The Concept

Mobile Age project focuses on open government data, mobile technology, and the provision of public services in relation to Europe’s elderly population. Europe’s senior citizens are growing steadily and are predicted to comprise of 28% of Europe’s population by 2020. However, senior citizens do not normally share the same level of connectivity to the Internet as younger generations, and while government agencies are increasingly providing their services through digital platforms, this risks excluding senior citizens from the design and use of such services.

Mobile Age provides the basis for the development of mobile-based open government services focused on senior citizens.

A co-creation methodological approach is followed that allows a substantive participation of senior citizens and make them benefit from the production and use of open data for cities. This is achieved by pursuing four objectives:

1. explore and implement innovative ways to support senior citizens to access and use public services through personal mobile technologies that are based on open data
2. develop and deploy co-creation approaches and methodologies to engage senior citizens effectively
3. develop a situated, practice-based understanding of accessibility, mobility and usability of services from a senior citizen’s point of view
4. develop a framework for impact assessment and evaluation for co-creation approaches to open service development for the ageing population.

Mobile Age’s approach will be applied in cities and counties that are already providing innovative approaches for the participation of senior people in the development of city services, namely Bremen, South Lakeland, Zaragoza and the Region of Central Macedonia, with scenarios related to social inclusion, extending independent living, data curation for a safer and more accessible city, and the management of personal health information.

The ultimate aim of the project is to develop a transferable model which can be implemented in other European cities.