Call for Papers for CHI Workshop on Bridging Practices, Theories, and Technologies to Support Reminiscence 2011

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~danco/remchiwork/

CHI 2011 Workshop
www.chi2011.org

This one-day workshop explores how HCI-related practice and research can understand and support reminiscence. The workshop has two main goals. First, we hope to bring together academics and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds, disciplines, levels of experience, and approaches to studying and supporting reminiscing. Second, we hope to explore a variety of topics around current and potential uses of technology to support reminiscence, including but not limited to:

• understanding people's current practices around reminiscing,
• exploring empirical studies and theories of memory that might inform technology designs,
• presenting, critiquing, and evaluating existing technologies for reminiscence,
• considering how technology might support new reminiscing practices, and
• supporting social aspects of reminiscence.

We are particularly interested in participants from outside the CHI community to foster new perspectives and collaborations. Our plan is to conduct three short discussion-focused panels organized around participants' interests. Those discussions will ground small groups in articulating interesting directions, studies, designs, and outlines of potential grant and book proposals at the intersection of reminiscing and technology


SUBMISSION

Interested participants should mail position papers of up to 6 pages in .pdf versions of the CHI Extended Abstracts format to danco@cs.cornell.edu by January 14, 2011. Papers should clearly express how the authors' participation will further the goals of the workshop: what do authors offer and hope to gain by participating? They should also clearly, but briefly, present participating authors' backgrounds, in order to support our goals of creating a diverse group of participants.


We will notify accepted participants on or before February 11, 2001. A limited amount of funding will be available, primarily to support attendance for people from other disciplines who are not regular CHI attendees. The workshop will be held on Sunday May 8, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Please note that at least one author of an accepted position paper must register for the workshop and for one or more days of the CHI 2011 conference.


IMPORTANT DATES

- Jan 14, 2011: Position papers due
- Feb 11, 2011: Notifications of participation
- Apr 1, 2011: Final versions of position papers (to be shared with other participants)
- May 8, 2011: (Sunday) The workshop! (Here's the list of all workshops.)

- May 9-12 2011: CHI itself

ORGANIZERS

- Dan Cosley, Information Science, Cornell University danco@cs.cornell.edu

- Maurice Mulvenna, School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Ulster md.mulvenna@ulster.ac.uk

- Victoria Schwanda, Information Science, Cornell University vls48@cornell.edu
- S. Tejaswi Peesapati, Information Science, Cornell University stp53@cornell.edu

Call for Papers for Special Issue of Interacting with Computers on "Inclusive Design in the Context of Social Media and Emerging Technologies"

Guest Editors:
Jim Ang and Ania Bobrowicz, School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent
Panayotis Zaphiris, Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts, Cyprus University of Technology
Ben Schneiderman, Human Computer Interaction Laboratory, University of Maryland

Call Description:
Recently we have witnessed an increasing proliferation of new digital technologies such as online social networking sites, micro-blogging and virtual worlds which has changed the way we communicate and interact with each other. Studies are being conducted in order to investigate these interesting socio-technological phenomena.

To date, little research has been published on inclusive design in the context of social networking and emerging technologies. These technologies have the potential to impact positively on the lives of a wide range of people including older people, disabled people, and people from different social and cultural backgrounds. For example, it is claimed that the fastest growing demographic of the social networking sites is women over 55 years old (Facebook Global Monitor, 2009).

With this special issue, we aim to analyse existing and novel ways in which these audiences use social networks and emerging technologies. We ask questions such as: How can these technologies be designed to be more inclusive? What motivates people to engage with these new technologies? What are the effects on people’s behaviour, attitudes and social interactions? What methods can be used to analyse these interactions?

This special issue of Interacting with Computers invites contributions from the academic community, industry and design practitioners. We welcome research papers that trigger discussions based on investigations, case studies and overviews in this area.

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Inclusive design issues related to social media and emerging technologies
• Concepts, methods and frameworks aimed at motivating people to participate
• Case studies of various social and cultural contexts
• The impact of participation on society and culture
• Different user groups’ engagement with social media
• New technologies such as virtual worlds and augmented humans
• The application of these technologies in a variety of settings (e-democracy, communities, sustainability and environment, etc.)

Submission Details:
Please submit a 300-500 word abstract to Dr Jim Ang (c.s.ang@kent.ac.uk) no later than 28th January 2011. Please include full contact information and a biographical note (up to 75 words) on each of the authors.

