Group items tagged

"A plan to create an online "knowledge base" of resources relating to digital inclusion for older people is being drawn up by Age Action Alliance, an umbrella group of companies and charities led by the Department for Work and Pensions. The alliance, whose members include the BBC, Microsoft, mobile network Three, Age UK and the digital inclusion charity for older people Digital Unite, has tasked a working group with drawing up a "starter strategy" for the knowledge base covering its potential usefulness, purpose and viability. It will then make a final decision on whether to go ahead with the project at the next meeting of its digital inclusion group in February."

"Someone tell us something we don't know. Like, how are we going to get the less digitally confident, and the people who'd like to go online but who are still trepidacious, whizzing around the net with panache and aplomb, saving money, having choice, wielding civic powers, keeping mentally alert, feeling less lonely and isolated? That seems to me to be, still (and with the advent of universal credit which will only be delivered online, increasingly so) the most pressing question. And not least because unless it can be achieved, the fabled and miraculous cost saving efficiencies that online promises a heavily indebted government are but (non digital) pie in the sky."

"But the other thing we have to remember is that there's probably little value in telling people that the internet is good for them. In a sense, this is where the government's Digital by Default strategy is flawed: people feel a bit bullied, they think it's about saving money (which it is) and why should they put themselves out for that? We would be better off thinking about why young people go on the internet. It isn't primarily because the health service needs them to, or even for price comparisons, cheap deals and easy banking. It's because the internet offers the things they love: music, relationships, the chance to make each other laugh. We would say this, of course, but at Gransnet we think we're an attractor for older people online: we offer something that gives older people real pleasure. But with the internet currently designed primarily by 23 year-olds for 23 year-olds, there still isn't enough really compelling content for older people, designed by the over-50s for the over-50s"

"Older people have the lowest levels of internet-take up, in stark contrast to highly connected younger age groups. For the digitally excluded, a number of barriers can compound each other, from cost to ability to interest. This research finds that universal internet take-up won't be achieved overnight, but nevertheless investing in the digitally excluded has long term benefits for both citizens and government."