The phenomenon "digital divide" has been present since the coming up of the computers, information technologies and IT-related products and services. There always have been groups with a better access to the new technologies than others.

1. CASE STUDY
Seniorkom.at
by
Diana Wieden-Bischof
This document is part of the overall European project LINKS-UP - Learning 2.0 for an Inclusive
Knowledge Society – Understanding the Picture. Further case studies and project results can be
downloaded from the project website http://www.linksup.eu.
Copyright
This work has been licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This
publication reflects the views only of the author(s), and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
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2. The phenomenon "digital divide" has been present since the coming up of the com-
puters, information technologies and IT-related products and services. There always
have been groups with a better access to the new technologies than others. The divide
can have many forms and includes for example: young vs. old, male vs. female, rich vs.
poor, advanced societies versus less developed countries, etc.
Especially the age related digital divide is excluding a big part of the population from di-
gital literacy. The elderly population continues to represent an increasing proportion of
Austrian residents. It is estimated that 23 percent (1st quarter 2010, 1.926.845) of Aus-
trians citizens are over the age of 60 years (Statistik Austria, 2010). This is 2 percent
more than in the 1st quarter of 2002. Until now it is difficult for seniors due to the lake
of offers and the limited attention which has been paid to this important group in terms
of access and use, to enjoy free access to information, knowledge and know how in the
networked world. This circumstance recesses also the divide between the generations.
The consequences are exclusion and a growing lack of understanding between young
and old. Technology can be an enormous help here in reducing isolation and depression
among the elderly.
Case profile – Seniorkom.at in a nutshell
Seniorkom.at
Website http://www.seniorkom.at
Status Active/running (2003 – ongoing)
Mag. Gerlinde Zehetner, Manager, seniormedia marketing
Interviewed person
ges.m.b.H
Österreichischen Seniorenrates (AT), ECHO Medienhaus (AT),
Telekom Austria (AT), Microsoft Österreich (AT) and other partners
like Die Grünen SeniorInnen Österreich (AT), Österreichischer
Funded and promoted by…
Seniorenrat (AT), Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund (AT), Öster-
reichischer Seniorenring (ÖSR – AT), Pensionistenverband Öster-
reichs (AT) und Österreichischer Seniorenbund (AT).
Combination of informal setting (online-presence e.g. at home
Location of the Learning Activities and formal setting (presence workshops in all provinces of
Austria )
Target group(s) Mainly young oldies and retiree between the ages of 40 to 80
Number of users 149 users
Educational Sector(s) Lifelong/Adult Learning
Category of the Learning Activities Non-formal, informal
Platform, weblog, chat and discussion forum, web radio, social
Web 2.0 technologies used...
networking
Methods to support inclusion face to face schooling programmes, mentoring
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3. Short description and key characteristics
Seniorkom.at (www.seniorkom.at) is a politically independent initiative and one of the
biggest and largest barrier-free platforms for seniors in the Internet and offers informa-
tion, services and a lot of latest (regional and national) topics as well as functionalities in
the German language. It is made for elderly people who want to enjoy the Internet and
don’t want to worry about it.
The initiative Seniorkom.at was founded in 2003 and is an ongoing project of the Öster-
reichischen Seniorenrat, the ECHO Medienhaus, the Telekom Austria and Microsoft Ös-
terreich. There are a lot of other economic partners like Die Grünen SeniorInnen Öster-
reich, Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund (ÖGB) PensionistInnen, Pensionistenverband
Österreich, Österreichischer Seniorenbund and Österreichischer Seniorenring which are
supporting the campaign against the digital divide in Austria. The intended long-term
impact of the initiative is on the one hand an increased awareness of this digital divide,
on the other hand an increased number of elderly people interested and trained in IT-
skills.
A lot of elderly citizen believe that they are too old for the Internet and to old to learn
how to use a computer. This is not really surprisingly because the media illustrate the In-
ternet to be made mainly for young people. Seniorkom.at provides awareness training
in this area and tries to show the manifold possibilities. Therefore the aim of Seni-
orkom.at is to enable and facilitate the access to computer and Internet for seniors and
to inspire elderly persons in new technologies also with intergenerational work. Seni-
orkom.at combines a lot of sustainable activities for the multipliers of senior organisa-
tions, policy and economy (awareness phase) as well as for the target group of the seni-
ors (action phase).