Important Dates:
28 January 2011: Deadline for abstract submission
25 February 2011: Announcement of results and full paper invitations
29 April 2011: Submission of full papers
24 June 2011: Response to authors
2 September 2011: Final submission

Workshop: Socialising Technology Among Seniors in Asia at CSCW 2011

The organisers say:

Although technological research involving seniors is not new, there is still a lack of use and adoption amongst the seniors. The issue is further confounded by a scarcity of discourse and research seeking in-depth understanding on why this is so. This is particularly problematic among some countries in the region like Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore whose ageing populations are among the fastest growing in the world.

https://sites.google.com/site/technologyamongseniors/

Special Issue on Inclusive Design in the Context of Social Media and Emerging Technologies

Call for papers for Special Issue of Interacting with Computers on Inclusive Design in the Context of Social Media and Emerging Technologies

Recently we have witnessed the increased proliferation of new digital technologies such as online social networking sites, micro-blogging and virtual worlds which has changed the way we communicate and interact with each other. Emerging studies are being conducted in order to investigate these interesting socio-technological phenomena.

To date, little has been done with respect to inclusive design in the context of social networking and emerging technologies. These technologies have the potential to have a positive impact on the lives of a wide range of people, for instance older people, disabled people, and people from different social and cultural backgrounds. For example, it has been reported that the fastest growing demographic of the social networking sites is women over 55 years old (Facebook Global Monitor, 2009).

With this special issue, we aim to analyse existing and novel ways in which social networks and emerging technologies are used by these user groups. We ask questions such as: In what ways can these technologies be designed to be more inclusive? What are people’s motivations for engaging with these new technologies? What is the effect on people’s behaviour, attitudes and social interactions? What methods can be used to analyse these interactions?

This special issue of Interacting with Computers is inviting contributions from both the academic community, industry and the design practitioners.  We welcome research papers which trigger discussions based on investigations, case studies and overviews in this area.

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Inclusive design issues related to social media and emerging technologies
• Concepts, methods and frameworks aimed at motivating people to participate
• Case studies in various social and cultural contexts
• The impact of participation on the society and culture
• Different user groups’ engagement with social media
• New technologies such as virtual worlds and
• The application of these technologies in a variety of settings (e.g. e-government, communities, sustainability and environment, etc.)

Submission details

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract to Dr Jim Ang (c.s.ang@kent.ac.uk) no later than 28th January 2011.   Please include full contact information and a biographical note (up to 75 words) on each of the authors.

Important dates

28th January 2011:  Deadline for abstract submission

25th February 2011:  Announcement of results and full paper invitations

29th April 2011: Submission of full papers

24th June 2011: Response to authors

2nd September 2011: Final submission

---

Jim Ang, Ania Bobrowicz (c.s.ang@kent.ac.uk))
School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent, UK

Panayotis Zaphiris
Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

Ben Shneiderman
Human Computer Interaction Laboratory, University of Maryland, USA

BBC first click campaign

I just had a look at the 'First click' website - the video is ok (and not too patronizing), but I find the concept to create this website somewhat flawed. The person who accesses this website needs to have basic computer skills. Also I find the benefits to go online (or to learn how to use the Internet) not well explained... I expected to see benefits mentioned such as 'sent your digital photographs to family and friends', 'reduce cost by choosing online billing', 'read up on medical information from trusted websites', 'find your ancestors' etc

About First Click:

First Click is a BBC Learning campaign to encourage those aged 55 and over, who currently do not use the internet, to understand and enjoy its benefits. The BBC has created the First Click Beginners’ Computer Course to take participants through the first and essential steps of using computers, also linking with BBC WebWise. To find out more, have a look here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/connect/campaigns/first_click.shtml

Ofcom research: Next Generation Services for Older and Disabled People

Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Older and Disabled People has published research into the benefits that next generation super-fast broadband could bring to older and disabled people. The publication’s findings are based on desk research and in-depth interviews with senior representatives from across a range of industries, government, academia and the third sector.
The research gives examples of a range of services already being piloted or in development. The research also identifies some of the challenges and barriers which might hinder this potential including usability, accessibility and cost.
A copy of the full research Next Generation Services for Older and Disabled People can be found here.

2010 ONS Internet usage report

The Office for National Statistics report on Internet usage in the UK for 2010 is out.

Internet Access Households and Individuals: links to reports and one-page summary.

UK Adults using the Internet every day.
From ONS website.

UK's oldest Tweeter Ivy Bean dies at 104

Sadly, Ivy Bean, the famously elderly user of Facebook and Twitter has died. She was 104.

[BBC News page about this]

Links to earlier articles in this blog.

Chat with Patricia Wright - care home manager where Ivy the 104...

Sep 11, 2009

Ivy just tweeted that she has an invitation to meet Gordon Brown

Feb 22, 2010

Researchers of Tomorrow are like researchers of yesterday, it seems

News release
21 July 2010

Emerging findings from Researchers of Tomorrow study

Emerging findings from the first annual report of a major three-year study into the information seeking behaviour of Generation Y doctoral students show that there are striking similarities between students born between 1982 and 1994 and older age groups.

Researchers of Tomorrow was commissioned by JISC and the British Library to establish a benchmark for research behaviour, against which future generations can be measured – and also to provide guidance for librarians, information specialists and policy makers on how best to meet the research needs of Generation Y scholars.

