The brief

IRISS commissioned this report in order to find out more about how service users and carers have adopted social media to collaborate, find and share information. The brief comprised the following elements:

1. Service users and carers as well as professionals may benefit from a better understanding of the scope and potential offered by a collaborative web 2.0 approach to knowledge sharing in obtaining and purchasing care support services.
2. Identify uses of social networks by services users and carers which will capture examples of good practice and evaluate centralised approaches which are effective and sustainable.
3. Understand which approaches are effective and sustainable and which are not. In particular, to consider the effectiveness and sustainability of centralised services such as shop4support.com.<
4. The research should explore various social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to identify relevant communities.
5. The report will identify current activity, the potential for development and recommendations on sustainable models.