Bridging the Gap: Smart Support for the Intergenerational distributed Family | Leaders: | Martin Gibbs & Bob Kummerfeld | | Researchers: | Steve Howard, Josiah Poon, Frank Vetere, Greg Wadley, Kalina Yacef, Ann Boettcher, Hilary Davis, Geoffrey Langdale | Traditional notions of the family in general and grand-parenting in particular, are under strain. Families are becoming more nomadic, for reasons of both employment and lifestyle choice. Regardless of whether ageing occurs in-place or within supportive facilities, the extended family is increasingly distributed and grandparents are becoming isolated from their children and grandchildren.
Furthermore, the home is becoming a space in which work and family life coalesce. Changes to the nature of work (e.g. 24/7 availability, casualisation of workforce, significant travel to workplace) is blurring the distinction between work and family and squeezing opportunities for traditional family activities. This is particularly confronting for grandparents, who partly as result of their children's complex work arrangements, have limited access to grandchildren. Opportunities to socialize and play with their grandchildren are severely curtailed because they are separated by distance (e.g. due to work commitments) or time (e.g. due to shift work routines).
The intergenerational relationships are important because: - As Australia's baby-boomers enter retirement, it is a relationship increasingly being invested with social significance and targeted by government policy for interventions;
- Sociable connection has been shown to improve the wellness of aged people helping them to remain living in their own homes thus reducing the cost to the residential care system;
- It is a relatively unexplored relationship for CMC support; It is a challenging relationship to address with CMC that will stretch the capabilities of current technologies due to the physical and mental abilities/skills of those concerned;
- The results of this project can easily be extended to other strong-tie relationships such as interaction between parents and their children (both adult and minor) or siblings living together or living apart; or between members of close friendship networks.
The Project consists of the following Streams: - Grand Parenting at a Distance: Smart Support for Intergenerational Play
- Messaging, Status and Presence
- Socially Oriented Requirements Elicitation
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