Download the report at http://www.researchersoftomorrow.net

The first annual report of this longitudinal study has just been completed and includes evidence-gathering from three groups of doctoral students in the UK, including: a cohort of 60 Generation Y doctoral students from 36 universities; responses to a national context-setting survey returned by over 2,000 Generation Y scholars and responses to the same national context-setting survey returned by 3,000 older doctoral students.

Generation Y students and older students concur on a number of areas:

-    Open access and open source – like students of other ages, Generation Y researchers express a desire for an all-embracing, seamless accessible research information network in which restrictions to access do not restrain them.  However, the annual report demonstrates that most Generation Y students do not have a clear understanding of what open access means and this negatively impacts their use of open access resources, so this is an area to be followed up in the next year.

-    Networked research environment – both Generation Y and older students express exasperation regarding restricted access to research resources due to the limitations of institutional licenses.  This is born from a sophisticated knowledge of the networked information environment and students regularly speak favourably about sector-wide shared services and resource sharing.

The research indicates, however, potentially interesting and important divergences between Generation Y and older doctoral students; for example, where students turn for help, advice and support and attitudes to their research environment.

-    Supervisor and librarian support – Generation Y scholars are more likely to turn to their supervisors for research resource recommendations than older doctoral students.  Also, 33% of Generation Y students say they have never used library staff for their support in finding difficult to source material.

-    Using library collections and services – Library collections are used heavily by students in their own institutions, but only 36% of Generation Y students have used inter-library loan services compared to 25% of older students, with 42% of arts and humanities students using these services regularly compared to 13% among science students.

Charles Hutchings, JISC’s market research manager, said, “What is striking about these interim results is the current overlap between the behaviours of these young researchers and their older counterparts. While JISC will use these studies to provide guidance for librarians, information specialists and policy makers across the UK on how best to meet researchers’ needs, we should also be aware that these behaviours are changing all the time with the advent of new digital tools for research.”

Dr Joanna Newman, the British Library’s head of higher education, said, “The first annual report of this three-year study provides an overview of the Generation Y research environment.  These emerging findings will ensure that the Researchers of Tomorrow study will focus on critical areas such as the role of supervisors, use of the academic library network, effective research support, open access and the main work base for doctoral students.”

Dr Newman concluded, “Consultation is at the heart of how the Library and JISC engage with their researchers.  We know that research behaviours are evolving and changing and it is through studies like ‘Researchers of Tomorrow’ that we will start to understand in depth the future needs and requirements of Generation Y students.”

Find out more and read the report at http://www.researchersoftomorrow.net

Explore JISC's support for researchers at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/campaigns/res3.aspx

Scientists discover what makes us live longer

New test unlocks secrets of life expectancy by predicting which of us will reach 100
Read article

Today is Silver Surfers' day!

Middlesex University collaborated with Age Concern Barnet to offer an 'Internet drop-in clinic.' Read about the event details.

Syed Murad dealt with several queries from people who had questions such as:
* deleting their search history
* how to delete a duplicate facebook account
* effective use of the spam filter for email
* develop an understanding of 15GB and what or how many 'files' that could mean

Digital Unite

Cannot remember if we already knew about these people. Though they concentrate on training, they clearly have an interest in the broader aspects of take-up etc.

Technology linked to happiness, study claims

There are positive links between access to technology and feelings of well-being, a study claims.

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, analysed the results of a survey of 35,000 people around the world.

Access to communication devices was found to be the most valued.

It found that women in developing countries, and people of both sexes with low incomes or poor education, were most influenced emotionally by their access to technology.

It is partly because women tend to have a more central role in family and other social networks, said researcher Paul Flatters of Trajectory Partnership, which conducted the research on behalf of the BCS.

Article: Has the elixir of youth come of age?

Jeremy Laurance writes in the Independent: Scientists claim that by 2012 they will have developed drugs that delay the ageing process

Read full article

Book reviews of design books

Erik Stolterman has posted some recent book reviews on his blog. Tim Brown’s Change by Design sounds useful in connection with the relation between innovation and design.

Unsocial

A website/service claims to automate the process of getting your life back and junking your online friends.

http://www.suicidemachine.org/#movie

SPARC workshop on 'Digital Identities'

I plan to attend tomorrow's SPARC workshop on digital identities at the University of Reading.

"Through a series of presentations from both experts in the field of Digital Identity, as well as representatives from user organisations, the morning session will explore issues around having an online presence, from the positive impact of belonging to online communities to safeguarding your identity and information.

The afternoon session will comprise a series of activities designed to stimulate further thought and discussion about the potential benefits and pitfalls of having a Digital Identity for older people, as well as an introduction to current technologies for those with no or limited experience of them."

Here's the program.

