Involving Older Adults in the Design and Development of Free/Open Source Software

The world's population is greying. There are more older adults now than ever before, and it is expected that this population will grow rapidly in years to come. In addition to this rapid growth in the population of older adults, there is also rapid growth of free/open source software projects (FOSS). Despite the increasing diversity of FOSS's user base, FOSS's developer base is quite homogeneous, comprised mainly of 20-something year old males. This lack of diversity could be detrimental to the community, as many voices of end users are not heard. I aim to increase age diversity in free/open source software communities by investigating how to involve older adults. My research deliverables are as follows: a list of benefits and barriers of involving older adults in FOSS, guidelines for involving older adults in FOSS, and a prototype workshop curriculum for encouraging successful participation to FOSS by older adults.