I decided after a brief consultation with Ewan and Chris that it would be best to investigate the different ways for people to be notified about changes in local paths and roads and how people found this information out.
My first encounter with a local notice board so to speak would be the online website for Fife Council, which is very formal and political, even for announcing the simplest of roadworks.
These announcements were available via PDF and not very user-friendly, in fact, really the opposite.
So how else do people find out? Well, that old place called Facebook it would seem, the exact place I am trying not to emulate, although it is hard to talk about a social aspect without looking in that direction.
A page called ‘Fife Jammer Locations’ tells locals about road accidents, about police being at the side of roads and other interesting information. This was more informal and was more readily available to the public, especially if you already had Facebook.
The one thing that interested me though, was how did older people find out about paths, roads and other hazards when they were out and about? Did they somehow manage to find some source of information that people do not normally turn to?
I stumbled upon a website called ‘On your doorstep Fife’ which was intriguing as it wanted to move away from the digital platform and get people out into the community, including the elderly. It managed this by advertising free groups and organisations that invited all types of people to come together and chat and share experiences, to create company. It made me wonder, what if the best way of becoming aware of local issues surrounding infrastructure would be to talk to other people? By simply being in other people’s company, did that increase awareness?
I decided to email some of the organisations to find out if they knew about the effect that elderely people meeting up had.