Another conference: ICT, Society and Human Beings 2010

IADIS International Conference
ICT, Society and Human Beings 2010
Freiburg, Germany

29 - 31 July 2010

[link]

EIAA: Digital families report

Extract from the report published by the European Interactive Advertising Association: "Substantially more people who live with children log on to the internet each week than those who do not live with children (73% vs. 52%) and the amount of time these digital parents spend online is increasing (11.6 hours online each week, a 36% increase
since 2004 – outpacing the growth of those living without children)"

I can imagine the same is true for older people who have grandchildren or not i.e. grandchildren may help the older person to stay digitally connected.

read report

Ocfom latest report on social networking

From the latest Ofcom qualitative and quantitative research report on social networking: "The rapid growth of social networking sites in recent years indicates that they are now a
mainstream communications technology for many people."

On page 6 they also have labeled groups by attitudes of 'social networkers' (see also page 28)

Also interesting is the awareness around the term 'social networking' page 16.
Only just 1/5th of the report audience has set up their 'profile' and of those 65+ only 3% set up their profile (p17 - 19).
Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are the most popular sites (p 21)
Section 7 on Privacy and Safety (p51) looks at how younger users are underestimating the publicity of their profile.
The last part of the report is a literature review of harm and offence in
social networking p57.

Read the full report

AOL plans to sell or shut down Bebo

AOL said it was not in position to fund Bebo any more

Internet company AOL has announced plans to sell or shut down the social networking site Bebo. The company said it was unable to provide the "significant investment" Bebo needed to compete with its social networking rivals. The news comes just two years after AOL bought the site for $850m (£417m at the time).

Developing a Methodology for Costing the Impact of Digital Exclusion

This online consultation (they explain) was commissioned by the National Audit Office to inform its understanding of the evidence on the costs and benefits of digital inclusion activities.


The site

Econsultancy's Report on value of social media (sample only)

The Value of Social Media Report, produced by Econsultancy in association with Online Marketing Summit, looks at the extent of social media marketing being carried out by organizations, the tactics being used and the business objectives they are trying to impact through related activity.

Social media marketing includes the use of social networking sites and on-site activity including blogging, wikis, user-generated content, ratings and reviews.

The 59-page report, which is also available as a presentation, is based on an online survey of more than 400 (predominantly US-based) client-side marketers and agency respondents, which took place in December 2009 and January 2010.

The report includes sections covering:

* Social media activity
* Tactics and Web sites
* Budgets and investment
* Objectives, metrics and ROI
* Resourcing and barriers

Findings include:

* Facebook is the Web property mostly commonly used in social media, with 85% of companies using this site as part of their marketing strategy. This is followed by Twitter (77%), LinkedIn (58%) and YouTube (49%).
* Almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) say their organizations are “poor” (34%) or “very poor” (27%) at measuring ROI.
* Almost two-thirds of companies (61%) say that they “have experimented with social media, but not done that much.”
* A third of companies (32%) do not spend anything on social media marketing and a further 36% spend under $5,000 a year.
* A third of respondents (32%) are getting less than 1x the return on investment from social media.


download the sample report from econsultancy

BBC One 'should have more over-50s,' report says

Moira Stuart: removed from TV by the broadcaster (Getty Images)

A leading provider of housing and care for the elderly has accused the BBC of not having enough older people in its programmes compared to rival ITV.
[Link to story on BBC site]

1999 radio programme about ageing

AGEING
Listen now(30 minutes)
In RealMedia only.
Last broadcast on Thu, 28 Jan 1999, 21:30 on BBC Radio 4.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ageing. In 1900, 1% of the world’s population were over 65. In the 1990s nearly 8% are. By the year 2020, nearly 1/5th of the world’s population will be over 65 - the figure rises to 25% in the UK.

We are now living longer than at any time in our history. How much do economic factors, rather than biological factors, determine what ageing really means and our attitude to it? And what are the ethical, economic and biological implications of living longer?


Link to 30 minute RealMedia download page.

Facebook overtakes Google to become the most visited website in the US

Read today's CAMPAIGN article.

CfP: HCI special issue - Designing for Personal Memories

Human Computer Interaction journal is calling for papers for a special issue on Designing for Personal Memories.

They say:

As more and more media become digital (whether these be photos, videos /audio snippets, or even olfactory or haptic cues), new ways of cueing our memory are emerging. These will support, enhance, or possibly even undermine the way we remember our experiences. The growing importance of this research area is indicated by “Memories for Life”, one of the seven grand challenges identified by the UK Computing Research Committee, and by ambitious research programs at Microsoft Research, supporting “Digital Memories (Memex)”, and projects such as MyLifeBits and SenseCam. 

The focus of this special issue, Designing for Personal Memories, is on ordinary people using digital media to help them remember in everyday situations. This could mean developing interactive systems or services for supporting, enhancing or extending personal memories, but also studies that inform the design of these systems. Contributions could come from diverse fields, such as HCI, psychology, sociology, interaction design, engineering, computer science, design, material culture, etc. 

