‘Left to Our Own Devices’ sets out to challenge our preconceptions about how older people interact with technology now and in the future.
The contest is run jointly by Age UK, a national charity, and KT EQUAL, a research consortium dedicated to improving the lives of older and disabled people.
Entries will be judged not only on their photographic merit but also on how they address issues related to the central theme of older people’s interactions with technology — perhaps by challenging stereotypes, defying expectations or delivering a powerful message.
The most successful images will be selected from across four categories:
Gadgets and Gizmos.
In the Home.
Out and About.
An open category.
All the selected images will be included in a touring exhibition that will visit the Parliament at Westminster and the Assemblies at Cardiff and Stormont, and finishing at the Scottish Parliament next spring.
One image in each category will also receive a cash prize of £250.
Click on the orange/white ‘Play’ button.
Recorded outside Dalston Kingsland Road station
at 12.20 on 19 July 2011.
In their own words …
The London Sound Survey collects the sounds of everyday public life throughout London and compiles past accounts to show how the sound environment has changed.
Amongst the daily urban hubbub there’s information about who lives here, what they get up to, how they enjoy themselves and what they believe in. Sounds come in fashions from singing canaries and windchimes to car horns that play Old Dixie. They announce developments in technology, the city’s growth, and social and demographic change. They tell us of shifts in the make-up and scattering of London’s wildlife.
Stereo sound recording and playback was the first immersive electronic medium and it’s still the only really practical one. Listening to a recording of the sounds of a place or event gets the imagination working and recreates some of the sense of being there. It feels like a worthwhile end in itself simply to share those experiences with whoever’s willing to listen.
This is the best food site we have found for Internet beginners. It’s very good on food, especially recipes, and it has three resources which are pitched just right for people who are finding their way around the WWW and email for the first time …
Countdown begins to new era for London television.
Television viewers across London TV region will switch to digital-only television on 4 and 18 April 2012. Analogue signals will be turned off and Freeview coverage boosted to reach virtually all homes, including over 244,000 households served by local relay transmitters who will be able to receive digital TV free via an aerial for the first time.
The Crystal Palace transmitter group serves around 11,650,000 viewers across the London TV region, which extends far beyond the M25 into the Home Counties. Our research shows that almost 75 per cent of people in the region are already aware of switchover, and more than 85 per cent of households have already converted their main TV set.
Special assistance for older and disabled viewers.
The Switchover Help Scheme, run by the BBC, helps older and disabled people make the change to digital TV. For £40 (or free for those on certain income-related benefits) every eligible person will be offered practical help to convert one of their TV sets to digital including equipment, installation and aftercare. People are eligible if: they are aged 75 years and over; or they have lived in a care home for six months or more; or they are registered blind or partially sighted or get (or could get) certain disability benefits.
The Help Scheme will launch this summer and will write directly to everyone who is eligible in the London TV region – people must respond to get help. The Help Scheme’s Regional Manager, Samantha Latouche can be contacted on samantha.latouche@bbc.co.uk or 07590 306778 (or visit helpscheme.co.uk) and would be happy to help with any questions you may have in the run-up to switchover.
Digital UK is here to help.
Digital UK is the independent, not-for-profit organisation leading the switch to digital television and works closely with local and regional government, charities and voluntary organisations to spread the word about switchover. We advise viewers when switchover will happen in their area and what they need to do to get ready.
The Hackney Podcast was set up in 2008 to record the borough’s different faces: one of Britain’s poorest places but culturally one of its richest; an area of London profoundly marked by its history but, as the Olympics loom, caught in a frenzied period of change. From its first days, the podcast – available free to download – has provided an eclectic mix of politics, environmental issues and scenes from local life alongside cutting-edge art, literature and music.
This is an easy, informative introduction to the World Wide Web, and the way we use it now. It’s mainly about browsers, with an emphasis on security and privacy. Produced by Google to promote their Chrome browser, but is not obviously a marketing pitch.
Discover Hackney is a partnership of ten Hackney based organisations who share common goals around increasing the use and knowledge of the borough’s rich heritage and its built environment. We work together on projects which increase learning and a sense of pride about the various strands that make up the rich heritage of our diverse communities.
Age UK London has launched a new blogging site to support and enhance its campaigning and policy work. The blog features senior staff from Age UK London and local Age UKs / Age Concerns, all blogging about the big issues affecting older people in London. Any issue is up for discussion but the focus will predominately be on later life in London.
If you rent from a private landlord you can get help through Housing Benefit under a system called Local Housing Allowance. The rules are changing and most people will be worse off under the new system. To find out your Local Housing Allowance, and how it will change under the new rules, enter your postcode …
HBUpdate has been created by EntitledTo, who claim that it is preferable to the government’s own LHA website.
An update of the BBC’s excellent guides for new learners. Nearly everything on this site is useful – except the old ‘WebWise Online Course’. which is now hopelessly inadequate.
The two new online courses ‘Computer Basics’ and ‘Internet Basics’ are popular with learners. Just two problems we have noticed so far …
Something evidently wrong with the Flash and Shockwave plugins (persistent crashes that are independent of operating system or browser).
Feeble attempts to introduce humour suggest that user testing was not part of the production process; just as bad as crashing plugins.
The “What’s Your Story” project has finished, and this is the website …
From meditations on culture and identity, to tender portraits of love and loss, through stories of pleasures and passions, the What’s Your Story? series is the culmination of eleven weeks of hard work on the part of participants from four different parts of London, most of whom had never before even picked up a camera. The lasting outcome of the training programme is not only the finished films, but sustainable filmmaking skills for communities to continue sharing their real stories.
We Are What We Do is a global movement that believes it’s not just politicians, institutions and big businesses that can change the world — ordinary people can do it too.
Radio 2′s Get Connected campaign launches on Monday 1 March 2010. The aim of the campaign is to help more of our listeners get online and understand digital technology better. The campaign will run across the network for the entire month, with many shows involved including Weekend Wogan, The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, The Jeremy Vine Show, Steve Wright in the Afternoon, Simon Mayo’s Drivetime, Ken Bruce, Alex Lester, and Aled Jones’ Good Morning Sunday.
YouTube is a ‘video sharing’ website — a place where anyone can place short videos that they have made themselves, to be watched by anyone else. It started in 2005, and is now huge (more than 6 billion videos viewed in January 2009). The best way to find something that might interest you is to use the site Search engine (at the top of each YouTube page).
Left to Our Own Devices.
BBC Food.
Dear Photograph.
Digital UK.
Hackney Podcast.
Discover Hackney.
