Digital Marketplaces Unleashed
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In summary, there exist some systems and providers to inform parents about news from school but they all have some disadvantages.
14.4 DieSchulApp
The previous presented software solutions are all designed to fulfill only one purpose. But digitalization takes it full prospects especially in consequent linking and connecting different systems to one workflow. Therefore the authors introduce one more digital system for schools called DieSchulApp [11]. The solution provides open programming interfaces to connect different tools, but remains on very high security‐standards. For this, identity‐ and rights management is a central part of the software. Furthermore, the system is designed to safe diverse objects – e. g. messages, calendar events, substitutions or sick notes. All entities of the platform can be accessed via a defined and structured REST‐API. This API‐first‐design makes it possible to interact with nearly every external system. Legal factors and the identity management, that grants different rights to different users, regulate the possibilities for import‐ and export – but it is not technically limited. This solution makes it possible to interact with different users and from different devices – such as Internet browsers or – based on smartphones and tablets – Android‐Apps or iOS‐Apps.
14.4.1 Identity‐ and Right Management
Software should diverse the content and rights for different users. It is necessary to be sure, that a user of the software is really the one who he impersonates his self. For this, DieSchulApp uses a combination of the secure activation protocol Vis‐a‐Vis [12] and a self‐service registration form. The activation of a smartphone app via optical transmission and one‐time‐passwords ensures that no one else can use the activation credentials. Combined with a registration form the workload to set up the user accounts is shifted and evenly distributed from the secretariat to the end‐users. With a signed and detailed form for the data privacy aspects, the system works within judicial specifications in schools.
DieSchulApp also adds information about family relationships and courses of the student to the data set. With these data, the system generates a set of groups for every user automatically. Every group is associated with specific rights on a filter‐mechanism called channels and different types of objects and services. A rule engine checks permissions on every request and allows only write‐ or read‐access if the current user is in a privileged group for the inquired resource.
This extensive right management is the key point to ensure data privacy and the correctness of the saved information.
14.4.2 Functionality
The main function of DieSchulApp is the immediately information of different target group via smartphones. Thus, the software consists of different components: A flexible backend server with strong authentication methods
A defined REST‐Interface for external software communication
A web‐interface for the secretary to manage content, users and messages of the system
An Android‐ and iOS‐Client for ‐endusers like pupils, parents or teachers
Schools are able to send diverse information to every subgroup inside the school: Teachers, classes, and attendees of additional courses, parents or even unique students. The information can be a text notification, calendar events, homework or the current substitution plan. Grounded on the identity management it is also possible for parents to report sickness of their children to school over a highly secure channel. This is a big advantage and optimizes the work for the secretariat.
All information can be actively pushed to the clients. Especially the users of smartphones are used to push notifications that tell them that there are news inside the app. For reasons of data privacy, no private information is sent to push servers of Apple or Google.
14.4.3 Open‐API and Integration
“The API economy is an enabler for turning a business or organization into a platform” [3]. With a defined REST‐API, DieSchulApp automatically communicates with other services and software components. The most used feature is the combination with substitution management software, which can be totally proprietary: A small middleware reads the substitution file and changes nearly every format in structured data. The middleware authenticates with an API‐token to DieSchulApp and adds new substitutions to the system in real‐time. The backend service is responsible for identity management and storage of the substitution events. Diverse clients can then requests actual substitutions – the smartphone‐apps for iOS and Android as well as the website or a big TV screen that shows cancellations at the auditorium. With the same structure, diverse information resources can be integrated into DieSchulApp – e. g. RSS‐Feeds, calendar events or absences. Particular in automated handling of information, all aspects of data privacy should be considered.
14.4.4 Software as a Service
Operating and support of software is a necessary task for every digital system. The circumstances and technologies are changing in a very fast way and software is in current modification to ensure security, functionality and usability with new devices. DieSchulApp runs as a centralized service in a professional data center with highest standards. This is especially necessary for privacy concerns of such a software: The control on physical access control and the data medium can only guaranteed in a highly specialized environment. Additionally the software has to run with high encryption of the data transport to eliminate attacks like man‐in‐the‐middle. With the use of trusted certificates and encryption on transport, no other than the receiver can read or change the content of a data package. This requires certain knowledge of server administration and is a key point to offer such software as a service without technical administration or further knowledge inside of the school and with the legal requirements for data privacy and data protection.