Link to call on Usability News site.

Web access is 'a basic human right'

A new survey conducted in 26 countries around the world reveals four out of five people believe internet access to be a right, not a privilege.

[Link]

The role of design in tackling the digital divide

Simon Roberts, design anthropologist at Intel, and at the International Longevity Centre - UK, considers the role of design in tackling the digital divide in this blog.

Read here

Why would you want to do that?

A site about coffee machines I was just looking at has a social networking function too. I have no idea why. I quote...

KrupsMachine.info is the virtual portal where you can experience an amazing social shopping experience. Here you can get the most detailed information about Krups products, share your shopping interests with other user, interact with them and build long lasting friendships.

The world’s gone mad.

Ivy just tweeted that she has an invitation to meet Gordon Brown

I'm pleased to inform you that Ivy has been invited to see Gordon Brown on 1st March to "celebrate our ageing society".

Ivy also uploaded a picture of her invitation onto Twitter - so in case you follow her you can see it here http://twitpic.com/14qx92

W3C on older users and accessibility

How the components of web accessibility relate to each other from W3C site.

This page Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review (W3C Working Draft 14 May 2008) has a wealth of information and links. I notice it mentions Webcredible.

Article - Teaching my Nan to Skype

This article made me smile - the journalist gave up to teach his gran something about Skype even though we will be able to access it through our TV. Interesting to see how skype on TV will change our communication patterns, if at all.

Two more conferences on studying ageing

There are found here British Society of Gerontology


Challenging Exclusion; Promoting Empowerment: New Research in Ageing
The British Society of Gerontology's Emerging Researchers in Ageing Annual Conference 2010
University of East Anglia, Norwich, 22nd – 23rd April 2010


39th BSG Annual Conference
Conference Theme: Identities, Care and Everyday Life
6th to 8th July 2010
Brunel University

CHI Workshop on Interaction Design for the Elderly

This passed Workshop notice might point to useful things, not least the names of the organisers and the participants.

Call for Papers
=======================================================
CHI 2010 workshop -* Senior-Friendly Technologies: Interaction Design for the Elderly *
to be held conjunction with CHI2010, Atlanta, GA, USA
10 April 2010
=======================================================

Submission Deadline: 03 January 2010

*CALL FOR POSITION PAPERS*

Not enough attention has been given to research on interactive products and applications specifically for the elderly.  Yet, senior citizens make up a growing base of people who can potentially draw benefits, such as entertainment, socialization or mental exercise, by engaging with technology.  This workshop aims to address research questions involving design guidelines, methodological issues and contextual analysis amongst others.  The workshop seeks to gather designers, academics in human-computer interaction or other related fields, and researchers, who have preferably worked with the elderly before or are familiar with their environments.


*SUBMISSIONS*
Submissions are invited on (but not limited to) the following themes:

• Identifying key ways or roles that the elderly can play in the design process
• Formulating user requirements for elderly interaction design
• Understanding factors that influence elderly adoption and acceptance of technologies

Submissions should be a maximum of 4 pages in the CHI Extended Abstracts format (Word/PDF) describing the area of research, specific work (empirical or theoretical) on the workshop topic.

Submissions should be emailed to chi2010elderly@gmail.com with subject line as "*CHI 2010 workshop submission*".  In the email for submission of the position paper, the contact author is required to indicate how many authors will be attending the workshop if the paper is accepted.

All submitted papers will be peer-reviewed by the program committee. Participants will be selected to represent diverse perspectives and papers will be selected by relevance and likelihood of stimulating and contributing to discussion.  Note that at least one author of each accepted paper will need to register for the workshop and for one or more days of the CHI conference itself.


*IMPORTANT DATES*
   - Deadline for submission of Position Papers: January 3, 2010
   - Notification of acceptance for Position Papers: January 30, 2010
   - Workshop: April 11, 2010
For more and up-to-date information visit the workshop's web site:
http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/stfpage/eledbl/chi2010/index.html


*ORGANIZERS*
Henry Been-Lirn Duh (IDMI & ECE, NUS, Singapore)
Ellen Yi-Luen Do (GVU center, Georgia Tech, USA)
Mark Billinghurst (HIT lab NZ, New Zealand)
Francis Quek (Center for HCI, Virginia Tech, USA)
Vivian Hsueh-Hua Chen (WKWSCI, NTU, Singapore)

Useful repertoire of links to design for older users

The Information Technology Systems & Services department of the University of Minnesota Duluth put together a useful list of online design references. I even found an entry which I wrote!

There are several interesting sites relating to fonts sizes and aging.
Go here to read about fonts

Go to the list of links

Stories from the book of life - Guardian article

Interesting article in the Guardian, education section, 9th Feb:

"Bookbite, which is launched this week by Booktrust, aims to encourage older people to become more involved in writing and reading, for the sheer pleasure of it and for the social and health benefits of learning. The scheme, funded by £400,000 from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, is also designed to encourage older people to make use of the internet to access support and resources."


