Abstract
This paper presents an overview of the donation based crowdfunding state of the art, establishing a classification scheme to analyze the major platforms, and discussing current research trends and future challenges of crowdfunding as a social inclusion instrument. In many social exclusion situations crowdfunding is the last stronghold to ensure the access to basic commodities, essential to the daily life and well-being of individuals. Despite the commercial success of many crowdfunding platforms, this study shows future research opportunities in the crowdfunding as an inclusion mechanism that can trigger a broader adoption for social causes. The high social impact of the research contributions in this domain can also contribute to make it a hot topic in the upcoming years.

Abstract

Abstract
The aging process causes physical and psychological changes, as well as social changes. It is one of the major risk factors for the onset of diseases and introduces restrictions on people's lifestyle. Although it constitutes a natural process undergone by every human being, the consequences of aging may be intensified by the deterioration of the social bonds and the loss of contact with family and friends, particularly when the elderly are permanently moved to an elderly care residence center. The usage of telepresence devices has been suggested to promote social interactions between older people and their social groups, allowing people to be in touch even though they are not close. This paper reviews four cases of telepresence robots being used to support the elderly and concludes that this type of solution and technology has made considerable progress, currently finding itself in its maturity stage, as shown by the cases described.

Abstract
For elderly people, social isolation is one significant factor in the deterioration of their life's quality. It has a profound impact on the general health and is produced by the diminution of social interactions. Nowadays, there is technology that can retrieve contextual data from the user's environment and interact with him in some simple, yet effective manners. The intelligent personal assistants can interact with the person by means of natural voice language. Previously, it was created a model for the adoption of electronic intelligent assistants by the elderly, as well a preliminary evaluation of the features of the intelligent personal assistants, currently available in the consumer market. In this article, it is evaluated the option of using the current consumer digital assistants to implement the proposed model. Several assistants were examined (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple), and their functionalities evaluated by creating four interaction scenarios and assessing the assistants' compliance with these scenarios.

Abstract
Assistive systems which incorporate different technologies to provide simple and quick, yet informative, content, have recently been proposed to alleviate the mobility and accessibility constrains of users with visual impairment. Currently, technology has reached a maturation point that allows the development of systems based on video capturing, image recognition and geo-location referencing, which are key for providing features of artificial vision, assisted navigation and spatial perception. The miniaturization of electronics can be used to create devices, such as electronic canes equipped with sensors, that can provide contextual information to a blind user. In this paper, we describe the current work on assistive systems for the blind and propose a new perspective on using the base information of those systems to provide new services to the general public. By bridging the gap between the two groups, we expect to further advance the development of the current systems and contribute to their economic sustainability.

Abstract
With the rapid growth in the use of digital platforms for the dissemination and expansion of a company’s business reach, it is vitally important that startup firms are firmly aware of the options when deciding whether to adopt a particular technology because they often have low resource availability, which reduces their margin for error. In order to help these companies to adopt Digital Marketing in a more secure way by knowing the most relevant factors that they can find as concerns the adoption of technologies, this study will analyze the factors that influence the adoption of technology, identifying them initially through the systematic literature review of similar scientific works. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.