user-friendly internet information system
network for elderly persons and people with special needs
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user-friendly internet information system network for elderly persons and people with special needs concept / project draft for the
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Description of scientific/technological objectives and workplan
Part B
Objectives:
The overall objective of the Thematic Network "NetofNeeds" is to perform the necessary preparatory work for the establishment and technological implementation of a Europe-wide uniform information-network for citizens with special needs, including elderly and disabled.
This work will consist of evaluation and selection of results from other projects and existing resources as well as additional research where needed.
This planned user-friendly and cost-effective Internet information and service system is to support independent living. In particular, "NetofNeeds" will address the issues "usability" and "acceptability" of the Internet, including security and privacy of information as well as the socio-economic and ethical aspects. State of the Art: Currently we face a rapid increase in the number of Internet users in European countries and world-wide. More and more information and services are accessible via the Internet.
The Internet is spreading to all levels of economic and social life and gradually transforms our society into an "Information Society". Home shopping, product information, electronic newspapers, timetables of cultural events, Emailing, newsgroups, Internet-Banking, the whole area of E-commerce, are only few of the keywords of the information society.
The Internet is the platform of the information society growing most rapidly and gives a unique chance to access information and increasingly available services for "every" citizen. But most information is placed in the Internet just because of the fact that it is available (in order to open a further channel for information and service provision). Unfortunately the two questions "Who could mostly benefit from the services?" and "In which way different users (including the ones with special needs) are able to access specific services?" are often not taken into account.
A great number of provided services and information would be beneficial for elderly and people with special needs to increase their autonomy and to support their independent living. There are already services implemented in organisational processes like "Tele-Government", where administrative tasks can be easily performed by the citizens via Internet, "Tele-Learning" (different courses provided in the Internet) or "Tele-Shopping". These are just three examples of the huge amount of services illustrating which immense benefit could be achieved for e.g. mobility restricted people by reducing their time-consuming and strenuous travel load, if they were easily accessible to them.
Unfortunately most of the current solutions exclude a lot of potential users of an important target group, elderly persons and people with disabilities and especially those who are not computer-literate. The often mentioned term of a two class society might become true if no specific measures are initiated against this development. Beside the conventional ways for the provision of services and information for the intended target group (ordering, telephone hotlines, folders etc.) some initiatives for the solution of this problem already exist. Those are mostly national specific Internet-based information services (seniorweb, GEFAS, FORUM, Mediguard, SokuNet, HANDITEL, NCIP, HANDYNET, REHADAT etc.), covering only parts of the requirements of the target group or delivering only theoretical concepts for future networks of a limited extent.
There is a lack of uniform "Design for All" interfaces to relevant information and services. There are some isolated solutions and some national activities but no bundling in one (umbrella) network with uniform/standardised interfaces. There were and are many activities on national and European levels which have established a technological basis and which try to meet the crucial interface issue to some extent. But these activities fail in the provision of information and services, because they do not include the relevant sources of information and services at very early stages (technology without content). Some projects start or deal only with the interface issue, which is without any doubt an important one, but there has to be research beforehand.
A lack of some projects and activities is, on the one side that the target groups are not clearly defined and on the other side that a user-centred approach is rarely guaranteed (e.g. which information and services are needed by the target group). Furthermore it is a fact that only a small amount of helpful information and services for elderly persons and people with disabilities is accessible via information technologies, the larger amount is only accessible via conventional sources. Finally economic models frequently do not consider adequate platforms for elderly persons and people with disabilities and existing platforms often fail if sponsoring on European or national level is reduced or cut.
Therefore no satisfying European-wide service or platform, including elderly persons and people with disabilities, has been realised to date. "NetofNeeds" will address exactly this issue. In addition, "NetofNeeds" meets the actual initiative of "eEurope" - "An Information Society for All", where one of the ten priority areas is entitled "eParticipation for the disabled".
Objectives of "NetofNeeds" The IST Project "NetofNeeds" it to be carried out as a thematic network with national and international partners, aiming to overcome disadvantages of existing initiatives as outlined in the state of the art chapter. It is one of the main objectives to set up a competence network which will be in the position to finance itself after project completion to guarantee its future existence as well as further development and growth through continuous updating.
The Thematic Network will develop a vision of the future in specific technological areas (software, hardware, IT services) and define guidelines for the design and development of a Europe-wide, uniform information and service network for elderly persons and people with disabilities.
