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GenerationXperience
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GenerationXperience
Method(s) Used
Name of person who posted the project:Dominic Potter
Location of project:United Kingdom
Date when the project started:2007
Date when the project ended/project ongoing:2008
Background to project:In March 2005, the Pensions Service established Opportunity Age. Thus named, the Department for Work and Pension?s ?strategy for older people? aims to challenge stereotypes about older people and ensure that the over-50s are able fully to participate in society and lead a decent quality of life. From Opportunity Age have emerged eight pilots (called LinkAge Plus) designed to coordinate services bringing central government, local authorities and civil society bodies into strategic partnerships. The GenerationXperience blog was launched in 2007 with the first UK Day for Older People taking place on 1 October 2007.. Purpose of project:The GenerationXperience campaign was designed to broaden the DWP?s participation base and enhance its Older People?s Strategy. By combining offline and online activities, the DWP hoped to appeal to the increasing number of older people already using the internet, and encourage late adopters to harness new technologies to connect with government. Offline events around Older People?s Day were mentioned on the blog.. Aside from policy, GenerationXperience aimed to: *Inspire action; Project activities:The blog was set up using WordPress with a standard interface incorporating campaign branding; the DWP logo was low-profile for positioning purposes. GenerationXperience groups were also set up on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and MySpace (although they were never used); it was intended that these would form networks around the blog (which would then operate as an aggregating hub).. Project results:The GenerationXperience blog is a useful case study to learn from as it received quite a bit of criticism along specific themes. These themes were:. *Level of posting ? this tailed off after the first few weeks which meant that there was rarely new content added to the site. *Level of cross-fertilisation ? linking to other relevant sites was not a strong feature of the blog, and there was online and print media criticism of the site only engaging those already involved. *Use of language and implied definitions ? categorising the over-50s as generically ?older people? also received some criticism. . Despite these drawbacks, this remains a good case study, as some key lessons to sustain a good start to a blog would seem to be: ensure regular posting of new material; ensure that the blog is well-linked to other sites and sources of relevant opinion and services ; and ensure that the phrasing and language used on the site won?t offend any of the intended end-users. . Contact details:The pilot has now ended. To find out more information about the over-50s agenda and resources, see www.direct.gov.uk/en/Over50s or the DWP website at www.dwp.gov.uk/. For more detailed information on this case study, it is also included in the Digital Dialogues Third Phase Report at www.digitaldialogues.org.uk/ . |
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