A social network specialized for the elderly meets the Social Internet on Things (SIoT) principles

The average age of the world's population is increasing and the life expectancy extends to another 10 years by 2050. The growing number of older adults increases demands on the public health system and of the related care costs. To reduce such costs, the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to support integrated healthcare services in elderly homecare can give an important contribution. The SOCIALIZE AAL project aims to create a new Social Internet of Things framework able to simplify the modalities with which elderly people have access to dedicated services, living in a technology-served environment. The paper describes SocializeNet, the software core of the project. SocializeNet permits the interoperability among the services developed with enabling technologies for the Internet of things, realizing a true social network specialized to the elderly people following W3C recommended standards. Moreover, the paper focuses its attention on the services where intelligent "objects" are able to interoperate without human intervention.