JokamajoInstituut

Families in a multimedia society
PhD research
FWO-Flanders funding

A four-year PhD research project to investigate the implications of ICT for family life. The research methodology consisted of an integrated quantitative and qualitative investigation. 1000 flemish households were surveyed and 10 Flemish families participated in a more experimental design. Findings indicate that families customise ICT in order to fit their family theme. Inside the boundaries of this family theme, ICT is capable of influencing family functioning. As such, ICT use can add to a pre-existing family problem but may just as well be regarded as tools to establish family cohesion.

Enabling Community Communications - Platforms and Applications (EnComPAs)
Eureka Celtic labeled
IWT funding

The goal of this project was the development of a co-creation toolkit that would enable users to actively engage in ICT innovation. For that purpose three types of communities were chosen: the family, the school and the city.

Family
Follow-up study engaging 12 Flemish families in a co-creation trajectory led by a multidisciplinary research team consisting of engineers, communication sociologists and designers. The families were involved in conceptualizing and designing communication applications that would enable and support family communication in the future. For this innovative research work, the eight-person project team was chosen as a laureate in the 2006 FITCE Belgium young ICT personality contest. We've condensed our findings in a conference paper and a subsequent journal article.

School
Inside the EnComPAs project co-creation tools were also applied to find an ICT solution for chronically ill children that are not able to go to school. Together with two classes in the Heffen primary school, the research team engineered a communication appliance to this problem.

City
The city of Lommel was chosen to engage in a community TV project. The people of Lommel were engaged in a field trial of the Alcatel-Lucent my own TV application. By using co-creation tools they were involved in the production of the LommelTV content. It is the first project in Europe in which people can create and broadcast their own TV channel on television. The project was covered by BBC Newsnight.

Neighbourhood TV
Koning Boudewijnstichting funding

Neighbourhood TV is a crossmedia project. Different ICT are used to enhance social cohesion in Balendijk West. Balendijk West is a social housing estate in the city of Lommel. Most of the inhabitants are immigrants. The aim of the project is to stimulate and support contact between people from different cultures that are living in the estate. Futhermore, the project wants to air a positive image of the estate by emphasizing the strengths of the Balendijk West community. The ICT used in this project are: printed media, internet, television (via the LommelTV application).

Browsing Trough Smart Objects Around You (SmartTouch)
Eureka ITEA labeled
IWT funding

The SmartTouch project is the largest effort on piloting Near Field Communication technology in the European Union. SmartTouch explores the use of touch-based user interaction to demonstrate new and innovative mobile services. Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enables touch-based interaction with a mobile phone and our physical environment. Touch-based interaction creates opportunities for new, user-friendly applications, transactions and communications. Inside this project we are examining the role of Near Field Communication Technology (NFC) in City Life and in the Home. In a multidisciplinary team we create inspiring applications that try to ‘touch’ people’s aspirations.

Electronic Entertainment for Senior Citizens (SBOX)
Project at Leuven Engineering School

Play may well be timeless and ageless, but the average age of consumers for digital games remains between 15 and 35. Senior citizens though - an ever increasing segment of the population - are apparently being ignored by the games industry. The Sbox project was setup to prove that those who have reached the age of 65 or more can be actively involved in this sector. In this project the aim is to have computer games developed by students for, and in conjunction with, senior citizens. More information can be found on the GroepT wiki pages and in this SBOX conference paper.

CitizenMedia
FP6
European Committee funding

Citizen Media is a collaborative FP6 research project which unites leading creative and technology experts from across Europe on research, development and validation of A/V systems to enable multiple non-professional users to co-create networked applications and experiences based on their own user-generated content.In the CitizenMedia project the research team is involved in research into web 2.0. mash-up applications that link people together by using collaborative storytelling. In order to fully live the practice of storytelling the research team is joined by ‘lead users in storytelling’.