Project TAO

The project at a glance

“TAO” (Chinese for way, method) is not only a placeholder for the Chinese ideograph but also an acronym for “Third Age Online”. The main target of the project is to highlight the ways in which the access of older persons to the opportunities offered by online communities can be facilitated. At the same time, the project aims to profit from the growing number of older persons to advance charitable projects of online communities.

Two kinds of online communities are at the centre of attention: On the one hand partly goal-oriented senior communities such as Seniorweb Switzerland and Seniorweb Netherlands, on the other hand goal-oriented Wikimedia communities with a mixed target group.

The main focus of the project is on two important challenges that pertain to the enhancement of older persons’ participation in online communities:

• To develop effective methods and measures for motivating older persons to participate in online communities and for fostering the intergenerational integration of these communities.
• To adapt the design of the user surfaces and the functionalities of online platforms to the specific needs of older persons (all the while considering the needs of the existing community).

Project Duration

The project will last from October 2010 through September 2013 (36 months).

Funding

The project budget amounts to around 3 Mio. Euro. Roughly one half of that sum is being funded within the European Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Joint Programme. The remaining project resources have to be contributed or raised by the project partners themselves.