Seniorkom.at is also a platform for seniors from seniors and has made the 3rd place for
the Constantinus Award 2004 in "Kommunikation und Netzwerke" (Communication and
Networks), has won the Jury Award at “The Federal State Award for multimedia and
eBusiness” in 2005 and was awarded for the “European e-Inclusion Award” in 2007 in
the category “Aging Well in the Information Society”. Therefore the interaction and
activity of the users is very important for Seniorkom.at. Since December 2009 Seni-
orkom.at has more than 13.300 active users and catches the interest of more than three
million visitors a year and 4.600.000 page views a month (Seniorkom.at, 2010). The tar-
get groups are mainly young oldies and retiree between the ages of 40 to 80. The web-
site is barrier-free and therefore also suitable for people with a handicap (e.g. blind per-
sons).
Seniorkom.at uses standards-based technologies and mainly (or only) open standards as
well as an accessibility-compliant of minimum WAI AA (Web Accessibility Initiative -
http://www.w3.org/WAI/) and additionally the barrier-free functionality tool easy2see,
which offers the possibility to increase and scale the text size, to change the colour con-
trast and to get navigational aid for Braille display users. The funding source comes from
the private sector.
Dimension of learning and inclusion
The project contains a series of initiatives such as face to face schooling programmes
and learning events to inform the elderly about the benefits of computers and the Inter-
net. The online portal provides relevant information on different themes for older
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4. people. Users can create their own content, communicate via forums, weblogs, chats
and participate in creativity contests.
The main social political aim of Seniorkom.at is bridging the digital divide in Austria and
to make sure that senior citizens are not left out of the Information Society and are fully
empowered to enjoy its benefits, which will contribute to improving their quality of life.
Innovative elements and key success factors
Seniorkom.at provides the user an information and communication platform with a
member area, a rating system and a search engine. The member area or club area offers
users the possibilities to participate interactively and work actively on their own user
generated content like photos, videos and texts and to integrate them at Seniorkom.at.
The users are the heart of Seniorkom.at with their various articles, entries and photos.
They can write comments, rate content, upload photos and videos (1) or take an active
part in raffles, games and voting’s as well as to communicate with others in the chat
area. Seniorkom.at offers information in the field of health, well-being, love of life, se-
curity, recreation & travelling and a lot of other topics.
There are a lot of active seniors who are contributing as hobby editors and are helping
to create their platform Web 2.0 with user generated content, weblogs (Tagebuch) (2),
forums and Internet radio, to strengthen the community and to provide broad regional
information and entertainment. Seniorkom.at offers a newsletter service and games as
well as a regional calendar for Austria. The platform has an e-learning and edutainment
area in which seniors can participate on knowledge games and memory trainings. The
seniors are no longer only media consumers, but also more and more media designer
and their own programme directors.
The club area works like a virtual common room. In the forum (3) Seniorkom.at users
can inform and exchange experiences as well as show their profile page to other users.
Registered members can discuss in the forum to new and interesting topics and also the
possibility to use the chat function (4). Both the forum tool and the chat room allow
members of Seniorkom.at to communicate with each other. Communication in the for-
um occurs not in real time (asynchronously) which offers a more structured dialogue
and communication through the chat room takes place in real time (synchronously).
Seniorkom.at registered for 2009, all together 516.895 forum contributions, thereof
117.365 have been new articles.
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5. Figure 1: Part of the profile of a Seniorkom.at member
Registered users can also collect points at Seniorkom.at (5). The more points the users
generate for their activities the more possibilities they have and functionalities they can
use at Seniorkom (e.g. photo album, own forum, chats etc.). The point system is divided
into four levels.
| Level 1: after successful registration: The first level allow users to give inputs in the
forum, to write entries into the guest book of other users, to create its own guest
book, to write and publish comments on articles, to use an own Seniorkom e-mail-
address, to administrate a friendship list and to attend on games and raffles. Further-
more it is also possible to notify the staff about the breach of rules within the com-
munity.
| Level 2: 1.000 points and more: In level 2 users can additionally open their own
photo album and send in suggestions for crossword puzzles.
| Level 3: 5.000 points and more: Level 3 offers the opportunity to manage its own
dairy (weblog) and to administer it in its own profile. The owner of the weblog can
enable only her/his friends or all community members to read the dairy. In addition
members of this level can open up and name chat rooms.
| Level 4: 10.000 points and more: Is the highest level and user can also manage their
own forum.