These guidelines (incl. technological strategies etc.) for future developments will support the performance of the vision. The goals of the project can only be reached by the co-action of a variety of disciplines (Psychology, Computer Science, Education Studies, Health Studies etc.) and the inclusion of target groups through national boards etc..
The aim of the interdisciplinary working group is to improve the systematic exchange of information and knowledge concerning the planned network, by means of workshops and scientific visits and meetings to create guidelines for an improved interface and platform architecture, focussing on Internet applications. "NetofNeeds" will support the integration of research and already existing national and EU-projects concerning different platforms for elderly persons and people with disabilities (e.g. THINK, HELIOS I and II, ADAPT-HORIZON, TIDE, HANDYNET, COST 219bis, EUREKA/ITEA, SOKRATES etc.).
"NetofNeeds" has the aim to carefully identify the target groups including their special needs and to survey their demands, concerning information and services (aiming at the support of independent living). In all stages of the project the user centred approach will be guaranteed and the existing EU-Norms and guidelines (organisations) will be considered (i.e.: ICRA, W3C, WAI, EASPD etc.). Addressing the fact that not all of helpful information and services are already accessible via information technologies, further activities have to be promoted and performed to increase the amount of services and information being a benefit for the target group.
"NetofNeeds" will therefore compile lists of information resources and services which would be additionally helpful for the intended target group, if they were accessible via information technology. With these lists "NetofNeeds" intends to promote the expansion of information and services delivery via information technology for elderly people and people with disabilities. Furthermore it is a major target of the "NetofNeeds" project in the process of compiling guidelines concerning "Design for All" and "Representation & Technology" to take into account new and arising technologies.
The scientific networking in "NetofNeeds" has the aim to overcome the technological state of the art, where most of the current solutions depend on conventional technologies (e.g. PCs with standard input devices) and standard query/retrievement systems (e.g. Web-Browsers, Search Engines). In parallel to certain tasks which have to be performed to achieve the overall objective, economic models are set up as an important issue in platforms designed for elderly persons and people with disabilities.
These models are also evaluated to ensure that the planned existence of the network does not depend on social sponsoring. "NetofNeeds" will therefore set activities to make sure that key players and SMEs in the field of information and service provision will join and/or adopt the planned network. Taking the "Design for All" criteria seriously it will be shown, that easy-to-use and Europe-wide uniform interfaces will be a benefit for elderly persons, people with special needs and even for those people who are midst of the information society.
For further specific information see our homepage: www.netofneeds.at.
Contribution to program/key action
objectives:
This section describes how the Thematic Network "NetofNeeds" will contribute
to the objectives of the programme and the key action. "NetofNeeds" intends
to be a Working Group in Action Line VIII.2.1 of the IST 1999 Work programme
under Key Action I: Systems and Services for the Citizen. The content of work
intends to meet the objectives of the sub actions I.3 Persons with special needs,
including the disabled and the elderly and I.3.1. Systems and services for independent
living taking into account CPA.3 Design-for-all for an inclusive information
society in all stages of the project.
The proposed project will contribute to the programme/key action objectives in a multiple way. On the one side, the addressed target group comprises persons with special needs, including the disabled and elderly. On the other side guidelines for new systems and services for the ease of life as well as for independent living, tailored for this target group, will be discussed and outlined and basic research for an intended and suitable Internet information platform will be performed by the project partners.
Consequently, the project will focus on the specific requirements of elderly people as well as of disabled persons in order to create not only the guidelines for technically advanced but also socially and ethically acceptable solutions, which can easily be adopted by involved individuals. Considering this requirement, especially the problem of interfacing has to be addressed, to allow the subsequent design of appropriate hardware and software solutions (but which is not part of the Thematic Network).
A preliminary technological basis for the interface issue has been established on national and European levels to some extent, but there are still missing relevant sources of information and services. It will be necessary to develop a user-centred approach to assure that especially those information and services are provided which are really needed from members of the target group. The areas addressed in the project include personal care as well as mobility and communication. In each of these areas the implementation of a Europe-wide information network, which makes the required information or service available, will enable people with special requirements to live independently.
Another advantage connected with the network is that costs for external assistance by specialised personnel or additional services of a community can be reduced considerably. E.g. restricted mobility of disabled persons can be compensated by the establishment and work of special service providers, which are informed, instructed and paid via the network. The commercial impact can be summarised by offering new and effective possibilities for information and services delivery. Furthermore it might be perfectly possible that the envisioned Internet platform will create (new) jobs which might then be filled with people with disabilities.
