AMD and the 50 x 15 initiative
It is a source of honor and pride for AMD to see this material consolidated its desire to encourage and promote older people's access to technology and the internet. AMD (www.amd.com) is a global company and a leader in innovative microprocessor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. Founded in 1969, it specializes in providing edge solutions designed to meet customers' needs and is qualified to potentiate users' technological resources all over the world.

In 2004, AMD launched the 50 x 15 initiative (www.50X15.com), whose aim is to have 50% of the world's population connected to the internet by the year 2015. It is estimated that less than 20% of the world's population currently have access to the web. This not only prevents the populations of emerging areas from conquering better educational, social advance and business opportunities, but also restricts the chances of economic growth and involvement of these countries in the global economy.

All over the world, AMD makes partnerships with companies and organizations in order to train and help people advance and change their lives.

The Oldnet Program, which was founded and developed by the NGO Cidade Escola Aprendiz, is totally integrated and fully convergent with AMD's 50 X 15 proposals.
From this joining of ideals comes this partnership for the dissemination of Oldnet Program - an innovative and globally viable model for the digital inclusion of seniors.

Cidade Escola Aprendiz
It is with great pleasure that, we of the Cidade Escola Aprendiz (which means City School Apprentice), in partnership with AMD, present this material containing methodology for disseminating the Oldnet Program.

 Cidade Escola Aprendiz is a laboratory for community education that works with the experience of the neighborhood-school dedicated to simultaneously enhancing the community and education.

Conceived by journalist Gilberto Dimenstein and founded in the Vila Madalena neighborhood of São Paulo in 1997, Cidade Escola Aprendiz researches and disseminates innovations in education, proposing new ideas and new spaces - not restricted to schools or teaching institutions - for building knowledge and citizenship.

The aim is to integrate school and community to build a single experience of learning, in which squares, studios, stores, movies, bookstores, workshops, studios, alleys, discos and coffee bars become informal classrooms attuned to school curricula.

Watching the pathways youths travel in the urban context, and exploring the educational potential found in the community, means seeing the city as a space for learning and knowledge. What emerges from this is a school without walls and a new geography of learning.

This concept took shape through what was called the neighborhood-school, a laboratory for educational methodologies that joined education, art, communication, technology, citizenship and work, involving the whole community in training their learners or trainees. As part of this concept, courses are permanent mobilization and construction. Everybody is an educator and everybody is a learner. This bridges the gap between formal and informal education. In addition, the Cidade Escola Aprendiz projects have an associative aspect and look to build alliances between companies, communities, government agencies organs and educational institutions.

It is in this scenario that the Oldnet Program emerged and grew stronger, not just training volunteer young people and teenagers from schools partnering Cidade Escola Aprendiz but also fulfilling a long-held aspiration of integrating seniors with the educational processes already being undertaken together with the community. The Oldnet Program is a source of constant inspiration for the whole team involved due to its humanistic and innovative character and the excellent results obtained with the young people and seniors involved.

Over the seven years the program has been running, we have built up a lot of experience and learned many lessons, so we are happy to share with other educators and administrators in the social sphere who like ourselves are stimulated by educational initiatives covering the whole community and extending learning and knowledge far beyond the walls of schools and universities. This material brings together all the information that is crucial for implementing Oldnet Program workshops in different communities. We sought simple and direct communication to build methodology sufficiently open to accept possible adaptations to real situations in different localities.

In conclusion, we would like to note that the enthusiasm and effort of all those involved in materializing and consolidating the Oldnet Program are constantly rewarded on a daily basis. It is wonderful to see the results obtained as we see seniors becoming part of the digital universe, young people gaining experience as educators and the intense interchanges among them, sharing experiences and life histories.