14.5 Summary
Digital innovation and the introduction of new software at schools is a challenging task for every stakeholder – the headmaster, new user of the systems as well as for the provider of the systems. In school sector, some special laws and by‐laws exist – especially the field of data privacy is very relevant for present and future implementations. Caused by the diversification of the stakeholders, there are complex social restrictions that impede an innovative technical spirit. To ensure the non‐functional requirements like security, encryption as well as user orientated suggestions like usability it is necessary to observe special technical aspects in the implementation of such a solution. There already exist several digital tools and software in schools – examples are parent information systems, substitution management, pupil administration tools or absence statistics. The different tools are built for different platforms, developed with different programming skills and with heterogeneous data‐sets. This shows the need for a central surface with open programming interfaces that is able to unify and harmonize the different tools in an extensible, privacy‐affine and secure way.
The demand on open APIs for school software will increase in future. The combination of administrative tools and educational software will be fluent if eBooks and other systems with digital right management will find their way into classrooms. This is a challenge for providers of software as well as for the government to ensure a legal and transparent way of data transmission in these systems.
References
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Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Kultus, “MEBIS,” 09 04 2013. [Online]. Available: https://www.mebis.bayern.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/04/handreichung_dsb_version_3_inkl_anlagen.pdf. [Accessed 11 09 2016].
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A. Sandeen, P. Manfredi und K. Chinnagangannagari, 19 04 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-management/expert-voices/the-need-for-a-platform-approach.html#sthash.gxaMPLNl.dpuf. [Accessed 11 09 2016].
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Untis Preisliste. (2015). [Online]. Available: http://
untis-baden-wuerttemberg.de/archiv/Preisliste_Stand_01.03.2015.pdf. [Accessed 01 08 2017].
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“Untis Manual,” 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.grupet.at/Downloads/Manuals/de/WebUntis.pdf.
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“ESIS,” 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.esis.de/.
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“DieSchulApp,” 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.dieschulapp.de/.
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M. Maier, C. Marouane, C. Linnhoff-Popien, B. Rott und S. A. W. Verclas, “Vis-a-Vis Verification: Social Network Identity Management Through Real World Interactions,” 3rd International Conference on Social Eco-Informatics, 2013.
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2018
Claudia Linnhoff-Popien, Ralf Schneider and Michael Zaddach (eds.)Digital Marketplaces Unleashedhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49275-8_15
15. The Unsung Power of Horizontal Grassroots
Aleksandra Solda-Zaccaro1
(1)TERRITORY Content to Results GmbH, Munich, Germany
Aleksandra Solda-Zaccaro
Email: asoldazaccaro@gmail.com
15.1 Introduction
A picture tells more than a thousand words and there is more in one meme than in many books. There are innumerable videos in the net with the tag “Elders react to …” [1]. In these videos, pensioners show their surprise at Twitter, the video games StarCraft and Dubstep, new technologies and modern dance music. The viewers of these videos, which sometimes have many million views, are usually not interested in the opinions of test persons with life experience, but expect astonishment, lack of understanding and comical curses. Instead of active users, elders are depicted as a symbol of the incompetence and backwardness of the mainstream. In spring 2016, the technology magazine WIRED then published a video with the title “Elders react to self‐driving Cars” [2]. While, according to the study done by the American Automobile Association, 75% of Americans are “afraid of” a trip in a computer‐operated automobile [3], elders had fewer reservations. “If my son takesmy car away from me at some stage, I will get something like that”, an elderly lady said. Another user merely said: “Simplypractical”.
Perhaps we should start a video series with the title “Elders interact with …” After all, elderly people are not all culturally pessimistic enemies of progress, but are curious, adventurous users, who are particularly able to profit from the new technologies and connections. “Elders are ‘late but fast adopters’”, says Dagmar Hirche, who manages the club “Ways out of loneliness” [4] and who has initiated the action “We will silver‐plate the net” in Hamburg. The executive consultant teaches older users “what a browser is, how the train‐app functions, and how to reach their grandchildren via WhatsApp”. Above all, easy gadgets, such as tablets and smartphones, make sure that elders use Internet communication and e‐commerce to a larger degree. Dagmar Hirche says: “Once the initial timidness has been overcome and our participants notice that, firstly, it is not witchcraft, and secondly, they are able to improve their mobility and autonomy, they soon send partners and friends to our courses”.
