Cathy Fowley is an independent scholar, who holds a PhD in Internet research. Her main research interests are in the fields of lifewriting, digital literacies, older people and the internet.  She currently works on an Erasmus research project on online learning for older people. She is co-founder and director of Silver Thread Ltd, a social innovation enterprise whose mission is to engage older people in writing stories from their lives, in communities and nursing homes, and to publish these stories.