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Connecting Communities: A Strategy for Government Support of Community Access to Information and Communications Technology
The Connecting Communities strategy aims to increase the ability of communities to access, participate in and efficiently use Information and Communications Technology. It sets out the actions that the Government will take to close the 'digital divide' and ensure that all New Zealanders are able to make the most of ICT.
CommunityNet Aotearoa Website 2002 Survey Thanks to everyone who completed the 2002 website survey. People generally expressed high levels of satisfaction with the website, and lots of useful feedback was received about improvements that could be made. The book token winners and other details were available online at:
/new/surveyresults.html
Te Wairere Wahine Hui-a-tau - Invitation 1 - 2 August 2002, West Auckland Te Wairere Wahine - Society for Maori Women in Information Technology hui will celebrate wahine Maori who are active in Information Technology fields and who add their own unique ahuatanga to the field. There will be a hui dinner on Thursday night with a guest speaker. http://www.pauainterface.com/
Elections 2002 Save the Children New Zealand has developed an interactive, on-line elections resource aimed at children and young people. The resource gives children and young people a chance to raise important issues, to learn more about the election process and to show their support for a particular issue by sending an electronic postcard. http://www.savethechildren.org.nz
An official website covering how and where to vote, information about your electorate and more:http://www.elections.org.nz/votingsub.html
For election results after 7pm on 27th July: http://www.electionresults.govt.nz
New Links: See the Recent Links page.
Palmerston North's Square Deal was developed as a forum for networking and getting information out to the wider community. [http://www.squaredeal.org.nz/ Note: no longer on-line, Nov. 2005]
Y-Dub was created by young women, for young women : ki nga wahine rangatahi, mo nga wahine rangatahi. [http://www.ydub.org.nz]
Connects is a worldwide forum for people whose lives are touched by mental health problems and /or learning disabilities. [http://www.connects.org.uk/]
sustAin provides independent advice, information and representation for individuals and groups faced with genuine environmental / resource management issues. [http://www.sustain.org.nz/]
Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust is the Waikato-Tainui's tribal management organisation. Includes a tribal register, jobs listing and information on education grants. [http://www.tainui.co.nz/]
Tip: Bookmark Great Pages
It happens over and over again. You finally find a great web page once and then you can't ever find it again.
Whichever web browser you use though, you can get around this problem by Bookmarking a page. If you use Internet Explorer you'll find you can add a page to your Favorites, while if you use Netscape or Opera you can add it to your Bookmarks. Both are the same thing.
Have a look in the menu bar for the Favorites or Bookmarks menu item. You might also find it in the toolbar or on a sidebar. Click on the menu item or button and the first choice should be to add the page to Favorites / Bookmarks.
Then keep on browsing, adding other pages as you find them. In future if you want to go to one of your favorite web pages you can just call up the Favorites / Bookmarks item and choose the page from its list to go straight there.
One page you should definitely have in your Favorites / Bookmarks is:
Once the new CommunityNet site's up and running be sure to bookmark the pages you visit often. If you have some bookmarks for the current site you might need to change them as addresses will change.
Site: Age Concern New Zealand
Age Concern New Zealand is dedicated to promoting the quality of life and well-being of older people, advocating positive healthy ageing for people of all ages.
First impressions of this site were good: with graphics off the page loaded quickly and almost all images had excellent alt text, meaning I was easily able to see what the site was about and how to get around.
This site works well because it is engaging and inviting, the navigation is superbly clear (including links within the text itself). It's comprehensive, but you never feel as though you've strayed down some path with no way to figure out where you are. The text is easy to read, in terms of both clear writing and apparent good structure. Unfortunately though the graphics look a bit shabby.
Each of Age Concern's wide range of services has a well-written paragraph or two giving you the essence of what you need to know with further links for more detail.
The clear structure of the site means it is just as easy to find a local Age Concern as it is to find a link to The NZ Retirement Guide or a factsheet on Using Your Medication Safely or information about what values the organisation works from.
