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]

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.