Digital competency “must be seen as a set of knowledge, attitude and abilities, which are required to act as a partner of the digital environment and to enjoy the advantages of technology in daily life”, write Minocha, McNulty and Evans in a report from the British Open University, and emphasize that it is “not so much a customary educational attainment, but rather a continuous learning project” [5].
All the more important is the requirement that groups within the population, which are not automatically in contact with new media through their place of employment or their education, are included in the process. In Germany there are mainly private initiatives, such as the Hirches association, besides adult education classes, which handle the topic. In England the organization “Age UK” offers appropriate courses nationwide [6]. The initiative of the Philippine megacity Quezon‐City, which offers free IT lessons for all elders and persons with physical disabilities [7], must be seen as downright visionary under these considerations.
When talking about the Internet as a tool for empowerment, it is usually about grassroots movements, that is, about digitally organized groups, which connect “the many” at “the base”, in order to push through their interests at a higher level. The evaluation of the effectiveness of these initiatives remains rooted in empiricism: how many signatures are collected for an online petition? How many million dollars will be collected on Kickstarter.com for the development of a revolutionary entertainment system? But grassroots don’t only grow from bottom to top, but also to the side, a fact that every hobby gardener will confirm. There were visions, which predicted an enlightened, democratic and more just society through digital tools. Instead, it turned out to be one‐dimensional and a little naïve. Therefore, the individual effect of communicative mobility and the experience of interaction, which elders can enjoy, cannot be overrated. The grassroots may not grow into the sky, but they form a barely visible network, which connects people with each other and through which new techno‐social possibilities are discovered.
In this essay we aim to examine how older users utilize digital media – and what uses they get from them. On the other hand, we aim to analyze whether communication spaces deserve the rating “barrier‐free”: Are accessibility (infrastructure etc.) and comprehensibility (design of interface etc.) present to an extent, so that marginalized groups such as elders, can use these new possibilities? And, if not, what is to be done?
15.2 Development of Media Usage Among Seniors
Even if elders are often presumed to lack acceptance for new media, it seems that the educational campaigns by adult education centers as well as courses there, and the permanent help from their own children are having an effect (see Fig. 15.1). In the year 2015 exactly half [8] of all interviewed elders over 60 said that they used the Internet, at least occasionally. In the year 2000 only 4.4% [9] of all elders occasionally looked at the net – only 20% of over 65’s use a smartphone [10].
Fig. 15.1Online‐Use of Best Agers in an international Comparison
According to this finding, Germany is only in the upper center in a comparison with the EU‐average – in 2014, 38% of all 65–74 year olds indicated using the Internet occasionally [11]. Specifically in the Benelux states and the Scandinavian countries the digital media has a higher penetration in this age‐group, for example in Luxemburg (79%), Denmark and Sweden (76%) or the Netherlands (70%) [12]. In the USA, on the other hand, the spread is a moderate 58% [13]. Similar to Germany, however, there is an above‐average high rise in the usage rate among older people. See Fig. 15.2. In 2004 in the EU merely seven percent of the people interviewed indicated using the Internet once a week [14].
Fig. 15.2Development of Online‐Use in the USA
If one looks, not only at the quantity but also the quality of usage, one can see that elders use the entire range of offers on the Internet. See Fig. 15.3. Right at the top is the use of emails: almost three quarters of active users over 60 use that communication service at least once a week [15]. Information research is also high on the list (59%
) and current events (36%). Videos and online shopping appear with 25 and 10% respectively. Online banking is used by just under a quarter. It is, however, noticeable that Internet services, which serve interpersonal communication, are at the bottom of the list of favorites. Social networks, such as Facebook, are used by only eleven percent of older Internet users, and even fewer use web, 2.0 offers such as Instagram or blogs (three percent), two percent are active regularly in Internet forums [16]. To a large extent this user profile matches that of other EU countries [17].