Users can earn 20 points by visiting the website once a day. Furthermore the users get
one point credited with nearly every click they make in the system and for every visit in
their own profile. Depending on the level each member collects 1 to 4 decorations, but-
terflies, stamps or cubes. The members can decide which of the badges they want to
show next to their profile (6).
It is also possible to add new friends (7) and members with the same interests to the
profile. And if somebody wants to leave a note, this member can write a message in the
guest book (8). Mostly you get a lot of warm welcome greetings at the beginning and
that makes it easier for new members to overcome the inhibitions to reveal something
from you personally.
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6. Since October 2009 Seniorkom.at launches its interactive Internet radio for members
called “Radio Seniorkom.at – Wir drehen auf” (Engl. Radio Seniorkom,at – turning on).
The service is presented in form of a nostalgic transistor radio (see figure 1 below). One
simple click on the replay button and the user can hear the daily generated programme.
Figure 2: Radio Seniorkom.at – turning on.
Members can choose the music for the radio programme with „Wünsch dir was“ (Wish
something) as a fixed component of Radio Seniorkom.at. In the future, Radio Seni-
orkom.at will further develop the programme with special broadcasts and contributions
(e.g. expert interviews…) where the users are strengthened involved in the design. It
should be possible that members can become a programming director too.
Seniorkom.at offers cross-generational training courses free of charge in whole Austria.
Elderly people learn from adolescents how to use the PC and the Internet and both
sides benefit from this idea. The aim of the successful courses is mainly to release the
computer barriers and to enable senior citizens to learn how to use the Internet in a
useful, practical and relevant way. Some of the courses are e.g. First steps in the Inter-
net; Searching and finding in the Internet; E-Mail, Skype & Co; Security in the Internet.
Seniorkom marketing uses logfiles as well as Google Analytic (a web analysis service) to
analyse the behaviour and usage of the users of Seniorkom.at and the website activities
itself. They steadily work with focus groups to improve their offers and applications.
Steadily the use of new technologies is being considered.
Problems encountered and lessons learned
“Lesson 1 - Connecting the generations: By learning together with the help of the new
technologies, the present barriers between the elderly and the young are reduced. Only
those who understand the others' problems accept the interconnection of the genera-
tions, both virtually and in interpersonal relationships.
Lesson 2 - Sustainability and utility of the internet: A major aim of the initiative is its dur-
able effect. The communication of the young with the elderly will be promoted after the
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7. "official" trainings. Smaller groups are thus formed and they may get together after the
training sessions to offer mutual help. A snow-ball effect thus occurs and it transcends
the "teacher and pupil" framework. The knowledge transmitted through the training will
help the elderly not only to have access to the Internet, but also to improve their life
standards with the help of the possibilities offered by the digital world. eGovernment-
Features help them to avoid travelling, they may overcome their loneliness in chat
groups and they may take part in online bids.
Lesson 3 - Enhancement of the elderly´s activity. Seniorkom.at provides many features
of interactivity. Users can discuss with others in the chats and panels. They find new
friends, and they are blogging. They organise creativity contests: users send pictures,
videos and literacy and create a "website for senior citizens to senior citizens“. Seni-
orkom.at creates virtual communities as well as real possibilities of connecting people:
national, international and intergenerational.” (epractice.eu, 2010)
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8. Collaborating institutions in LINKS-UP
Institute for Innovation in Learning, Friedrich-Alex-
ander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen,
Germany
www.fim.uni-erlangen.de
Arcola Research LLP, London, United Kingdom
www.arcola-research.co.uk
eSociety Institute, The Hague University of Applied
Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands
www.esocietyinstituut.nl
Servizi Didattici e Scientifici per l’Università di Firen-
ze, Prato, Italy
www.pin.unifi.it
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft, Salzburg,
Austria
www.salzburgresearch.at
European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN),
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
www.eden-online.org
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