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Older People Adopting the GreyPath Village Lyceum: an Analysis Informed by Innovation Diffusion

Jerzy Lepa,  Lecturer, School of Information Systems, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, 3000. Email: Jerzy.Lepa@vu.edu.au

Arthur Tatnall, Senior Lecturer, School of Information Systems,Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, 3000.  Email: Arthur.Tatnall@vu.edu.au


Keywords

Innovation, Internet, older people, GreyPath

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to set out a research approach to the investigation of how the older people of Australia are being enticed, encouraged and stimulated to take up an innovative new Internet technology: the GreyPath Village. There must be many reasons, attractions and vehicles involved in any discussion of why older people adopt Internet technology. Already a significant proportion of older people are using the Internet, however this is not in the same proportions as for younger groups. One recently developed approach to attract older persons to the Internet, is that of the GreyPath Village Lyceum, a virtual community and chat facility for older people, accessible through the GreyPath portal (http://www.greypath.com.au/). This paper will use a diffusion of innovations framework to outline a research approach to investigating the nature of this innovation and its adoption by older Australians.


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