The partners of the Thematic Network "NetofNeeds" will discuss and develop guidelines for tools and systems in specific technological areas (software, hardware, IT services) and for the design and development of a Europe-wide, uniform information and service network for elderly persons and people with disabilities. These guidelines are to serve as a basis for design of new technological services, aiming at a "design-for-all" solution for an inclusive information society. This approach is to consider human factors in a way that allows the transition from a computer centric environment to novel interaction patterns, focussing on improved interactivity and easier accessibility.
These two requirements are especially important for elderly and disabled persons. As a consequence the improvement of access to a wider range of services will contribute to a greater participation of the target group in social and community activities. Just to document the social impact of the Thematic Network it is to say, that it is one of the main objectives to include elderly persons (e.g. 50+) and disabled people in the information society and to avoid that a strongly increasing part of the population of the EU are excluded from services and information which are more and more used in daily life. In addition, opportunities for employment and distant learning will be eased what is not only important for the target group but generally advantageous also for other groups of the society.
Another important task of the network is to discuss and outline not only guidelines for technically advanced but also economically affordable tools and services. The consideration of this requirement should guarantee that technical solutions can be utilised also by disadvantaged people or persons with low income. Since most of the project partners already are engaged in projects with actual target groups, they are already familiar with the specific economic and also human barriers combined with the design and development of tools and services.
Work plan, Introduction:
This section describes the overall structure of the work plan and the methodology used to achieve the objectives of "NetofNeeds".
"NetofNeeds", which is the name of the proposed Thematic Network, wants to establish a network of persons and competence and perform necessary preparatory and basic research for an envisioned Pan-European and uniform Internet information and services platform for elderly people and people with disabilities (here often referred to as "NetofNeeds" as well).
Besides the technological issues "NetofNeeds" intends to address some important non-technological areas (including economic aspects and information and services logistics from a non-technical point of view), which are nevertheless very important for the success of the intended platform. Rushing into development without taking into account this necessary preparatory work is very often the reason for the failure of similar (often national) platforms.
"NetofNeeds" intends to cover all fields which are of relevance and importance to the future vision of an Pan-European Internet platform for currently mostly excluded sections of the population, i.e. elderly people and people with disabilities.
First of all it is to say that the success of an activity as planned in the Thematic Network "NetofNeeds" can only be assured if a multidisciplinary team is working on the project. The Working Group therefore is formed by a variety of institutions, which can be assigned to the following clusters:
(a) Research Institutions
(b) Development and Engineering
(c) Social and Governmental Institutions
The "Research Institutions" which will work together in "NetofNeeds" itself come from a broad spectrum of disciplines and cover (special) educational, psychological, social aspects as well as technical research. To reach the target of "NetofNeeds" to combine and evaluate existing results, relevant for the vision of a European-wide information and services platform for elderly people and people with disabilities, and to identify further needed further activities and guidelines in that direction, the combination of the disciplines mentioned above is necessary to reach the target.
The participation of "Development and Engineering" institutions and SMEs will ensure that "NetofNeeds" will take into account the state of the art and arising technologies for the search of technical solutions (i.e. the technological basis for platform development and human computer interfaces).
Finally the participation of "Social and Governmental Institutions" will ensure the involvement of end users and supporters (of elderly people and people with disabilities) in relevant stages of the project (user centred approach). Furthermore this group ensures the inclusion of decision-makers being important for "NetofNeeds".
It is to say that "NetofNeeds" as it is one of it's main objectives investigate outcomes of European and national projects being of relevance for an envisioned Internet platform for elderly people and people with special needs. The scientific exchange of the partners will evaluate the state of the art and identify further needs of research.
"NetofNeeds" has the aim to raise quality of research in this specific field by identifying synergies. But beforehand "NetofNeeds" will carefully take into account an user centred approach (especially in the first stages of the project) to discuss very basic issues which unfortunately are often not addressed in research and development. A clear definition of the target group(s) is crucial, since the information and services and the guidelines for a possible and feasible technical solution (including the - for the intended target groups - very important area of human computer interfacing) depend on that. The synergy aim mentioned above will primarily be applied to the research fields concerning target group identification and "Design for All" interfaces, but especially in case of the latter the state of the art will be evaluated by taking into account new and arising technologies. These new and arising technologies will of course be taken into consideration in the phases of guideline development for the technological basis of the envisioned "NetofNeeds" platform.
