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Eleven PC-owning families were interviewed at home about their use of conventional and digital photos. They also completed photo diaries and recorded photo-sharing conversations that occurred spontaneously over a three month period after the in-home interviews. From an analysis of the resulting materials we illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of past and present technology for photo sharing. These allow us to prioritise user requirements for a range of future photo-sharing technologies or 'photoware'.

Do the gender differences found when men and women maintain personal relationships in person and on the phone also emerge when they use electronic mail? Alternately, does email changes these ways of interacting? We explore the types of relationships women and men maintain by e-mail, differences in their e-mail use locally and at a distance, and differences in the contents of messages they send. Our findings are based on both qualitative and quantitative data collected over a four-year period. These data suggest that using e-mail to communicate with relatives and friends replicates pre-existing gender differences. Compared to men, women find e-mail contact with friends and family gratifying. Women are more likely than men to maintain kin relationships by e-mail. Women's messages sent to people far away are more filled with personal content, and are more likely to be exchanged in intense burst. They are more likely than men to use e-mail to keep in touch with people who live far away. The fit between women's expressive styles and the features of e-mail seems to be making it especially easy for women to expand their distant social networks.

BackgroundBeing socially connected is related to well-being, and one way of avoiding social isolation is to deepen existing relationships. Even though existing relationships can be reinforced by regular and meaningful communication, state-of-the-art communication technologies alone do not increase the quality of social connections. Thus, there is a need for the involvement of a trained human facilitator in a network of older adults, preferably for a short period, to promote the deepening of their relationships.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the hypothesis that a human-facilitated, media-sharing social networking system can improve social connection in a small group of older people, who are more vulnerable to social isolation than most, and deepen their relationships over a period of a few weeks.MethodsWe conducted the design and evaluation of Media Parcels, a novel human-facilitated social networking system. Media Parcels is based on the metaphor of a facilitator collecting and delivering parcels in the physical mail. Extending the metaphor, the system supports a facilitator in designing time-based dialogue requesting parcels from participants that bring out their memories and feelings, in collecting the parcels, wrapping them in annotations that communicate the corresponding requests, and delivering the wrapped parcel to a target person. Qualitative evaluation was carried out in two trials with a group of three people each, one with family members (children and father; aged 55, 56, and 82 years old) and the other with a group of friends (aged 72, 72, and 74 years old), over two weeks. In each trial, data were collected in three interviews (pre-, mid-, and posttrial) and via system logging.ResultsCollected data indicate positive social effects for deepening and developing relationships. The parcel metaphor was easily understood and the computational system was readily adopted. Preferences with regard to media production or consumption varied among participants. In the family group, children preferred receiving media parcels (because of their sentimental value) to producing them, whereas the father enjoyed both. In the friendship group, preferences varied: one friend enjoyed both producing and receiving, while the other two preferred one over the other. In general, participants reported a preference for the production of items of a certain type depending on the associated content. Apart from having a strong engagement with the system, participants reported feeling closer to each other than usual.ConclusionsFor both groups, Media Parcels was effective in promoting media sharing and social connections, resulting in the deepening of existing relationships. Its design informs researchers who are attempting to promote social connection in older adults.