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Election 2002: 27 July
Find details about enrolling, the electoral system, boundaries etc at Elections New Zealand. http://www.elections.govt.nz/
CommunityNet Survey
Changes are on their way at CommunityNet Aotearoa in response to feedback from community groups, and our own analysis. Although the upgraded website will be available soon (around September), we still want feedback on how well we are doing.
A short survey will be used by the website managers, the Department of Internal Affairs, to monitor your satisfaction with the website. The short survey takes about five minutes to complete and you can enter a prize draw.
Development Education Workshop
The Council for International Development is hosting a workshop 1-2 July 2002 in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand for Development Educators (in schools and non-governmental organisations). http://www.dev-zone.org
Maori.nz coming soon
The InternetNZ council has made an interim decision approving the .maori.nz domain name. Conditions will be discussed and the final decision will be made by InternetNZ on July 19. http://www.nzmis.org.nz
New Links: See the Recent Links page.
NZ Association for Adolescent Health and Development is a national network organisation for people working with young people (those aged 12 to 25) in health, education, social work and other sectors to promote adolescent health and development. http://www.nzaahd.org.nz/
Political Policy Online
Compare the policies of all the main New Zealand political parties in detail, and in a concise, straightforward summary. Uses the exact words used by the party for that policy issue. http://www.policy.net.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/
Volunteer Wellington assist and train organisations in the management of volunteers, to enhance the experience for both the organisation and the volunteer. http://www.volunteerwellington.org.nz/
Eco-Village and Cohousing Association is a national umbrella network linking people, projects and the global Eco-village community. http://www.converge.org.nz/evcnz/
Tip: Pick a Good Web Browser
On the Internet six months is a lifetime. Every few months new web browser software is released and the way people make web pages changes constantly. To be sure you get the best experience when looking at websites (including CommunityNet Aotearoa) you should be sure to update your web browser software regularly.
In particular, if you're using Netscape 4 you should upgrade if you possibly can. Netscape 4, created five years ago, has a lot of trouble with modern websites and in fact is holding back much-needed improvements in many websites.
You could use Opera 5 or 6 (free and only a small download), Netscape 6 or Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 or 6 for much better results.
http://www.opera.com/
http://browsers.netscape.com/browsers/main.tmpl
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/
And as a bonus, if you use Windows software, avoiding Internet Explorer or keeping it totally up-to-date helps in the battle against viruses.
Site: Deaf Association of New Zealand
The Deaf Association provide numerous services to deaf people and this website is one of them.
The website has five main sections, clearly laid out and easily reached from anywhere within the site. Once you reach a main section more choices become available which relate only to that section.
Online Community is a place for sharing news, events and other items. This section contains the library, information about videos, news and events.
One section of the site is devoted to the Deaf Association itself - both the National Office and the local branches. There's plenty of detail here about activities and personnel, along with contact information and office hours. Find out where to locate an Interpreter, what they charge and how best to use them in this section, or get details on donations and bequests, volunteers and vacancies.
Another section deals with deafness - what it is and is not, the deaf culture, some simple communication rules, and seems to offer Information Kits. Unfortunately the Kits aren't yet available.
If you're interested in Sign Language, where to learn it and how it differs from other languages (and other countries' sign languages); if you want to find out how to finger spell or to download NZSL font for Windows then there is a section for you.
The site is rounded out with links and news.
The site works well and generally looks great too. The news section (Other Links) has a rather too narrow column with too much text in a small font. One item at the time of visit was over 400 words long with no headings or breaks - just impossible to read. Most items though were very short and readable.
The site also uses Javascript dropdown menus. These are very annoying, show up unexpectedly when you're just mousing around the page and happen to roll over the menu and block text you might be trying to read while they are dropped down. Fortunately you can still navigate by clicking on the section name, so if you take the precaution of turning off Javascript in your browser you can still navigate the site without the annoyance.
Beautiful Alastair McAra photos complement the text, though there are some alt text attributes missing for those who surf with images off or who can't get the pictures.
All in all this is an excellent and informative site with a great deal of information for anyone interested in deafness in New Zealand.
http://www.deaf.co.nz/
The Internet and Strong Democracy
Lincoln Dahlberg
Communication and information technologies have been part of both the successes and the failures of democracy in modern times.
They have played an important role in establishing new democracies, from Eastern Europe to East Timor, and have helped to consolidate democracy in Western nations.
However, the use of media technologies has not always led to greater democatization.
In many cases, media technologies have simply become a means for privatized communication and political publicity, as has largely been the case with radio and television.
At worst, these communications media have been utilized to legitimate the power of totalitarian regimes.
Despite the varied historical record, each new communications and information technology, from the telegraph to digital television, seems to fuel fresh hopes for greater democratization.
Now the Internet is being seen by many commentators as a means by which democracy can be strengthened.
The Internet provides a global, low cost, and nearly instantaneous system of two-way communications, a system that promises greater freedom of assembly and information access and thus a means of global democratization.
Unfortunately, the democratic vision of many commentators and policy analysts limits the Internet's role to the provision of more efficient forms of existing offline formal democratic processes.
E-democracy is being equated with top-down, consumer models of e-government that at best enable the provision of electronic equivalents of off-line services: information provision, electronic forms for making submissions and completing transactions, formula replies to e-mail enquires, and electronic voting.
But such use bypasses the radical potential of the Internet for democracy - the way the Internet may facilitate and strengthen public spheres of informal deliberation between individuals and groups and thus enable the formation of critical citizens and rational public opinion.
Such public spheres of rational publicity and public opinion, in contrast to the publicity and public opinion formed through top-down communication processes, is at the heart of strong democracy - where citizens deliberate over common problems and critically monitor government processes.
Over the past decade the Internet, according to the likes of critical theorist Douglas Kellner, has 'produced new public spheres and spaces for information, debate, and participation that contain the potential to invigorate democracy and to increase the dissemination of critical and progressive ideas.'
Kellner is thinking of the numerous forums of public interaction facilitated by Usenet groups, e-mail lists, Web boards, and chat groups where participants share information and enter into informal political debate.
These online public spheres are now threatened by the 'normalization of cyberspace' - the commercialisation and administrative structuring of cyberspace such that it simply recreates and reinforces the liberal-capitalist world of top-down, competitive, and individualistic politics.
Online spaces of critical deliberation that have been so celebrated by Net-enthusiasts are increasingly being threatened with marginalisation.
Those concerned about strengthening democracy through the Internet need to think about how online spaces of public deliberation outside of formal government and corporate influence can be developed and strengthened to enhance citizen deliberation and enable the formation of critical public opinion.
Lincoln Dahlberg, Foundation of Research,
Science and Technology Post-doctoral Fellow, Massey University l.g.dahlberg@xtra.co.nz
Useful Resources:
D Barney (2000) Prometheus Wired: The hope for democracy in the age of network technology
R Davis (1999) The Web of Politics: The Internet's Impact on the American Political System
C Toulouse and T W Luke (eds) (1998) The Politics of Cyberspace: A New Political Science Reader
Have your Say: Want to have a say? Contact: information@community.net.nz. Please put "Panui opinion" in the subject line.
The CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui is a monthly newsletter emailed free to subscribers. The Panui will keep you up-to-date with developments on the website, as well as news and views for people interested in community networking throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
We are happy to share news or views that you think may be of interest to other subscribers. Email suggestions to: information@community.net.nz. Please put "Panui suggestion" in the subject line.
We're happy for you to use material from this Panui but please acknowledge the source, like this: taken from the CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, August 2001, [http://lists.netlink.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/panui].
Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information in this publication, the publishers accept no liability for any errors and omissions. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors, not the publishers.