A Web-Based Approach for Helping Communities Become More “Aging Friendly” – Journal Abstract

This article describes an online conference and supporting Web site designed to help communities become better places in which to age. The “Creating Aging-Friendly Communities” online conference was designed to capture the emerging knowledge being accumulated by researchers, advocacy groups, grassroots organizations, and local governments across the country, and make it available to others who were interested in learning what they could do to make their communities more aging friendly. The article begins with a brief overview of the concept of “aging-friendliness,” followed by evidence regarding the effectiveness of online modalities as mechanisms for knowledge dissemination. It then describes the innovative conference format, examining the extent to which the conference goals were achieved. The article concludes with implications for online learning modalities in general and efforts to foster aging-friendly communities in particular.