The Internet of Things for Lifetime Communities

Abstract

As the age demography in developed economies changes toward larger numbers of older people, providing care to live healthy and independent lives for longer is becoming an increasing challenge. Technologies based on the Internet of Things are seen as a potential answer to this challenge. However, technologies in themselves are not always the right solution but need to be set in the right context. In this article we report on work we have done in co-designing the Amicitia IoT platform with stakeholders from a community in the rural town of Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland. We have done this within the concept of a lifetime community and using a social enterprise business model. The experience of using such an open, community-based, co-design process has shown that the technology development becomes more sustainable and acceptable to the end users and has the potential for more significant social impact.