Category — Tools
NZ rural libraries and broadband Internet
Recently Paul Reynolds talked with Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand National about Three community projects. He mentioned Kiva, a microfinance scheme; laptops for kids in Niue through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project; and a New Zealand group called Aotearoa Peoples Network:
The Aotearoa People’s Network is about providing free access to broadband internet services in public libraries so that all New Zealanders can benefit from creating, accessing and experiencing digital content.
Paul wrote in his blog:
I love talking about this project - which is tasked to deliver fast/free Internet access, plus new machines, plus some open source community story telling software, Kete, to a growing number of public libraries in New Zealand.
The current offerings are primarily rural. There is a blog, here, which tells some interesting tales. also, a map of the project libraries, here, plus the official site is here
[Via : McGOVERN ONLINE: Three community projects with Jim Mora - Radio New Zealand National.]
Paul has links to the mp3 file of his interview.
Side note: Radio NZ has many interesting technology ’slots’. Subscribe to the podcasts to stay well-informed about what’s going on with technology and the Internet.
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August 29, 2008 No Comments
Oxfam’s YouTube vid is a powerful fundraiser
The Oxfam New Zealand Christmas Video did the rounds in 2006 and is available on YouTube. It’s about a minute and a half long, and is a humorous encouragement by cartoon farm animals: Don’t buy crap this Christmas, buy me
.
This refers to Oxfam’s Unwrapped campaign that encouraged people to combine giving:
…something special to your friends or family and … something extra special to people who haven’t got much at all.
Gifts include items such as mosquito nets, ducks, coffee plants, donkeys and other items that help improve the lives of people in poverty. Your direct recipient received a certificate and an overseas aid programme received funding.
Oxfam’s campaign has now won the Not-For-Profit Marketing Award, at the TVNZ/NZ Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards.
… rather than use the well-trodden and worthy “do something for someone less fortunate” angle that many charities adopt, Oxfam decided to have some fun and focus on the rubbish most people give each other at Christmas time. That led to the release of an online song called Don’t Buy Crap This Christmas.
… After watching the video, viewers could click through to the Unwrapped website to purchase any of the ‘Oxfarm’ band members (the animals) or other quirky, but life-saving gifts.
The budget was tiny, but the only media cost was the initial seed email ($1188 in send costs). … It worked! Fewer people bought “crap” than ever before. Instead they went online in their thousands and bought goats, chickens and donkeys for Africa (and other places).
Read the full article at the AllBusiness.com website. Warning: the site is atrocious, with pop-up rubbish and flashing, distracting garbage, and weird frames.
August 27, 2008 No Comments
Microsoft software donations
TechSoup has come to New Zealand, bringing donations of software for community organisations:
TechSoup New Zealand provides donated software and hardware from companies such as Microsoft to eligible New Zealand Charities, Voluntary and Community Groups registered as a charitable organisation under the New Zealand Income Tax Act 2004.
If you’re still persevering with costly proprietary software — programs such as Microsoft Word — this could be very useful for your organisation.
There’s not a lot there for Mac users at the moment: 2 programs. Virtual PC which is of use only to people using older Macs that don’t have an Intel processor, and Powerpoint for those who don’t use Apple’s own Keynote.
Windows users have more than 100 programs listed.
Linux users are likely to use Open Source software anyway.
… New Zealand organisations have already begun to register and receive software donations.
There are minimum product and ordering frequency requirements for eligible organisations with charitable status. So it is important you register now and then think about what your software requirements may be over the coming year.
The software itself is donated free of charge, but there is an administration fee of only 4% of the retail value of the product. This amounts to a mere $13+GST per copy of Windows Vista (Business version), only $27+GST for Office Professional Plus 2007 and $89+GST for Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition.
[Via : CommunityNet Aotearoa.]
There are, of course, plenty of other options — we often write about them here. For many purposes you can replace Word, Excel and Powerpoint with Google Docs or Open Office, and Mac users have an excellent suite of Apple software in Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
There’s loads of Open Source software available to handle almost everything you can imagine doing with a computer, and many online web applications take the emphasis off storing and using information on isolated computers and allow greater collaboration. For example, Basecamp is an excellent online collaboration tool.
Explore Techsoup and see what it can offer. There may be something there that can save your organisation hundreds of dollars, freeing up funds for more exciting online initiatives.
August 22, 2008 No Comments
Engage Your Community Conference Agenda
Here’s Google Calendar version of the Wellington conference agenda so you can add it to your own calendar using it’s iCal feed
To learn how to create your own public Google Calendar showcasing your own events read our guide: Make Your Public Event Calendar Usable To All
What’s the conference about - this:
This is a conference pitched at an introductory level. If you’ve ever wondered how the web could be better used by your organisation; or know what a blog is, but not how it could be useful; or are a little nervous about opening a Facebook account, then this is a conference for you. If you think the internet is for geeks, or young people, or those with nothing better to do with their time, then this is a conference for you. And if you want to move beyond using email and having a simple website, then this is a conference for you.
This is a cross posting from MiramarMike.co.nz
August 15, 2008 No Comments
Make it shareable: The Girl Effect - a YouTube video and a social cause
YouTube videos are a powerful way to not only communicate a message but have it spread quickly and easily. One extremely useful feature is that they make it easy for, and encourage, bloggers and others to share a video, perhaps by embedding it in a blog post, like this one.
Each video includes code at the end that viewers copy and paste to share the video around. Those who find the cause interesting can quickly and simply ‘pass it on’.
Take a look at The Girl Effect as an example.
Unfortunately they’ve done themselves a real disservice by creating their website in Flash — on my machine it was slow to load and then I was unable to copy and paste crucial information from the Fact Sheet. +1 on the easily shareable YouTube video. -1 on the hard to share website.
[Via : eggs benedict and two flat whites - News > The Girl Effect.]
August 12, 2008 1 Comment
