Hello I have been reading digital divide with interest. We are a community enterprise innovation centre with both physical and virtual businesses. We have developed a project which supports disadvantaged groups who cannot follow traditional work patterns,such as carers, people with disabilities, older people and those living in remote areas, to set up their businesses from home. One of the identified disadvantages of home working is the feeling of isolation and lack of the rich social interaction that is inherent in workplaces.
The package we have developed uses the ubiquitous technologies that are present on all computers plus the free programmes such as VoIP; messenger and desktop video conferencing. We provide the webcam and a whole package of support which emulates the social and business networking in our Innovation Centre. This provides the face-to-face interaction which addresses the isolation of homeworkers and provides a structure of support round their work patterns. Key to the success of this is not so much the technology but its use in enabling this human social interaction. You can read more on our website www.devicesproject.org.uk [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
