دانلود رایگان مقاله شبکه های اجتماعی آنلاین به عنوان یک ابزار برای حمایت از مردم با نیازهای ویژه

Abstract

Supporting people with special needs is a multi-disciplinary endeavour that involves many stakeholders. Social relations have a determining impact on the quality of the related processes. Online social networks (OSN) have demonstrated their capacity to change human interaction paradigms; however, their application to disability is a barely-explored field of research. This paper describes the design, development and deployment of an OSN in a 24/7 residence for people with disabilities in order to improve productivity, enhance the quality of care processes and foster social relations. During fourteen months of operation, 46 people, including caregivers, health professionals (psychologists, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists, among others), supervisors, administrative staff, residents and their family members, used the OSN. Our quantitative and qualitative results indicate adequate OSN technical performance; validate user-oriented design methodology; confirm productivity and quality of service improvement; and confirm the capacity of OSNs to positively influence social relations in such environments.

5. Conclusions

In this paper we have described a successful case of applying an OSN as a tool for assisting people with special needs. This included the design and development of the OSN and its evaluation over a oneyear period of real operation of the platform. As an important aspect of this application, we confirm the importance of differentiating users according to their profiles, as it encompasses very different realities, and we furthermore stress the relevance of tackling the OSN design and development from a different point of view: that derived from the natural interaction between actors, and from what an actor “expects” from the users he relates with. The concepts of Relational Groups, Relational Needs and Network Spaces arise as convenient mechanisms to address the OSN design process. Further, it is important to bear in mind the specific features of the OSN when developing the application. Following a traditional software design and development approach and putting the focus on the requirements may probably lead to complexity and wasted efforts (which in practice will entail higher maintenance costs and unsustainability), whereas including platform capabilities in the analysis allows alternative models to be found that can meet the application’s requirements with less effort required for its development. Therefore, developments should include an in-depth review of the OSN model to ensure that it strikes a good balance among functionalities, complexity and costs.