betty Parson (80 years) says about it.

Program of the Contact-the-Elderly-conference 28th October 2009

Title: The befriending options for isolated, older people and the benefits of regular social interaction

14.00
Welcome Roderick Sime and Gemma MacNulty (Contact the Elderly)
14.15
The Benefits of Social Interaction for Older People
Professor Sian Maslin-Prothero, Keele University
Overview of research evidencing benefits of social interaction for older people (30 mins)

Social Isolation and Older Adults' mental health
Michelle Hamill, Clinical Psychologist, East London NHS Foundation Trust
How different befriending services are used when working with people suffering from depression. (15 mins)

Q&A (15 mins)
15.15
Coffee Break (30 mins)

15.45 Different befriending services for different people

Steve GoldenSmith, Voluntary Sector Development Manager
Why preventative services are important (15 mins)

Janice Telfer, London Development Officer (10 mins)
The benefits of Contact the Elderly’s small group befriending service

Shirley Rice, Befriending Coordinator (10 mins)
The benefits of Age Concern Barking & Dagenham’s 1-1 befriending scheme

Jules Attanayake, Telebefriending Manager (10 mins)
The benefits of Friends of the Elderly’s telebefriending scheme

Q&A

17.00 Surgery - Opportunity to meet CTE, Age Concern Barking & Dagenham and Friends of the Elderly to discuss their services

Summary of the Contact-the-Elderly conference

A couple of talks of the The-contact-the -elderly conference were very interesting.

Professor Sian Maslin-Prothero's project is a New Dynamics of Aging project and has a team of 6 people. They work on "Community action in Later life" - Manchester Engagement (CALL-ME)
The study adopts a participatory action design approach. (In the break I asked her about the meaning of 'action' in her approach and she explained that even the people in her team have different interpretations of the meaning of the approach. She was not familiar with participatory design without the word 'action'. )
During her talk she gave an example of how they had an early success with their research. They worked with a housing association which provided living space mostly for people over 60years. They usually lived in 1 bed flats. When speaking to the residents, they found that the majority would love to do some gardening. There was a communal garden, but it consisted only of plain lawn and shrubs. The team of researchers helped the residents to organise themselves in order to talk to the housing association and to apply for a grant (for seeds etc) and now the residents can decide how to develop the garden, plant flowers, vegetables and look after it.
Professor Maslin-Prothero pointed out that research findings show how important neighbourhood becomes in later life and that cultural requirements play an important role. For the latter she gave the example of people who have traveled around the world and some who stayed in only one place their whole life.

Another extremely interesting talk was by Steve GoldenSmith. He presented his case how he fights for prevention of ill-health or disability of the older population in Buckinghamshire. He described the problem of the increasing number of older people but less funding for social services overall. At the moment projects only get funding when they can show evidence and with "prevention" it is harder to proof the success. With some cynicsm he talked about a couple of projects where government had a top to bottom, one size fits all approach, which were ineffective because they didn't consider the individuals circumstances or made a distinction between a home resident or living independently at home. According to him our life expectancy is reduced by 7 years when we get into a care home.
He also talked about the government policy for 2010 where they will introduce SDS (self-directed service). Which means rather an official assessing the individual's situation of need of care and then to ensure that services are in place, the official will assess the individuals needs and provide them with cash, so the individual can make their own choices about which service to use.
The idea behind is to reduce cost (from the council's point of view) and to create more competition in the social services market. Obviously, the decision process will now lay with the individual or the individual's family, where Steven also sees an issue with the decision burden (the audience was also very skeptical about SDS). He stated however, that this policy will be implemented despite concerns since government needs to save money.

Audience reaction to SDS was that all charities and social service will need to work more closely together, to support the individuals and to provide them with the choices so they can make an informed decision.

My gut reaction to this is that recommendations / word of mouth / reports on other people's experience in similar situation will be getting more important. The Internet is known for a place where people can exchange opinions. This could be the place where someone who is Internet savvy can get information on several services and compare the choices. However, it will still not help the person who might have the feeling that they have made the wrong choice and who run out of time to correct it.

