Issue 22 September 2003

PANUI Issue #22, September 2003

The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.

"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."

Contents

  1. Community News
  2. New Sites
  3. Community.Net Tip
  4. Site of the Month
  5. What's Hot on CommunityNet
  6. Notes

Community News

Have your say on human rights online

A web-based survey has been launched by the Human Rights Commission. The survey will gather the views of people around New Zealand on key issues such as the freedom of expression and the right to health, education, housing and employment.

Small Grants Fund

The Small Grants Fund is for organisations actively working in Children's Rights within New Zealand. The emphasis is on projects with a clear focus on children and youth and that aim to build the capacity of the applicant group. Apply by 15 September.

Guidebook to Intentional Communities

The STRAW Umbrella Trust is compiling a Guidebook to Intentional Communities and communal living. The aim is to provide examples of the diverse range of intentional community settings where groups of people have chosen to live communally in an urban or rural setting.

Free postage from NZ Post

Community Post will donate postage-included envelopes to local non-profit organisations for use in fundraising, communication and other initiatives in their local area. Apply by 5 September each year.

Latest community news, events, jobs and ads.

New Sites

Community sites linked this month:

Man Alive

Man Alive supports males of all ages to gain understanding and strengthen their relationships with partners, children, family and friends.

Social Capital for Development

World Bank resources, research and links for community workers, researchers and others.

Te Iwi o Rakaipaaka

Information on whakapapa, iwi strategy, and projects for development.

Association of Social Workers

Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) provides a structure for the accountability of social workers to their profession, consumers and the public.

skylight

skylight supports children, young people and their families who have been affected by change, loss and grief. Our work helps them find ways to live with life's losses and to move forward.

CPS Training

CPS Training's programmes are for anyone involved with children — professionals, volunteers, and community workers, from every sector of our society.

Sport and Recreation NZ

SPARC works with schools, community clubs, sports organisations, iwi, regional sports trusts and local authorities to create opportunities for all New Zealanders to be active and reach their potential in their chosen sports.

Gaming Machine Societies

A list of gaming machine societies that distribute grants to community groups. List maintained by the Department of Internal Affairs.

More links.

Community.Net Tip: Speed Read with News feeds

Did you ever wish you could check your favourite web pages more quickly? While a high-speed connection might help, you still have to enter the address, wait for the page to load and then scroll around. And once you get there it may be there's nothing new since the last time you visited.

Well, with some websites you can now check for updates without even opening your browser. In moments you can have a list of the latest headlines in front of you from dozens of websites at once. Skim the headlines and if you see an item which interests you then just press a key or click the mouse and the right web page opens up to show you the full information.

How can you do this? It's thanks to the magic of RSS.

An RSS "Feed" is a specially written web page using the XML language. It has a separate address from the web page you visit with your web browser, although it contains the same information. To read the information you use a free or low cost "Newsreader" or "Feedreader". On my Mac with OS X I use an excellent newsreader called NetNewsWire. Those with Windows might choose FeedDemon.

First connect to the Internet. Your newsreader software will have a button or a menu item for "subscribe" or "add channel". Choose that and enter an RSS address. I've listed a few below as examples.

NetNewsWire window with details or article.

Once you've added the RSS address the newsreader software will soon bring up a list of headlines for that website. Skim these and if you see something interesting then try clicking on the headline and pressing Enter / Return. (You might need to check the manual.) This should open your web browser and take you to the page with the full item.

CommunityNet Aotearoa has an experimental RSS feed. If you click on an item it will take you to a very much unofficial page. We'd love to know what you think of our newsfeed though so please email feedback@community.net.nz with your comments.

Subscriptions, items and a single article.

Once you've tried this method of keeping up with the "news" you'll be wondering why some websites don't yet offer this facility. It's quick. It's easy. It's neat.

Here are a few feeds to get you started:

  1. CommunityNet Aotearoa: http://miraz.info/cna/b2rdf.php Update April 2005: this site has moved; the newsfeed is now at: feed:http://lists.community.net.nz/cna/wp-rss2.php.
  2. What's On in Wellington: http://whatson.wellington.net.nz/dailyfeed.php
  3. Sports and Recreation: http://sparcinfo.blogspot.com/rss/sparcinfo.xml
  4. Recreational Canoeing: http://www.rivers.org.nz/rss/
  5. Wellington Community Education Centre: http://cecwellington.ac.nz/news/xmlsrv/rss.php?blog=2 Update April 2005: this site has moved and no longer has a newsfeed.
  6. News for the UK voluntary sector: http://www.volresource.org.uk/kcnews/rssfeed.xml

Site of the Month: What's Up

What's Up is a free, national telephone counselling service for New Zealanders aged 5 to 18 years. The service operates seven days a week from noon to midnight. Paid, trained and closely supervised professional counsellors answer the telephones.

Summary: This appealing and attractive site brings good information in an attractive format.

The full review is available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.

What's Hot on CommunityNet

In August 2003 there were:

  • 8,331 Visits (previous month 8,827).
  • 6 new news items.
  • 11 new site links.

New advertisements:

  • 11 Jobs.
  • 6 Events.
  • 3 Classifieds

Currently, the most popular pages are:

  1. How To Guides
  2. Job vacancies
  3. Website links
  4. Events
  5. Community Development resource kit

Submit your free community advertisement.

Notes

Please feel free to send information from this Panui to others, but please make sure this notes information is included.

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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.

Credits

Panui and CommunityNet Aotearoa are published by:

Department of Internal Affairs,
PO Box 805,
Wellington
Phone: 04 4957200
Email: information@community.net.nz .

Format

Note: For increased accessibility to partially or un-sighted, the email version of this newsletter has been formatted to the Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard for increased accessibility.