Read article here

Go to Bookbite - which has a simple and clear design by the way

Pensioner playgrounds

Photo on Guardian website

London is to have its first ‘pensioner playground’ according to today’s news.

The first in the UK seems to have been in Manchester, but the idea is credited to Germany [link].

Observations of the computer class at Age Concern

Due to the snow and weather conditions the turn out to this class in January 2010 was rather small. When I arrived at the class I met Robert (in his 50s), the course leader, Vic (possibly in her 70s), who was there for her last session of the beginner’s class and Harry (possibly in his late 60s, early 70s), who was a first timer and complete novice to using the computer.

Robert has a soft voice and speaks very articulate. He explains the options of the right mouse click and talks about the ‘file extension’. I wonder how much Harry can follow him, but I notice that Robert doesn’t dumb down his language to explain these words, but he provides Harry and Vic with explanations. For example, Robert describes ‘sites’ in the Internet as ‘they live in the computer out there’ pointing outside the window.
Robert sets Harry up to play Spider solitaire, so he can practice the eye-hand-mouse coordination. Harry is surprisingly good at using the mouse and is clicking in the right areas, but he didn’t know solitaire before and has trouble understanding the rules of the game.
Robert asks Vic to check her email in Googlemail. Vic comments that mobile phones are much simpler to use and that she sees the computer as a “necessary evil”. Vic continues explaining that she has no affection for computers. In her opinion “computers create young people that are neurotic”. In the future she thinks that rather than being isolated at home, people will be isolated at home with an “all-seeing machine”.
Robert explains ‘email’ to David and that he will need a browser to access ‘http’- places, which work like postcodes. Robert opens Internet explorer and shows Harry how to set up his homepage. Robert continues: “As soon as you type ‘http’ you’re looking on the world wide web and not inside the computer.” Harry wonders: “So if I want to send an email to my wife, I type here…” and points to the URL entry field.
Robert stops him to explain about the 2 forms of email, one stored on your computer and one that you can access from any computer because it’s stored on the world wide web. Harry looks a bit puzzled. Robert suggests that he should start with an email that can be accessed from any computer such as googlemail.
For this they go to Google. Robert points out how Google had changed the first screen, so that the links to email on the top left only appear after the mouse hover over the screen. He explains that this has confused many other participants because they thought they had lost their email link.
Robert and Harry set up Harry’s email account. Vic is listening with great attention – she doesn’t mind that this is a repeat for her. They have trouble finding a unique email for Harry since his full name has already been taken.
Harry wonders about the security questions and Robert has to explain CAPTCHA. Finally Harry is in his email account. Robert deletes the welcomes messages straight away. Harry asks with concern: “Is this spam?”
Vic is supposed to log in and to send an email to Harry. She has trouble logging in because her computer has timed out and she needs to log on as a user again. However, she confused her email password with the windows password and gets stuck.
Once in her email Vic goes to compose email and sees the blank screen. But when she types in the email address she types it into the search box at the top rather than the ‘to’ field.
Harry in the mean time is supposed to send an email to Vic. He’s amazed by the keyboard. Robert explains to him the uppercase - ‘shift’ and the carriage ‘return’ buttons.
Harry receives an email from Vic and is supposed to reply. Typing a short sentence takes him a very long time. Vic receives his email, but when she tries opening it, she just clicks on the check box to the left and thinks that she had opened and read Harry’s reply. This was partly due to the fact that she was able to read his short answer in the one line preview.
Robert reminds her of needing to click onto the subject line to see the full email.

This description of this lesson shows how complex just opening and sending an email can be for beginner users. It was Vic’s 6th time at the computer class and she still had trouble to open her email. She says that she won’t use computers in the future. But Harry explains that he has to because he’s still in business with his son and his son is insisting on him having to use email.

I would like to thank Age Concern for allowing me to observe the computer class. Please note, names have been changed for confidentiality reasons.

More Facebook background noise

A few more news stories that capture hopes and fears around Facebook.

Is Facebook the biggest threat to corporate security?

A new Sophos report shows that three out of five believe Facebook poses the greatest risk, yet more companies than ever are allowing their employees unfettered access. [link]

By Martin James, 3 Feb 2010 at 10:49

Facebook wants to take over the web

Forget the Facebook.com site - the social networking site is looking to take over the web with its Connect system. [link]

By Nicole Kobie, 9 Dec 2009 at 17:00

Facebook's privacy overhaul criticised

Facebook is being accused of trying to make people share more, not protect more. [link]

By Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters, 10 Dec 2009 at 08:07

Watching the BBC breakfast show this morning

Today's program was dedicated to dementia and dementia care. Bill Turnbull interviewed Rebecca Wood, Alzheimer's Research Trust, who pledged for more funding for dementia research. They would like to understand more about the development of the disease and forms of prevention. The number of people affected by dementia has increased significantly in the recent years.
I heard Rebecca Wood saying "Age is the biggest risk in getting dementia".