A flaw in this otherwise excellent site will not be obvious to many visitors but can make the site extremely difficult for some. While it's easy for a sighted visitor to skim a page of text by glancing at headings, others *listen* to web pages or get them in Braille. These visitors are only able to "skim read" by jumping from heading to heading or from link to link. Properly coded headings and careful link text are vital to these visitors.
Unfortunately headings on this site seem to have been marked up in the coding as simply bigger and bolder paragraph text. And while most of the link text is excellent, it does fall down in some areas.
With a few refinements, such as correctly coded headings and better quality graphics, this already excellent informative and user-friendly website would be extremely hard to beat.
http://www.ageconcern.org.nz/
Electronic Networks 2002 Building Community Conference
Melbourne 3-5 July 2002
by Annette Gittos
The Electronic Networks Conference, hosted by Monash University, didn't focus so much on the metatags, Linux, or the geeky side of electronic networking. Instead a lot was spoken about trust, ownership, cultural identity, self-determination, increasing employment opportunities and community networking — all summed up in the words 'social capital'. Bridging the digital divide by giving access, skills and enabling local content was viewed as all contributing to the development of social capital.
There were about 10 of us Kiwis at the Electronic Networking Conference and in total about 230 participants from community organisations, city councils, state government, federal government and academics. Participants were mostly from Australia, but there were also representatives from Canada, Britain, South Africa and the United States.
Prior to the Conference I assumed Australia would be much more advanced and in many ways they are. As I listened to some workshops I must admit I was envious at the resources that are being applied to networking communities. The words 'if only' sprang to mind. In the State of Victoria's 2002-2003 budget major investments are being made in innovation and ICT. For example over $1.3 million has been allocated to close gaps in the State of Victoria's public Internet access network. It will be used to set up 30 more locations across the State. (Note, not all communities in Australia have the same level of funding applied to this area.)
The project 'Reach for the Clouds' was the most interesting and innovative project. 'Reach for the Clouds' seeks to provide computer and Internet access to homes of residents in the Atherton Gardens Public Housing Estate, which houses about 2000 tenants in four block high rise in the heart of Melbourne City (see http://www.atherton.org.au/). Along with the computer and Internet access, there will be training for residents and technical support services. Infoxchange, which is project managing the operation, aims to transfer ownership and management to residents within three years. Swinburne Institute is conducting research as the project is implemented which will provide valuable information and help address issues as they arise. I await with interest the outcomes of the research to see the difference that the programme makes to the residents' employment and lifestyle choices.
Australia also has the same challenges as we experience but on a magnified scale. The Australian government continues to grapple with the issue of broadband and their rural communities are increasingly isolated as the knowledge economy becomes stronger. An excellent paper by Gerard Goggin, University of Queensland was delivered on this subject 'Broadband or Ringbarked? Community Networking and Rural Telecommunications Futures'. (See http://ccnr.net/?q=taxonomy/term/15 for conference papers which will soon be posted on the website.)
We are all experiencing similar challenges such as how to give access on small community centre budgets, volunteer fatigue, sustainability, measuring outcomes, illiteracy, and encouraging participation and skill development. Applications to assist with literacy and ways to increase senior citizen involvement were ideas from workshops that we will look to apply to our Smart Communities programme in Wellington.
As I reflected on the speakers and the range of papers, I came to the conclusion that we doing many of the same things as our Australian cousins, all be it on a smaller scale, and in some cases we are ahead. MP Paul Swain has now committed the government to rolling out broadband nationwide, which will go a substantial way to helping to close the digital gaps. We have community web portals, computers in libraries and community centres, Free Community Computing courses delivered by polytechnics, PC recycling company, Computers in Homes projects, and a Living Heritage website which are all contributing to increasing access, content and skills. These may not be happening all over New Zealand, but nor is this happening all over Australia.
It was great to be amongst people who are positively trying to contribute to building their communities. The conference atmosphere was motivating and encouraging, and the Kiwis I spoke to on the flight back to Wellington who went to the Conference all felt the same way.
Annette Gittos, Strategy Manager
Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency
http://www.positivelywellingtonbusiness.co.nz
Have your Say: Want to have a say? Contact: information@community.net.nz. Please put "Panui opinion" in the subject line.