What happens to our online identity when we die?

Just a couple of thoughts that crept up the other day in conversation with fellow researchers:

What happens to our online identity when we die? Apparently, Facebook "memorializes the account" as soon as they are notified about someone's death. People are still able to leave messages on their profile.

This also led me to wondering about those people who have online banking accounts, but haven't kept any paper trail about it. How will relatives know which online services the deceased person was using? When do businesses decide to stop the service?


Another thought I had was about digital identities, celebrity status and old age. Would it be fair to say that someone old can now become famous because they use applications like Facebook, Twitter or Youtube ? Does the desire to be famous reduce with age? I think Ivy Bean didn't mean to become famous, but I believe she enjoys the press and the attention about her - at least that's what the care home manager explained to me.

I have the feeling that this topic could be a PhD in itself.

Broadband use

Yet another survey of broadband nation-by-nation referred to in IT Pro. Might be useful.

Brain training for the elderly better on paper or on the computer?

I'm going to re-direct you here to another blog, which is based on the paper: Brain Training for Silver Gamers: Effects of Age and Game Form on Effectiveness, Efficiency, Self-Assessment, and Gameplay Experience Cyberpsychology &behaviour.

I'm trying to locate the paper and have found the journal, but don't seem to find the actual paper. If one of you could help me. Thanks!

Internet access August report (Office for National Statistics)

My summary

2009 National Statistics Opinions (Omnibus) survey

• 18.31 million (70%) UK households had Internet access
• Of those households with Internet access, 90 percent had a broadband connection in 2009, an increase from 69 per cent in 2006.
• The number of adults who had never accessed the Internet fell to 10.2 million adults (21 per cent) in 2009
• The largest increase in the proportion of those accessing the Internet was in the oldest age group (65plus) 15%, compared with 3 % for the 16-24 age group
• 52 % of the age group 65plus are using the Internet every day or almost every day
• 2009 shows a boom in social networking: newsgroups, chat, posting message or self-created content
• An increase from 24 % to 40 % of recent Internet users who uploaded self-created content
• 42% of recent users listen to web radio or watching web television
• The most popular purchase for the oldest age group were books, magazines newspapers or e-learning material

Download full report

Likeability

Searching for something else in the ACM Digital Library my eye was caught by the word likeability, which we have discussed often. A 2008 paper by Sutcliffe and Namoune Getting the message across: visual attention, aesthetic design and what users remember relates likeability to other aspects.

Narrative in-depth research

There’s an obituary in today’s Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/sep/23/dennis-marsden-obituary which has a tangential relevance to our project. Marsden seems to have been a pioneer of the discursive interview process in the social sciences. There is often a tension between breadth and depth in research and Marsden might make an interesting argument for the value of the depth-based approach.
  

3 interesting articles - all to do with the brain

Gordon and Stephen pointed 3 articles out to me. For reasons of completeness I'm adding them to the blog.

Can a daily pill really boost your brain power? - Observer 20th Sept
Read article

Twitter, YouTube damage working memory - ITpro 7th Sept
Read article

How to boost your brain power - The Guardian 21st Sept
Read article

The Reminiscene bump

I only learnt recently through Sarah Reed (Contact-the-Elderly trustee and runs her business with the memory cards) about the reminiscence bump.

Wiki definition:
"The reminiscence bump is the effect in the temporal distribution of autobiographical memory revealed in research by David Rubin and others that people tend to recall more personal events from adolescence and early adulthood (10-25 years) than personal events from other lifetime periods."


Recently she published an interesting blog Leeds univeristy research and how people remember the Beatles.
have a read.

Chat with Patricia Wright - care home manager where Ivy the 104 year old twitterer lives

I gave the Hillside Manor Care home a call to find out if there were anymore care homes in London who are similarly proactive about getting their residents involved in online activities.