Whilst she might be very right with what she said I feel that with a statement like this it's more likely that we all fear getting older !

Here is this article to read about the numbers (Note: the quote is not repeated in here!)

Storytelling - a useful way to shed light on design problems

I feel that storytelling will be a very useful method to gather information on the design problem and clarification. I would like to employ this method in the first user work shop.
The chapter below gives a memorable example of the 'guilt pile' - I was definitely able to relate to this.

Erikson T. (1995). Notes on design practice: Stories and prototypes as catalysts for communication. In J. Carroll (Ed.), Scenario-based design: Envisioning work and technology in systems development (pp. 37-58) New York: Wiley


Read here

More Ben Goldacre on Greenfield (and Sigman)

Here is more from Ben Goldacre on the unsupported claims of Susan Greenfield and Aric Sigman. Some of the references may be useful to you.

http://www.badscience.net/2009/02/the-evidence-aric-sigman-ignored/

NewZealand digital content

I came across NZ digital content website.
"DigitalNZ is an initiative that aims to make New Zealand digital content easy to find, share and use. This includes content from government departments, publicly funded organisations, the private sector, and community groups."

Some aspects of the design of the website strike me as positive, in particular the use of large fonts and large clickable areas. In the "showcase" section they also include a timeline, which however didn't seem to work too well... images or text didn't seem to appear in the pop-up boxes.

They also have a "memory maker" in the showcase section on page 2.

Go to http://www.digitalnz.org/

Interesting commentary in the Guardian (from December)

"This looming ageing crisis needs some grown-up solutions"

You may have seen this commentatry already... Jackie Ashley made a couple of interesting points, e.g. housing, lack of social support

Read here

Paper: Older Adults' Motivated Choice for Technological Innovation: Evidence for Benefit-Driven Selectivity

This journal article has been referenced to from the book:"Designing for older adults" by Fisk A. et al. I think this paper is very interesting since it sheds light on the reasons why older people don't use new technology. "That is, when asking the question of why older adults may not use a particular type of technology, the answer is not because the costs are too high; the answer is because the benefits of that technology are not apparent to the older adults."

Melenhorst, A., Rogers, W., Bouwhuis, D. run 18 focus groups in the USA and Netherlands.

Psychology and Aging
Issue: Volume 21(1), March 2006, p 190–195

Just found a project which allows users to ‘interact with all aspects of Great Britain’s past from around the world.’

Link: http://www.pasttimesproject.co.uk/

Perhaps it would be worth asking them if you can study their users?

Paper: Understanding collective content: Purposes, Characteristics and Collaborative Practices

I feel the paper is very relevant to the idea that successful social interaction is centered around 'objects' (e.g pictures or interests) which can be shared by everybody. To quote from section 5.3 "Collective content was observed to have a significant role in
facilitating communication and social interaction in the studied
communities. It was an ice-breaker of discussion in the less active
communities, and a catalyst and evoker of social interaction and
nurturer of the sense of community in the active communities."

2009 Paper by Thomas Olsson "Understanding collective content"

Let me know your views

Supporting older web users - a global view

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: There seem to be a lot of people over 65 accessing the Internet. The popular internet activities are confirmed with our survey.

Supporting older web users - a global view

View more presentations from w4a.

Can Susan Greenfield be trusted?

Following our discussion, Marianne, I looked up <"susan greenfield" controversy> in Google. It turned up some quite interesting things. Ben Goldacre’s contribution (in the first result), http://neuronarrative.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/four-authors-respond-to-the-social-networking-controversy/, contains some interesting links.

Not taking sides (yet) – just think this needs looking into.

CNN article: "All in the Facebook family"

"Let's face it, kids that age aren't really interested in talking to people my age very much. It's more, 'Hi grandma how are ya? ... Bye!' " she said with a laugh. "That's basically what I get from my grandkids, so if I can engage them through just a little bit of chit-chat [online], it's a lot more than I can get over the phone."

This is similar to what I found with one of my in-depth interviews recently. The person I spoke to said it was an easy and friendly way of interacting with his grandchildren.

Read CNN article

Placing an ad in Facebook

When you place an ad in Facebook you can see the number of people by age (based on the last 30 days usage) accessing Facebook.

I tried this out and found that Facebook stops at the age of "64".
According to this tool there are:

• 22,620 - 63 to 64 year old Facebook users in London and 50 miles
• 119,160 - 63 to 64 year old Facebook users in the UK
• 375,360 - 60 to 64 year old Facebook users in the UK

If I were to place the ad (for the suggested bidding price) it will have an estimated 97 clicks a day.