Overall Structure of the Work plan:
Beside the obviously employed state of the art management of the whole project (described in Part C) the following overall structure of the work plan will be applied to meet the overall objectives of the project mentioned above. Being a Working Group "NetofNeeds" will promote the scientific exchange and the integration of existing results of European and national projects concerning the vision of the establishment of an European-wide information and services network for elderly people and people with disabilities.
"NetofNeeds" will address and identify needed (and maybe currently missing) parts for the realisation of such an Internet platform. First of all it is necessary to carefully identify the target group of such a network. As mentioned above that is in some national and European initiatives missing and often responsible for the failure.
If the target groups are not carefully identified (that of course included the clarification of borders) the subsequent stages cannot be successfully performed. Therefore this will be the very first task of the Thematic Network to survey target groups and to clearly describe them for following research and work. The target groups are only defined very wide and not detailed in this proposal (elderly and people with disabilities) and the characterisation of the target group has to be part of the intended work performed by the partners.
National ideas and suggestions concerning this issue will be brought to an European dimension and a final definition for the envisioned will be worked out by the partners. This definition will not only take into account the end users but their supporters as well. Having defined the target groups two research actions might take place in parallel, i.e. the survey concerning needed and wished information and services for elderly people and people with disabilities and the specific interface issue. There are a lot of information and services already accessible via the Internet (unfortunately most of them inaccessible for the target groups outlined above) and a lot more available on a conventional basis. But the success of a platform depends on the fact, if the offered information and services really meet the needs of the target group.
The framework of the research performed in this stages of the project is given by the intention that the envisioned platform "NetofNeeds" should support the end users in daily life by increasing the quality of life and the grade of independent living (it can be expected that this will cover a wide. The supporters of elderly people and people with disabilities might achieve higher quality in their daily professional life, i.e. access to relevant information, databases etc..
That second user group will possibly cover and include those who are without professional involvement interested in this special field. The envisioned platform "NetofNeeds" will address the communication aspects as well and it might be an output that the implementation of asynchrony modes of communication (newsgroups etc.) and "real-time" communication features (chat functionality, video conferencing etc.) will be asked services. A better service delivery for the supporters will very likely once again improve the quality of life of the end users. The information and services network meeting the (special) needs of elderly people and people with disabilities in this stage of the project shall give up-to-date answers to specific questions concerning the content. This will be done - once again taking into account already existing results - with surveys performed by the partners including the preparation of investigation material.
In parallel to the task, defining information and services, the interface issue can already be addressed. The aim is to outline "Design for All" guidelines or criteria for the planned platform "NetofNeeds". This task will of course be performed by taking into account the relevant outcomes of currently running and already finished national and European projects. This stage of the project will firstly evaluate this outcome, will check if the results exploit up-to-date and/or arising technologies, will evaluate if additional research is needed and will try to combine the results for outlining "Design for All" guidelines or criteria for the envisioned platform "NetofNeeds".
A key content of "NetofNeeds" will be the phase information and services logistics which tries to get access to a variety of resources of information and services needed by elderly people and people of disabilities. This will be done carefully after and based on the precise research on the topic which information and services are really needed and wished by the target group (see above). Existing national and European platforms for the specific target group often have a working technical solution but fail in offering the relevant services and information (technology without content) and are therefore not accepted and used.
The focus of "NetofNeeds" will consequently be on this task and its the prerequisite (i.e. the definition of information and services). This information and services logistics task will be the one with the longest duration and the most manpower put in it. National activities will be bundled and integrated on European level. If this information and services logistics phase is finished (that means the life elixir for the planned platform is identified) the search for technical solutions can start. "NetofNeeds" shall in this stage exploit new and arising technologies and intends to overcome solutions which still employ standard browsers etc..
"NetofNeeds" will try to develop guidelines (but will not perform any soft- or hardware development) which will include the devices as well and will not be restricted in the technological guideline development to standard PCs. Mobility will be an important factor as well as the fact that the devices might be used in daily life in private household and in public places. Finally the often missing economical and commercial conditions will be taken into account in "NetofNeeds". It is the aim that "NetofNeeds" will in the future find its way from the theory to an implemented network and therefore this considerations are at an early stage of high importance. Since only a small number of the partners will actively work in this field and the prerequisite for this task is given by the definition of target groups this task of the project will start very early but continue till the end of the project. That includes the development of an exploitation plan. Methodology used to Achieve the Objectives: This section describes the methodology used and various techniques employed to achieve the objectives of "NetofNeeds" mentioned above.
