Race Online 2012

They had their manifesto published in July 2011 which I only just read. Generally I agree that there would be a benefit for people to 'being connected', but I don't necessarily agree with the benefits they list: education, employment and improved government efficiency which effectively means reducing telephone or face-to-face contact - the latter basically a cost cutting exercise.

The report further lists the benefits for older people as: "Getting older people online is a cost effective way of improving their standard of living." - they give examples of how a household can save money by using online services and how older people can connect socially by going online.
However, they don't seem to mention anywhere in the report the troubles one can have with a computer (hardware and software) as well as the problems one can have with password management, or the security of using e.g. banking services in a public space like a library.

Read the report here

Ofcom report Media Lives

Reading the most recent Ofcom report on Media Lives which is based on a small number of qualitative interviews with people but carefully selected to be UK representative, it surprised me that the fundamental motives and barriers to acquire media literacy skills have remained largely constant (since the survey started in 2005).

Around social networking sites it reports: "As the use of Facebook matures among our participants, the related privacy issues are becoming more subtle and complex.Users are now more aware and careful about what information they share, and generally more cautious about adding people as friends than they once were. Most commonly, their concerns are about the dangers of certain individuals getting to see sensitive information (e.g. employers, family members), rather than its exposure to the world at large. Increasingly, the Facebook-related dramas recounted by participants and/or their children are an extension of broader personal and/or social issues (e.g. relationship problems, bullying), rather than technology or platform-specific concerns such as internet privacy or viewing of unsuitable content."

Further noticeable are the explosion of downloadable apps and changes in linear TV viewing and radio listening.

I wonder if the idea of the Saturday night family TV show will die...

Read the report here

Paper: Mobile Remote Presence Systems for Older Adults: Acceptance, Benefits, and Concerns

I read this interesting paper by Jenay M. Beer about older adults using a remote robot to allow them to 'tele-communicate' with others in different locations (published in the Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Human-robot interaction - HRI '11) The robot (with screen) was developed by Willow Garage's.
For me the main findings was the question about 'etiquette' on using the remote presence. Do we have an etiquette for using Skype?
Also, this concern must affect groups of all ages not just the older adults, or?