Family life set to change dramatically in the next decade

The family and parenting institute writes on 30th Nov 2009:

• Fathers roles are set to change dramatically over the next decade; this change follows the shift in women's roles since the 1950s
• With the break down of the nuclear family, the whole family - siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents - and particularly the way couples interact - is to be important to securing increased child well-being in the future
• Our ageing population is going to dominate the family policy agenda with caring for the elderly one of the top concerns for families.

Changing family forms are producing a so-called 'beanpole' effect, with more generations alive at the same time, but with fewer aunts and uncles etc.

Read the full press release

Building a Society for All Ages

Building a Society for All Ages is the Government's strategy (July 2009) and it builds on the 2005 strategy "Opportunity Age" which has according to the HM Government website largely implemented.
The new strategy sets out "a programme of action to support the changes for individuals, for families, for the workplace and economy and for public services and communities."

Changes in law made saving for retirement fairer and easier than before and the current Equality Bill will outlaw unjustified discrimination on the basis of age in the provision of goods and services. The Care and Support Green Paper addresses the care needs of an ageing population.
The strategy takes into account that we have a demographic change and more older old. So the government also calls for a "shift in attitude and behaviour across society so that old age is no longer perceived as a time of dependency and exclusion".

On the government's website they continue listing services they offer which apparently help people of all ages. They mention the "new interactive 'one stop shop' for helping people planning ahead" (I haven't found this one yet). There is a new "Active at 60" package (which includes free swimming). To increase participation for these activities they plan to provide a "all-in one card". There are also plans (and a £20 million learning transformation fund) to offer learning opportunities in later life.

They published a "Families and Relationships Green Paper" in Nov 09 - I still need to find the paper. To make sure different generations have the opportunity to keep in touch with each other they run digital inclusion projects, targeted at giving people in sheltered housing access to new technology. (Here I'm quite surprised - are people who live in sheltered housing not likely to have not have less close family?).

There was a "grandparents summit" in Nov 09. Topics for discussion included how families and childcare services can adapt to better meet the needs of grandparents, the impact of combining employment with care of their grandchildren and ways to provide more information to grandparents more effectively.

The government currently funds 12 intergenerational projects across the country to break down barriers and challenge negative stereotypes. (I still need to find out about those). Efforts will be made to mix older and retired with younger workers in order to pass on knowledge and experience. To ensure mobility the "driving for life programme" will be in place.

Link to the government's strategy.

The Care and Support Green Paper includes a health prevention package and it will raise the focus on preventative services for conditions that often affect people in later life, including footcare, falls prevention, continence care, depression and arthritis.

Link to the Care and Support Green Paper.

And there is a conference "Ageing Population 2010" which takes place on 25th February 2010 to discuss the government's strategy and to hear views from different parties involved e.g. Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation.
Link to the conference.

Older users and digital archives

I was in a meeting today with (among others) Sue Thexton, visiting professor at Middlesex, who recently wrote a report for Skillset* about Digital Archiving. It includes this relevant paragraph: 

5.2.2 Older demographic of internet usage
‘Silver surfers’ are a large demographic that is potentially very attractive for archive holders. As internet penetration has [increased] the demographic profile has shifted towards older users. Nielsen//NetRatings data from April 2007 show that over 50s (who make up 41% of the UK population) now account for nearly 30% of all time spent on the internet. And over 65 ‘silver surfers’ spend more time online per active user, at nearly 42 hours per month, than any other age group. These are a group that would be very interested in interacting with and viewing archive material as it reflects their own life. But it’s not just the silver surfers that should be focused on, after all there is 70% of the internet users in this country are younger than 50. The technology allows archives to appeal to younger audiences too, to engage them more with history and also to work harder to appeal to a more culturally divers audience.

The complete report is at http://www.skillset.org/uploads/pdf/asset_12283.pdf?6

* Middlesex is a Skillset Academy.

5 tips on successful social networking

This blog entry describes a presentation by Jyri Engstrom (google - social applications) from 12 June 2007 where he provides us with 5 tips on how to design successful social web applications.
Jyri approached the first crucial design question from an object-centered sociology perspective. (Think Bruno Latour - actor-network, though I still need to read more about this to make a proper connection, I have not seen him being cited in this context very much)

1. Define the object round which your service is built.

Jyri gives the examples of flicker and dogster.

2. Define the key verbs for that object

For ebay it's "buy and sell".

3. Make the object shareable!

Widgets to enable people to share objects.

4. To grow your userbase, think about what can you provide in terms of a gift users can offer their friends

Skype offered 2 free headsets (one for the person and one for the friend)

5. Work out a business model where you charge the publisher, not the spectators

Try to offer it for free. Frequently employed business model: basic service is free, but for more features you use can pay a premium.

Read blog here

Book: Save As... Digital Memories

Save As... Digital Memories is an expensive book edited by Joanne Garde-Hansen, Andrew Hoskins and Anna Reading. Might be useful or interesting at least in part. Another one for the library, I think. Published by Palgrave Macmillan [link to book]