Swansea council (UK) opened an internet café in March for pensioners to keep in touch with family around the world and to surf the net.

The Yahoo! Mail Internet Caf‚Äö√†√∂¬¨¬© contest awarded it a Special Mention as the caf‚Äö√†√∂¬¨¬© “proves that age isn’t a barrier to joining the www revolution.”

The pensioners can even join in events like family parties and weddings via a web cam.

Following the success, the council is looking at opening more cafés in residential centres across the city.

From BBC News.

The MyPostie project has adopted a different approach. This touchscreen kiosk, tested at a retirement village in Australia, allows older people to communicate electronically.

The kiosk does not have any keyboard nor mouse, just a touchscreen, flatbed scanner and printer. It relies on a virtual private network.

People write a letter, swipe their ID card and scan their handwritten letter on the kiosk , and it is then delivered as web mail. They can in turn receive emails from family and friends, and have them printed out.

From Australian IT.

I just can’t help mentioning here the prototype of a typewriter that sends email created by Indian artist Aparna Rao who was inspired by her mother’s frustration with e-mail and using a computer.

To make emailing as easy as writing a letter, Aparna inserted inside an ordinary typewriter electronics that automatically sends the typed letter as an email to the intended person: through the use of various sensors concealed in the body, a small chip interprets all the mechanical operations of letter writing. When the letter is finished and the paper pulled out of the typewriter‚Äö√Ñ√∂‚àö√ë‚àö¥s carriage, the email is sent via a telephone cable that fits into the back of the machine.