I spoke to Patricia Wright who is the care home manager. She appears to be a very passionate woman who loves her work. She joined the care home 7 years ago and turned lots of things around.
"7 years ago they were just sitting there and watching TV" Patricia explained. She had to motivate staff that things can be different and also the residents because they didn't know that it could be any different. (This reminded me a bit of ‘learnt helplessness’) She started a series of activities such as culture nights, exercise classes, scrabble nights, news paper discussion, a beautician coming in, the over 75years Olympics and more.

She introduced the computer to have more options to do for the residents. Patricia's view was: "I don't see any reason why they can’t use computers". The care home currently has 1 laptop and staff and residents share it. Ivy loves Facebook and Twitter. Another woman likes looking at the website for the Vatican. Another man who goes to his photography class uses the computer to upload his photos and other person just enjoy playing games on it. Some of the residents (e.g. Ivy) can use the computer by themselves, but there is always a member of staff nearby who can come and help when they get stuck.

Patricia explains how the care home would need 3 laptops, so more residents can join in.
According to Patricia it must be harder for older people who live by themselves to use a computer because the fear factor ("I have broken something") would be greater. The care home with staff is a safe place in that respect.

The Manor Hill care home is partly private, partly DSS funded. They have 19 residents and 17 staff of which 4 /5 people are always on shift. Patricia has so many staff because she runs a training program for carers sponsored by Help the Aged.
She also said she couldn't do all these things (Olympics etc.) if she hadn't got this highly motivated team of staff.

The telephone interview took place on 11.09.09 between 12:00 - 12:30pm. I would like to thank Patricia Wright for all the information provided.

Learn about the oldest twitter user

Watch the CNN video of 104 year old Ivy Bean

Watch the video

Facebook in major privacy clampdown

Over the next year Facebook will implement changes on how personal data is used.

Read article

The overuse of the word "participatory"

Here’s a 2 minutes video from Kru Research (lobal think tank focused on "empowered patients") showing that the age of "participatory medicine" has begun.

I'm wondering if they can call this change on applied medicine "participatory" - they are not designing anything new and was there a lot of 'collaboration' with the patient? Offering websites that allow patients to inform themselves doesn't create consensus.

see video

Maybe it should be called: empower the patient to be able to read up on what they have been told by the doctor, but not necessarily understood or forgotten.

SMS PhD: 'pointless' text messages analysed

A PhD has just been completed looking at the language of txts. Interesting emphasis on pointlessness in the title of the article, though whether this is actually important in the PhD itself is unclear.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/5982272/SMS-Phd-pointless-text-messages-analysed.html

Why does pointlessness matter? It may be (or may not), as we have said before, that older users expect there to be an extrinsic purpose in electronic communication, whereas younger users do not. I don't know if this researcher looked at the age of the texters, but might be worth asking.

See that book I keep mentioning: Robin Dunbar, Grooming Gossip and the Evolution of Language.

Article in Interactions magazine

This might be useful in itself or have some useful pointers:

Supporting healthy aging with new technologies
Brian D. Jones
Claudia Rébola Winegarden
Wendy A. Rogers

interactions
Volume 16, Issue 4 (July + August 2009)
The Waste Manifesto

SECTION: The value of culture

Pages 48-51

Year of Publication: 2009

ISSN:1072-5520

http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1551986.1551996

What is Social Networking now?

One of the issues we may need to discuss when we meet is what we now mean by Social Networking. I don’t think this need be a problem, but we may need to clarify the difference between Social Networking as an idea (which I think is what we are about) and Social Networking systems which are increasingly being used for anything and everything including business, political campaigns, CSCW and so on.

An interview with the father of social networking

With Facebook, 25 year-old Mark Zuckerberg, turned a dorm-room diversion into a cultural phenomenon. His next goal? To finally turn the company profitable.

