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The paper offers a conceptual analysis and a case study research on the design of e-participation in environmental policy-making for young people. This is achieved by connecting the concept of environmental action with e-participation design. Through a literature review, four core dimensions of environmental action for young people are identified: ownership, participation, stakes in the future and experience. Through a case study of research conducted for an applied project aimed at designing and piloting a novel e-participation solution, the paper shows how young people, implicitly see the connections between these four dimensions of environmental action and the e-participation process. The dimensions of environmental action have, then been used as the basis for co-creation activities and for a subsequent evaluation of e-participation. The results support the position that environmental action can underpin the design and can increase e-participation capacity in environmental policy-making for young people.

A growing ageing population and an increasing reliance on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to conduct activities associated with daily living means that addressing how older people learn to use ICT is timely and important. By drawing on a 4-year ethnographical study with 420 older people in two different environments, this paper shows that they adopt three strategies to become successful ICT learners, whilst at the same time dealing with the effects of age-related changes in fluid memory: (i) linking learning to real-life needs, (ii) learning collaboratively and informally, and (iii) adopting appropriate memory aids. This paper also addresses the question of how valid these results will be when today's ICT-literate adult people grow older. The longitudinal aspect of the data gathered shows that older people become confident ICT learners over time, the learning strategies and cognitive-related difficulties are mostly time-persistent, and their life experience is always important in learning transfer. Implications for providing older people with a more integrated approach to ICT learning are discussed. ; We also acknowledge the support from the Commission for Universities and Research of the Ministry of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, and the ESRC's New Dynamics of Ageing Programme (Grant Number RES-353-25- 0008).

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limits and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals. Traditionally indeed, personas and the associated scenarios are created by focusing on needs and goals of the target users. This focus, while helping designers, also obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will of personas to take action. We argue that it would be possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios too) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs. We suggest that drawing on phenomenography will allow to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation.

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limitations and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals in traditional persona research and creation. This focus, while helping designers, obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will or capacity of personas to take action. We argue that it is possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs and values. We also suggest that a phenomenographic approach to user data analysis is one way to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation.

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limitations and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals in traditional persona research and creation. This focus, while helping designers, obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will or capacity of personas to take action. We argue that it is possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs and values. We also suggest that a phenomenographic approach to user data analysis is one way to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation .

In the present report on Stakeholder- and Opportunity Analysis (D7.1), we provide the foundation for TRIPLE���s exploitation strategy and TRIPLE���s business model. By applying a broad mix of methods and tools we gained insights into relevant stakeholders, existing competition, the business environment, a first strategic orientation and derived recommendation for the future project work. From stakeholder analysis, we gained information about the stakeholder roles and needs as well as indications on their power and interest. Out of that data, we derived management strategies for specific stakeholder groups. The results are presented in an informative overview table and in a Power- Interest matrix. From our conducted environment analysis (PESTLE) we got rich information on each of the six categories. All detected factors were briefly described, classified as positive or negative and summarised in a table. The results were further processed in the finally conducted SWOT analysis. In order to get a broad overview of the competitive environment twenty-six scholarly communication platforms were evaluated through web-based research. The analysis covers an overview of offered features and functions, organisational insights, strengths & weaknesses as well as impressions on usability and user experience. Looking at the products and services provided by the competitors, we recognize that the planned feature-set for TRIPLE platform represents unique features that will distinguish TRIPLE from the competition. Attention needs to be paid on a number of agile platforms which constantly release innovative (e.g. AI-powered) features. To complement the vantage points gained from the web-based competitor analysis an interview study with general Open Science Experts and executives from existing Open Science platforms was conducted. The interview results show that despite the many platforms and services available, there are still unoccupied market niches and underrepresented user groups. Finally, the conducted SWOT analysis shows ...

Decisions on environmental topics taken today are going to have long-term consequences that will affect future generations. Young people will have to live with the consequences of these decisions and undertake special responsibilities. Moreover, as tomorrow's decision-makers, they themselves should learn how to negotiate and debate issues before final decisions are made. Therefore, any participation they can have in environmental decision-making processes will prove essential in developing a sustainable future for the community. However, recent data indicate that the young distance themselves from community affairs, mainly because the procedures involved are 'wooden', politicians' discourse alienates the young and the whole experience is too formalized to them. Authorities are aware of this fact and try to establish communication channels to ensure transparency and use a language that speaks to new generations of citizens. This is where STEP project comes in. STEP (www.step4youth.eu) is a digital Platform (web/mobile) enabling youth Societal and Political e-Participation in decision-making procedures concerning environmental issues. STEP is enhanced with web/social media mining, gamification, machine translation, and visualisation features. Six pilots in real contexts are being organised for the deployment of the STEP solution in 4 European Countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey. Pilots are implemented with the direct participation of one regional authority, four municipalities, and one association of municipalities, and include decision-making procedures on significant environmental questions.