Posts from — October 2007
Telecom pays out to charities
Earlier this year Telecom messed up, leaving some customers without Internet access for a long time. Now they’re donating to several organisations, as an apology:
The chosen charities are the Child Cancer Foundation, the National Heart Foundation, the RSPCA and World Vision New Zealand. The recipients were chosen by Xtra users and each receives $250,000.
Good on you, Xtra voters!
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October 18, 2007 No Comments
Broadband in the Ureweras
With the Ureweras in the news at the moment on account of ‘terrorist raids’, it’s interesting to read a post by Ernie Newman of TUANZ about his trip there. He was looking at broadband and its impact on economies and people’s lives:
It’s said that a new teacher arriving in the middle of the Ureweras was gobsmacked to find the broadband speeds better than in town! And a number of these isolated people have already completed university degrees on line.
The real benefits, Riaka explains and others later reinforce, comes when the kids start using computers both at school and at home. The kids then teach their parents computer skills, parents attend school for more formal computer classes, and bingo – parents are suddenly connected and engaged with their kids’ learning.
[Via : TUANZ (Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand).]
And yet, the government declined to provide funding from the Digital Strategy’s Broadband Challenge pool that would connect a very large chunk of the region to broadband
.
We have reached a time when broadband Internet access is starting to become as much an essential facility as electricity and water. We need to find ways to ensure that everyone has access to broadband, wherever they are in New Zealand.
By the way: another snippet of particular interest (but the whole post is worth reading):
despite the subsidy of the Kiwi Share a significant and increasing number of the Coasters are foregoing their land lines and relying wholly on cell phones.
October 18, 2007 No Comments
Google Earth and your community
Britt Bravo posted today about the power of Google Earth’s KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files to bring about community change: Notes from Google Earth Outreach at Net Tuesday:
In the ten days following release of the Appalachian Mountaintop Removal KML in Google Earth, more than 13,000 people from every US state and more than 30 countries signed this online petition to stop the dumping of mountaintop mining waste into waterways.
She writes about several other examples too — about the Google Earth flyover that showed the effects of logging on a local community …
We then flew virtually up the Los Gatos Creek canyon:
- past their homes and their children’s schools
- along our steep and narrow mountain roads that would be burdened with a dozen/day 90,000 lb. logging trucks navigating more than 30 blind curves where children walk to school
… and about projects showing the spread of avian flu reports, the crisis in Darfur, tracking polar bears, and mountaintop removal.
Have you looked at Google Earth? Could you use it as a tool for your community organisation? Read more at Google Earth Outreach:
As a non-profit or public benefit group, you can use Google Earth to capture the work you’re doing, the people you’re helping, the challenges you face and the change you’re helping to enable - all in the visual context of the environment in which these stories take place. By downloading your KML files, anyone, anywhere can fly in Google Earth from where they live to where you do your work. This virtual visit to the projects and people you support gets users engaged and passionate about what you’re doing and builds support for your cause.
- Google Earth showcase
- In-depth case studies
- Google Earth and KML tutorials and templates — you don’t need to be a programmer.
- Google Earth Outreach Tour
October 18, 2007 No Comments
Broadband crucial - not just for businesses
A news item today points out that our awareness of broadband Internet and what it can do for us has grown enormously since 2005.
Although the item below mentions New Zealand businesses, broadband Internet is crucial across all of our society. Community organisations, schools, clubs and individuals are all discovering how useful and important instant-on, high speed access to the Internet is.
Gearing businesses up for a digital future will be the focus of an impending revision to the Government’s Digital Strategy.
The Digital Strategy — originally launched in 2005 — is being revamped in light of rapid technology changes.
Acting manager digital development at the Ministry of Economic Development Janet Mazenier said attitudes to broadband had changed considerably in the the 2 1/2 years since the original digital strategy was launched.
Mazenier — who is in charge of the digital strategy revamp — said back then people weren’t sure what broadband was or why they needed it.
Now there is a call for highspeed fibre networks and connections to the rest of the world, she said.
A slow, occasional connection to the Internet (dial-up), is fine when all you want to do is access mainly plain text information with a few small images. It’s fine if the Internet provides mainly static content of limited utility. And that could have been the case 10 years ago.
But these days the Internet is providing so much more, both in utility and in connectedness. So much of the content is very rich: think Google maps, Wikipedia, podcasts — audio and video — TV programmes streaming or on demand, music. Think too of ‘connection’ applications: Chat (text, audio or video), social networking tools such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
These days the Internet is becoming another utility, just like water, power, phone and drainage. 50 years ago a home may have had a couple of power points in the whole house; now there will be a couple on each wall of each room.
Dial-up Internet just isn’t sufficient any more, and not just for businesses.
October 15, 2007 No Comments
Technology Scout - an asset for every organisation
There’s a lot happening on, with and to the Internet. Can your community group keep up? Should you keep up? Could a Technology Scout be an answer? Written for and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, October 2007.
Here’s a sweeping generalisation: people under 25 are deeply engaged with the Internet, and with their cellphones; people over 25 are not.
Like all generalisations, it can easily be challenged (it’s not true of the writer, for example), but it does contain an important seed of truth.
Add another generalisation — that most community groups are dominated by people over 30 — and we have a clue that leads us to a communications gap.
‘Social’ sites such as MySpace and Facebook are increasingly popular. If your groups wants to reach out to and engage with younger people then you need to go to where they are.
But it’s MySpace today, and Facebook tomorrow. These things change all the time. How can your group keep up? Especially when you’re already busy doing the things you’ve been doing for a while.
My suggestion is to create a new volunteer (or paid) position: Technology Scout. This person needs a willingness to learn about two things: your organisation and new technology.
They don’t need to know it all already, but they do need a decent computer, a broadband connection, and the time to explore and learn.
Their job is not to fix the broken printer, or to figure out why a spreadsheet formula doesn’t work.
Their job is to explore the world of new technologies, especially, but not only, the Internet, and to work out where and how your group should be involved: to scout the terrain and suggest a way forward.
While blogs such as this one can provide general clues for community groups about what’s happening in technology, a Technology Scout could take that information, explore it, and apply its possibilities to your group’s specific situation.
The Scout should also engage with Webstock — perhaps applying for a free registration for the February 08 conference. Note: applications close on 3 November, so apply now.
Also watch yMedia and keep an eye on the yMedia Challenge that “aims to connect media students with [NZ] not-for-profit organisations (NPOs). In one weekend, students and NPOs will come together to hear inspiring leaders, brainstorm possible digital solutions and share knowledge and ideas.” The students will go on to compete to produce an effective and intelligent digital media solution for their chosen NPO.
A few New Zealand groups are already taking steps into this new territory — Webguide 2.0, to be launched soon, will carry Case Studies — but many more need to be investigating the possibilities.
I believe a Technology Scout would be an asset for every organisation.
Written by Miraz Jordan, MacTips.info.
October 11, 2007 3 Comments