Read here

Using Provocative Conceptual Designs to Foster Human-centred Innovation

Came across this recent PhD which might be useful in considering how to support participatory design without ending up with the lowest common denominator.

"A Critical Artefact Methodology: Using Provocative Conceptual Designs
to Foster Human-centred Innovation"

available online at http://www.simon-bowen.com/?page_id=40

Chris Rust at Sheffield Hallam writes:
Simon's work explores some practical implications of the critical design methods developed by Dunn and Raby, Bill Gaver and others. He has synthesised and evaluated ways for designers to use provocative concepts, "Crazy Ideas" as he describes them, to stimulate stakeholders to engage in productive speculation about aspirations and needs that might not be revealed by more conventional user research techniques. In particular he positions the designer at the centre of his methods, tacitly "processing" the insights from stakeholder workshops into new, more relevant design concepts to stimulate further rounds of stakeholder thinking, rather than relying on explicit analysis.

To support this Simon has developed a description of such processing based on Michael Polanyi's theories of tacit knowledge in action. I find this a most useful building block in the body of work being done here at Sheffield Hallam by myself and Nicola Wood with more to come from Rizal Rahman and Cigdem Kaya whose PhD studies are extending it in different directions. You can find this description on pages 171-173 of the thesis: 6.2.4 Designing as ‘processing’ and Polanyi’s indwelling

I've developed a short account of how Simon's work has stimulated my own thinking on how Rittel and Webber's work on wicked problems might be a basis for design methods, prompted by members of this discussion list who have suggested that wicked problems might be interesting but don't seem to provide help with methods.
http://chrisrust.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/an-argumentative-process/

Best wishes from Sheffield
Chris

...............................................................
Professor Chris Rust FDRS
Head of Art and Design
Sheffield Hallam University, S1 2NU, UK
+44 114 225 6772
chris@chrisrust.net
http://chrisrust.wordpress.com/

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the
future of the human race. - H. G. Wells

Silversurfers on Facebook

The revolution magazine - Read here

Age concern group Hornsey Vale

I picked up a leaflet at my local library that Age Concern has regular meetings on Tuesday mornings. There was a telephone number, but I thought before I make my visit too official, I just go and have a look.

The woman at the reception was very friendly and introduced me to the group of older people with: "This is Marianne, she studies for a PhD and she would like to ask you some questions about the Internet"

There were about 8 people in the room - 7 women, 1 man – there was mix of ethnic backgrounds, age ranged from over 65 to 80 (am guessing here). Only one woman (around 66 years) uses the Internet. She used to work in testing software programs and that's why she started using the Internet already in 1995. She also organises India volunteering trips. For this she uses email, but only for communication. She mentioned how people sometimes miss out because they don't have an email address. She has just installed Skype and has already tried out the "online typing" with a friend in Canada. The other people in the room nuttered how they really don't need the Internet. There would be no reason - no point, don't need it, we have telephone. They don't have relatives far away, so they don't need to send pictures over the net. And you don't have to learn how to use the Internet. (I'm wondering if there is a notion of as long as the 'authority is not telling us to do so, we don't need to it' - how would it be if the government 'forces' people to go online? Like the digital switch over?)

One woman briefly explained how she tried to learn, but then didn't know what to do on the Internet. I mentioned things such as checking opening hours, telephone numbers - others liked the idea. The discussion changed (initiated by one of the women) to owning a mobile phone and using it. Most had a mobile because everybody expects you to have one and when something happens everybody expects you to call from your mobile. The man told me how he didn't have a phone for the last 65 years, and he lived happily using only the phone boxes.

