Project: Managing Elderly Social Relationships for better Communication, Activation and Interaction

Acronym ELDER-SPACES (Reference Number: aal-2009-2-116)
Duration 01/04/2011 - 01/10/2013
Project Topic The main goal of the Elder-Spaces project is to introduce a radical shift on the way social networking is delivered to and used by the elderly, with a view to enabling senior adults to benefit from social networking especially in terms of their social activation, active living and overall quality of life. To this end, Εlder Spaces will design a novel ICT based social networking platform (beyond existing elderly networks) along with a range of applications that will be delivered over this platform. The key innovations to be introduced by the Elder Spaces social networking platform include: • The development of a semantic social network, based on an integration of web semantics data and techniques (i.e. ontologies, knowledge bases, data mining) to conventional Web2.0 platforms. This will enable a key customization of social networks to elderly requirements. • The delivery of social network functionality over novel ergonomic interfaces with proven acceptance by older adults (such as TV and interactive surfaces). These interfaces are also expected to lead to wide acceptance of social networking, given that the elderly will be able to enjoy the functionality based on their conventional comfortable access modalities. • The development of customized applications, addressing the needs, interests and preferences of the elderly. Elder Spaces aims at reinforcing and expediting recent trends according to which older adults are joining social networking in a rapid pace. Elder Spaces intends to become synonymous to ICT based social networking for the elderly much in the same way platforms such as facebook.com and myspace.com are synonymous for social networking for younger generations. The Elder-Spaces platform will be delivered as a set of extensions over the iWiW social network (iWiW.hu), which is operated by one consortium partner. The Elder-Spaces applications will be deployed over the extended iWiW network, but also over popular platforms such as facebook.
Website visit project website
Network AAL
Call Call 2 – SOCIAL INTERACTION

Project partner

Number Name Role Country
50plus Hellas Greece
BYTE COMPUTER SA Greece
Cybion Srl Italy
E-Trikala AE Greece
Evangelische Stiftung Volmarstein, Forschungsinstitut Technologie und Behinderung Germany
Origo Media and Communication Ltd. Hungary
Semmelweis University Hungary
SingularLogic Information Systems & Applications SA Greece
Zonnestraal vzw Belgium