"NetofNeeds" will be performed within high level management standards and the management will be appropriate to the size of the project to ensure to reach the objectives. The management is described in detail in Part C.
First of all it is to say that the Thematic Network will bundle know-how and one major methodology is the scientific exchange between the partners coming from different European countries and various disciplines. This scientific exchange will be performed by the inclusion of social and governmental institutions, end users and partners coming from the cluster Development and Engineering. It is to say that highly qualified partners have been found who will put their leading know-how in their special disciplines into the project but taking into account the needed exchange with other disciplines to reach the target (multidisciplinary character of "NetofNeeds"). This scientific exchange will take place in the organised WP-meetings (each work package will have at least one WP-meeting with at least one member of the partners working on this WP attending) but to a high extent via mailing lists, electronic document exchange, chats and set-up newsgroups. There will be a (Web-)server set up by the co-ordinator which will serve as platform for the performed work. It will as well be used for the Web-link collections mentioned below. Beside this scientific exchange the will be research concerning the state of the art and future visions by evaluating the outcome of national and European projects. That will be done by studying literature and Web enquiry.
Wherever possible "NetofNeeds" will try to organise and study deliverables from other projects to evaluate the outcome. Synergies will be identified and taken into account. An integration on higher level is one of the objectives. In case of the evaluation of user needs concerning information and services enquiries will actively performed.
This work In addition to the methodology and techniques mentioned above "NetofNeeds" will - especially in those workpackages which involve the end users, their supporters and decision-makers to a high degree - try to organise national workshops in at least some of the countries participating. These workshops will especially be a major input for the task of pooling national resources. "NetofNeeds" will try to get additional national funding for these national activities (these activities are therefore not calculated in the project costs). In Austria the support (of the organisation and funding) of national workshops is already committed from governmental level.
"NetofNeeds" will in all stages of the project work within scientific standards. Detailed Thematic Network Description broken down into Work packages: The management itself will be outlined and described in detail in Part C. In this section only the workpackages 1 to 6 are described and outlined in their content and interconnection. The WP description itself can be found in the attached forms. Of course an up-to-date management (WP 0) will be implemented to achieve the projects' objectives.
WP1 will clearly define the Target Groups of "NetofNeeds" and itself consist of the following sub-packages: · Definition of End Users and Supporters · Identifying Difficulties in Accessing Information and Services · Conventional Access to Information and Services
WP2 will then outline a definition of Information and Services needed and wished by the target groups with the aim to support independent living and to increase the quality of life. In this work package the organisation of national workshops is intended (additional national funding) will be searched for (in Austria support from governmental level has already been announced (from the ministry of social affairs and the ministry of science and traffic).
The sub packages will be:
WP 3 will outline "Design for All" Criteria for the envisioned Pan-European Internet platform for elderly people and people with disabilities. Based on WP1 there has to be created a collection of "Design for All" Criteria (taking into account results from other national and European projects concerning web-accessibility etc.). The work in this work package will try to answer the question: Why is some already existing information not accessible for a specific group and what can inclusive solution look like.
A web-link collection of currently available solutions and examples will be implemented on the set-up "NetofNeeds" server. This will be achieved by taking into account already existing (national, European and world-wide) standards and related initiatives.
The work performed in WP 3 will consist of the following sub packages:
WP4 addresses the issue of Information and Services Logistics. It has to be surveyed which information is conventionally available, which is already there in the Internet (only the interface issue has to be addressed), which is available on national level but should be shifted to an European level and which additional information and services have to be set up.
The compilations will be grouped as follows:
(a) national information and services
to be shifted to European level (a) translation, creation of multilingual information
and services) and
(b) transfer of conventional info and services to an Internet platform feasible.
The sub package of WP4 will be:
WP5 will discuss the possibilities of technical solutions and outline guidelines for Representation and Technology. This WP will take into account new and arising technologies; the arising possibilities in the telecommunications area and in particular the wireless communication are an important field as far as concern new future applications.
The sub packages of WP5 are:
WP 6 will address the issue Economic Models and Exploitation with the following subpackages:
© Willibald KREMSER 2.2.th february
2003