Games could be an interesting angle

Hi,

I'm catching with reading papers (which I had downloaded a while ago...) - in one particular paper by Joy Goodman - they did a survey in Scotland about older people's computer use (online and on paper). For the me the most interesting results:

* 47% of older users like simple games (solitare) - in my survey I had 2 people saying scrabble as interest, could be an interesting angle to motivate users to take part

* Jargon and complex language could be seen as a greater barrier than physical barriers - which confirms my assumption that language in the interface plays a crucial point

* Most older computer users learnt computer use through a course - call to review the design of courses to include certain topics

would love to be able to attach the pdf, but this is not possible on blog spot
full title: OLDER ADULTS’ USE OF COMPUTERS: A SURVEY

Trust and Credibility

I'm catching up with reading and searching for papers etc
this one is a relevant paper, though from 2000 - it emphasizes how choosing the participants for PD is important and to generate trust and credibility... the users had a 12 week computer training course before starting the PD phase

Title: Increasing the Usability of Online Information for Older Users: A Case Study in Participatory Design
Authors: Ellis, R. Darin,Kurniawan, Sri H.
Source: International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
Date: 2000

Abstract: Describes a participatory design (PD) study aimed at making display formats of Web sites that is user-friendly for older users in the United States. Methodology of PD; Impact of the flexibility of the presentation and organization of Web information on the older user population; Value of the scientific literature on older computer users.

Effects of the recession on older consumers (50+)

From Dick Strout's Marketing 50+ newsletter:

Note: Not sure how he investigated, but for me it was interesting to read again that most of the savings and investment assets are with people over 50+ years

Summary
Over 25% say the recession has had little or no effect with a third reporting that they have not changed their spending patterns.

Over 60% say the recession has resulted in them only making a few cutbacks in their expenditure.

Despite older people holding 80% of savings and investment assets in the UK, the fall in interest rates has seriously affected only 20% of respondents.

Not all of the news is so positive - 12% have cut back drastically on spending.

The banks and the Labour Government are blamed for the economic problems resulting in a significant swing to the Conservatives and minority parties.

The 50-plus are giving far more financial support to their families than they are receiving.

Charitable donations have been badly, and I mean badly, hit by the recession.

read more

In the US, even the homeless stay connected

from another blog - but I thought this was very interesting:
Homeless and online The Wall Street Journal reports on the use of the internet by homeless people in San Francisco.

“A few years ago, some people were worrying that a “digital divide” would separate technology haves and have-nots. The poorest lack the means to buy computers and Web access. Still, in America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses.”

The photos are great, and so are some of the quotes:

“When he realized he would be homeless, Mr. Livingston bought a sturdy backpack to store his gear, a padlock for his footlocker at the shelter and a $25 annual premium Flickr account to display the digital photos he takes.”

But it also shows to what extent the internet in the developed world is still a computer-based phenomenon, in contrast to emerging markets where it is largely mobile.

Full story

article on memory cards

Timesoneline article

There is allegedly an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report on trust and online shopping, though I cannot actually find it on the OFT site, so don't know if it has anything about age....

http://www.itpro.co.uk/610796/internet-users-have-trust-issues-about-shopping-online?CMP=NLC-Newsletters

NESTA's Age Unlimited programme

NESTA's Age Unlimited programme "is the first strand of work to emerge from NESTA's Public Service Innovation Lab. It targets people in their fifties to find ways to extend employment opportunities and to facilitate transition to other roles and interests. All of these serve as preconditions to staying physically fit, emotionally well, financially secure, loved and cared for."

http://www.nesta.org.uk/age-unlimited-launch/

UX magazine

I finally got hold of the UX user experience magazine dedicated to the topic 'How old are older users?'...

Really interesting articles - quite a bit we know already i.e. the aging process, design guidelines

The article 'Web 2.0 for an older population' looks at social networking sites and here I found for the first time a 2008 statistic on how many Facebook users over 65years old there are...

UK has the highest penetration (in percentage) with 83,060 users which makes 0.85% of the UK population. Compared with the USA 221,000 users (0.57%) and Germany 4700 users (0.02%) - which has the lowest penetration.

The article also points out how older users relate better to the word 'community' rather than social 'networking'...

