Help finding scenarios

I’m organising a project on tracking systems for elderly people. The scenario is as follow:

Elderly people, their relatives, friends and assistance personnel living in a specific area can carry a GPS device (it maybe their own mobile phone) which make it possible to visualise their position on a map (maybe google maps). They can also send short messages as in Twitter or Google Latitude. The visualisation may be possible both on a mobile phone screen or on a computer at home, possibly using applications like facebook (or any other application that support any kind of social interaction).

I’m trying to figure out how this scenario could define new services for 

• functional use (i.e. telemedicine, assistance services, ask for help)
• Persona use (i.e. reassurance when living alone)
• Social networking (i.e. inviting people for lunch, going out for a walk)

 

So, this is a call for contribution: any idea about how to use this opportunity?

I promise that I will publish a list of all the possible scenarios on this blog. We may also think of an award for the best idea, but if I promise for instance a trip to Aalborg I’m not sure I will have too many contributions.

Google latitude:the net becomes local

I was waiting for it, and finally, here it is: a google maps application to connect maps with mobile phones, in order to “trace” people’s geographical location.  the application is Google Latitude, With this applicatio you can locate your mobile phone on a google map and you can also see where your friends and family are (provided that they want to make themselves traceable). You can exchange messages with them and you can decide upon activities to do. In the past there were other applications, such as Brightkite, which had similar funzionalities, but this application on Google seems more powerful to me, because it directly works on google maps, which is now commonly known by many people.

Why is it so innovative?

Because I think this is just the beginning of a big conceptual change in the use of the internet and Web 2:0 applications. So far those applications have been relatively indefferent to geographical locations, you could chat with friends on the other side of the world or those next door, but their position was not relevant, after all. Of course in facebook and with Twitter people were sometimes using messaging to take appointment or to exchange information about local happenings, this means that there was a need to bring context-neutral Web2:0 applications to reality, to local contexts. With goolge latitude people can have a rapid view of what is going on in their city/neighbourhood, check what their friends closeby are doing, and possibly retrieve local-related knowledge. In other worlds this application has a huge potential to support geographically placed communities, to support active social participation to local life, to generate social innovation

I’m thinking of using those applications for elderly people living indepdently, this should be a research project, however, at the moment I’m looking at other users of latitude, to check the potential of this application. Anyone around?

Radiomamma, improving life quality and creating social innovation

Whoever can read Italian and has an interest in social innovation should have a look at Radiomamma: a network of people living in Milan, who are sick and tired of a tremendous situation in which they have no assistance from public services and decided to help each other in finding solutions to very simple problems for everyday.

Saying Hello – design for ageing

A project called “saying hello” was funded in Wigan Borough UK, with the aim of working in partnership with elderly people, healthcare authoroties and voluntary agencies on investigating ways in which ageing people manage potential and actual loneliness and isolation and strategies to prevent and reduce loneliness.

UandITrade

How many of us leave in homes full of stuff we do not use any more (or we have never used?). How many of us have kids that outgrow their clothes after few weeks and would like to save on those clothes?
I came across a website in USA to exchange overgrowing stuff.