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G. Fitzpatrick:
"Inscribing Community by Design: Reflecting on Older People and Participation";
Keynote Lecture: 5th International Conference on Communities and Technologies 2011, Brisbane, AU; 2011-06-29 - 2011-07-02.

Maturing Web 2.0 and pervasive technologies provide new ways of engaging community participation, as evidenced by the many excellent contributions to the C&T conference series. However, who we think these technologies are for, and how we design for them, can be radically influenced by how we conceptualise people and issues, whether implicitly or explicitly. This is particularly so with older people, for example, where notions of aging as physiological decline and increased health problems lead to technology solutions that are often driven by accessibility and/or care monitoring needs. But older people are people too and newer developmental theories of aging suggest quite different roles for technology and for active community participation and indeed community contribution. Whether digital native or digital immigrant, people will use technologies to participate when it makes sense for them, as will be illustrated by case study vignettes with older people, drawn from YouTube conversations, and Wii game play, among others. The same may well be true for other groups who are currently under-represented or not well served in notions of community and technology use. Drawing from this case, I want to conclude with some broader reflections on the power we hold as designers to shape the way people and values are inscribed in our technologies, and the responsibilities this entails, not just to evolve new value-centered ways of doing design but to evolve new value-centered practices around being mindful reflective practitioners

http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_204550.pdf