I will also check out the social networking sites aimed at older people they've listed: Eons, Boomertown, Multiply and Boomj

Government report (context)

This govt report has a section on digital inclusion that might be useful for scene-setting:
Digital Britain: The Interim Report
p60 has a page about government attitude to the issue.

Short paper from 2004

Not sure if you have this one already, but it is a short paper about social interaction for elders. Wrong emphasis for you because it is about cognitive decline, but may have a couple of useful things anyway: Catalyzing social interaction with ubiquitous computing: a needs assessment of elders coping with cognitive decline http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/985921.986011

BBC article on online video

One point of the article that caught my attention:
"Towards the end of last year, social networking sites - such as Facebook and My Space - overtook adult sites in terms of popularity.

"Adult content makes up around 10%, whereas social networking sites are in excess of that. "

Read article

Baltimore Longitudinal study

The section on 'personality' is interesting.

Read report

Negative opinions about old people may affect health

Younger adults who think of old people as helpless, feeble or forgetful are more likely to experience strokes, heart attacks and other health problems when they grow old themselves, researchers at Yale University report.

Baltimore longitudinal study on aging

Read article

Some of comments beneath the article are also interesting

Chat with Sarah Reed

Sarah Reed will be turning 60 years this year. She was previously a brand manager for design strategies and now she’s running her own company "Many happy returns". She’s a volunteer for CtE (Contact the Elderly) and drives her 3 older ladies to the monthly tea parties. She also writes her own blog on older people and their place in British society. http://theagepage.typepad.com/the_age_page/age_rage/

In my telephone interview with her, she described how she has 3 elderly women she looks after through CtE. One is 99 years, the other 96 and the third lady is in her Mid-80s.
Sarah thinks it’s very challenging to design something for them based on a computer. She confirmed the notion of ‘social pruning’ for the 3 women. They still live independently but friends have moved away, no or only few relatives that live far away, so people locally are important. They take part in CtE to have contact with other people. She explained that the elderly women never call her. She always has to call them. She said their reasons are that the women think that they interrupt Sarah and it would be too expensive to speak.

Sarah explained that she runs workshops with children in the kindergarten and where she tells them to imagine how it was when people were born in the period from 1910- 1920 – no electricity, no running water, shower, bath etc

Sarah described the elderly women's generation: Respect for the authority, very private, doing their duty, don’t want to be a burden, hard grafters, women wouldn't go into a ‘public house’. They are used to face-to-face meetings. She explained how a vast majority of seniors from this generation don’t claim benefits (for which they’d need to fill in the form).

Items that make life easier were introduced throughout the 1960s, so this generation was already 50 years old. Computers are commercially easily only available for the last 12 years, so it’s understandable that the update it very low.

Sarah has a 92 years old auntie who uses a laptop. Sarah explained how money is very important. Some of the women from CtE only live on about £90 a week. It would be difficult to afford a computer, broadband and accessories.

Sarah also mentioned the example of an older and well-educated man (GP). She was in frequent contact with him and he saw her using her laptop. At the beginning he seemed to have been terrified of her laptop, but became eventually interested in trying out the laptop. However, just typing took him such a long while that he became frustrated and stopped being interested. Sarah also mentioned how eyesight is an important factor for computer use.

I'd like to thank Sarah for sharing her insights and information with me.

Generation game

Have you heard of 'many happy returns' before?
It's a card game that is supposed to connect the generations. The cards show visuals / icons from the 1940. It could be interesting to look at these card to get a feeling for the design and the look and feel.

http://www.manyhappyreturns.org/howworks.do/howworks

P.s. It reminds me a little bit of Monty Python's Meaning of life - the discussion cards for the couple

Types of users

Some projects seem to have found it useful to categorise users into a set of types. A project at the BBC that I learned about on Thursday included these types of child user (of a virtual environment): explorer-investigators, self-stampers, social climbers, fighters, collector-consumers, life-system builders, nurturers.

We should consider whether a taxonomy of types of user (or alternatively modes of use) would be useful in your project.

