I can report progress on the intergenerational communications scheme I wrote about two weeks ago.

Well, for a start it is now called the Interfamily Personal History Online Scheme, or IPHOS for short.

More importantly, two weeks ago I sent an outline proposal to the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, and also to a civil servant at the Department For Education.   As the scheme, sorry IPHOS, is to get school children to improve their older relatives’ computer confidence and competence, the minister and department responsible for schools seemed good places to start.

Well, this morning I got a call from the civil servant who said he liked the scheme.

He cautioned that the minister would probably decide that the proposal was too ‘hands on’ to deal with, and that instead I should talk to local authorities as these were responsible for the day to day educational activities of schools within their areas.

Rather than ‘cold call’ local councils, I thought I would see what endorsement or support I could get from Race Online 2012, whose purpose is to get as many people in the UK online and computer competent by the end of 2012 as possible.

Race Online 2012 is headed by Martha Lane Fox, so any backing the scheme (alright, IPHOS) gets from that organisation will receive the necessary publicity.

So I have just sent them an email asking what level of support I can expect from them.

I have adapted IPHOS to include a ‘deliverable’ whereby children who nominate an older relative to populate their Lifebox with their life histories and details about their friends and relatives will tell their classes about the interesting personal histories they have helped capture online.

This must appeal to teachers, families and pupils alike for it will enable children to tell each other in an ordered way their families’ histories thereby encouraging an interest in social history and an appreciation of their older relatives’ lives and times.

IPHOS might, of course, be one of hundreds of schemes with nice acronyms that never see the light of day, but I’m hopeful it might be a runner given the input of the DoE official and hopefully the backing of Race Online 2012.

Now I also need the support of a computer supplier or retailer such as Sony, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, HP, Currys or Comet and IPHOS will have some ‘traction’ as the marketeers like to say.

I will keep you posted.

Tags: children, Dell, DfE, family history, local authorities, Martha Lane Fox, Nick Gibb, older people, Race Online 2012, schools, Sony, teachers, Toshiba

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