19 Feb 2009

On of those health scares that some scientists love to use to increase their media profile:

"Social networking sites could be harming people's health by reducing levels of face-to-face contact, an expert has claimed.

"Sites such as Facebook set out to enrich social lives, but end up keeping people apart, according to Dr Aric Sigman.

"Lack of "real" social networking, involving face-to-face interaction, may have wide-ranging biological effects, he argues."

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/concern%20over%20networking%20sites/2962767

Old and young use Internet differently (in US)

US survey - includes link to a PDF file of the 5 page report.

Excerpt:
"Compared with teens and Gen Y, older generations use the internet less for socializing and entertainment and more as a tool for information searches, emailing, and buying products. In particular, older internet users are significantly more likely than younger ones to look online for health information. Health questions drive internet users age 73 and older to the internet just as frequently as they drive Gen Y users, outpacing teens by a significant margin. Researching health information is the third most popular online activity with the most senior age group, after email and online search.

"Internet users ages 33-72 are also significantly more likely than younger users to look online for religious information and are more likely to visit government websites to search for information."

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/generations-online-use-internet-differently-8145/

Useful source of data

This looks useful as a source of data:

http://www.itfacts.biz/

Many items don't make clear which territory they refer to, but as a starting point it looks pretty handy.

Disenchantment with Facebook

I see there has been the first fall in Facebook numbers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7257073.stm

This quote from Nic Howell, deputy editor of industry magazine New Media Age, seems relevant to our interest in users' sense of comfort with a particular style:

"Social networking is as much about who isn't on the site as who is - when Tory MPs and major corporations start profiles on Facebook, its brand is devalued, driving its core user base into the arms of newer and more credible alternatives," he said.

conference

And back so soon!

http://www.cmis.brighton.ac.uk/staff/rng/EuroITV/09_Inclusivity_Workshop/

is worth looking at. One of the contestants is our very own Mark Springett.

Apologies if it's already been posted.

G

Checking in

hello Mike,

it's an interesting article you've sent. "Treat facebook as the British Library of your personal relationships" - I have heard something similar being said about LinkedIn - it would be a way to keep people's current contact details and work positions.

I will check out the "modular man". I believe that this experience can even happen in a small company.

In 'marketing week' I've read how the "Heyday" magzine that targeted over 50's was unsuccessful because it couldn't sustain a large subscription base just on age alone... the article describes how it should have been based on interests of people

I will try to scan that article in.

here is a link to another article (but the same topic)
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/879630/Age-Concern-England-close-Heyday/

godly social networking :-)

Webinar

Mike - thank you for the tip with the Webinar! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the talk with about 64 other participants around the world - including 'Guam' somewhere in the pacific ocean. It was actually my first time of a proper Webinar.

The topic was "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL NETWORKS AND E-DATING: HISTORY, PROBLEMS AND THE POLITICS OF ELECTRONICALLY MEDIATED ENVIRONMENTS" by Celia Romm Livermore.

She checked with the participants who was using facebook, MySpace, Secondlife and Youtube. In this group most of the people used facebook, hardly anyone secondlife.
Her definition for online communities: Online communities that focus on building and verifying social network for whatever purpose - the rise of online communities was a social phenomenon

she categorised the communities as "business service"
* blogging / video service
* group creating service
* virtual consumer communities
* e-dating

She differentiated between 4 places on the axis that defined the nature of the relationship. In the bottom half 'the company' offers space for connecting, but it doesn't get involved. Revenue is generated by advertising. On the top half of the axis 'the company' offers matching services, revenue is generated by offering a service e.g e-dating. I'll show the diagram once I get the presentation.

She explained that Secondlife doesn't fit this categorisation.

She moved on to online dating - where apparently males and females have very different experiences as they found out with a diary study of 17 people. According to her there are more males, than females on online dating sites. Males are more active and aggressive in contacting females. The transition from virtual to face-to-face meetings is very difficult; some men never make the transition.

She continued describing the differences between real life environments and virtual environments and how there is a gap between expectations of truthfulness. The gap is the highest in a communicating environment from one person to another. The gap of expectations is the lowest on a market place - basically people expect to 'ripped off' on a market place face-to-face as well as virtually (e.g. ebay)

She finished on the concept of e-politics and how it accelerated with the event of online communities. She was running out of time then.

I'll check her book out later.

new survey

Hello,

I rebuilt the survey using surveymonkey. It allows some simple logic, but the questions with logic always needs to be placed at the end of a page. And annoyingly they don't allow bolding of words and I'm not able to place a link in descriptive text (only in questions) :-(

Have a look and let me know what you think - I'm not sure if I have solved the networking site questions in the best way. I could also use a matrix like I did for page 4 (Internet access) - or do you think that's too complicated?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JLoIwWOUDjw_2fNJnksDDd2Q_3d_3d

For some strange reason I don't seem to able to access my googlemail account at the moment, so I'm writing from here.

Author status works now

Hello Marianne

As you see, authoring works for me now. Thank you for fixing it.

Sounds like a good conversation at CTE. I shall be very interested to see their report. Did you discover what pays for CTE?

Stephen

My visit at Contact-the-Elderly

I had a lovely chat with Marie - the communications manager at CTE.

This is how CTE works:
Every month on a Sunday afternoon, up to 8 people come together for a tea party. There is the host (a volunteer), 2 drivers (again volunteers) and up to 5 people over 75 years. The elderly get to know the driver very well. In general volunteers stay for a long time with CTE because they build friendships. This all takes place locally. Marie emphasized the aspect of 'community' and the local area.
There is always a coordinator of each group who contacts the development officer for updates. CTE has currently 16 development officers and 350 groups.

Who are the elderly who take part?
80% are 80 years and older, they spent a lot of time at home, have no family or family lives far away, they go out about 2 twice a week (at most), friends left or passed away, majority are women, have some kind of disabilities (sight, wheelchair, hearing)
It's a big step for them to get in contact with CTE

How does CTE get in contact with the elderly people?
CTE gets mainly referrals from social services (the most)*, hospitals, district nurses, other charities (lots from age concern)
Referrals from family friends
They distribute leaflets with mobile libraries, meals on wheels
*social services deals mainly with cases of emergency and no prevention, therefore they like to refer early to other charities

What is the registration process?
Once an initial contact is established the older person needs to fill in a contact form (they provide assistance if older people have problems filling in the form). With this form CTE assesses the social life of the person. They check with the development officers about suitable groups. the older person receives a letter informing them that the group co-ordinator will be contact.

how does CTE know their activities work?
Marie sent me a survey report with interesting results and demographics. Overall, the participants have a feeling of improvement.

Who are the volunteers?
Marie explained that several of her volunteers are between 65 and 75 years. Some of them also use email to stay in contact. Marie sent me a contact for a volunteer who currently writes a blog. http://theagepage.typepad.com/

The online future?
Marie mentioned how the Saga forum has increasing membership numbers. She is open to 'online' ideas as more people will be computer literate and 'online' is another way to communicate. She interested in learning more about my research.

Draft survey

Hello!

I put a draft survey together to collect data on context and online usage patterns for the age group.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/95595/survey-online-usage-patterns

Mike - the intro letter is based on what Irena used in the SPARC survey - so it should feel familiar

I thought of introducing us as a 'Group'. Let me know how you feel about it.

Thanks for your thoughts - in advance!

Marianne

Contact the elderly

Hello,

I expect you all have received an email inviting you to look at this blog. Let me know if it worked.

Have you heard of the "Contact the elderly" volunteer organisation before?

http://www.contact-the-elderly.org.uk/index.php
They seem to be a good place to get in contact with to find people over 75 years old. I assume some of them will have Internet experience.

Do you know anyone who volunteers with them?

thanks
M