PANUI Issue 44, September 2005

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PANUI Issue #44, September 2005.

Contents.

  1. Community News
  2. New Community Sites
  3. CommunityNet Tip: Use Strong Passwords.
  4. Web Tip of the Month: Flickr your photos.
  5. What's Hot on CommunityNet

Community News

LAST CALL: Nominations for CommunityNet Aotearoa Advisory Group.
The Advisory Group guides long term strategy, editorial and operational policies. 3 nominations are called for. Nominees need support from an iwi, community, voluntary or Maori organisation, anywhere in the country. Nominations close: Friday 16th September 2005.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/advisory-group.htm.
LAST CALL: Energise Conference for Community Development workers.
This conference covers topics relevant to all community development workers, whereever they work. It is in New Plymouth, 21-23 September.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/Events/National/Energise.htm.
Significant Community Based Projects Fund opens.
The fund has been established to support community-based projects of regional or national significance which have significant support and participation but are unable to progress because they cannot get enough funding.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/Community-Projects-Fund.htm.
Rural users get high-speed Internet.
The launch of the world's largest telecommunications satellite, iPSTAR, means local users will soon be enjoying their share of 40Gbit/s.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/Rural-thigh-speed-net.htm.
Proof that ICT is a help to the community.
A community IT technician training project (the winner), a Maori language revival portal and an early notification system for informing parents if their children are truanting from school are the three finalists in the Excellence in the Use of IT in a community project category of the Computerworld Excellence.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/ICT-helps-community.htm.
Not-for-profits show how to innovate on a budget.
The two finalists in the Computerworld Excellence Awards Use of IT in the Not-for-Profit Organisation category both understand the need to be innovative when there are major budget constraints.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/Not-for-profits-innovate.htm.
2005 Social report shows New Zealand's social wellbeing improving.
The Ministry of Social Development's Social Report 2005 shows that, on key indicators of social wellbeing, New Zealanders' lives are better, on average, than they were a decade ago.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/2005-social-wellbeing.htm.
Independent Advice Body on Official Statistics.
A new, independent Advisory Committee on Official Statistics (ACOS) will provide the Minister of Statistics with advice on key official statistics produced by government.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/Advice-Body-Statistics.htm.
New National Strategy: Mental Health Information.
The Ministry of Health has released a sector-wide mental health information strategy to ensure information-gathering across the sector is carried out in the most effective way.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/Strategy-Mental-Health.htm.
Consumer Redress: Feedback Sought.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has begun a review of current consumer protection legislation.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/Consumer-Redress.htm.
New information on councils through new website.
Ratepayers around the country will have access to new information about their local council through a new website which will include detailed information from Statistics New Zealand.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/councils-website.htm.
Webmaster convicted: No hiding place in cyberspace.
A decision by the Auckland District Court has reinforced the Department of Internal Affairs view that there is no such thing as "cyberspace" and Internet offending is committed by real people in real places.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/webmaster-convicted.htm.
Visitors flock to Wellington's new portal.
A new website designed for tourists and visitors to the Wellington region has attracted 1600 visitors within just three weeks of going live.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/wellington-portal.htm.
Call for case studies.
COmVOiceS are looking to profile a total of 10 Tangata Whenua and community and voluntary organisations of all sizes and areas of interest (sports and recreation, culture and heritage, arts, Pasifika, social service) that have been working in the sector for more than five years.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/comvoices-call-for-case-studies.htm.
Independent Coalition To Promote Community And Voluntary Issues Launched.
COMVOICES, an independent coalition of Tangata Whenua and leading community and voluntary organisations, was launched to promote the voluntary sector and the contribution it makes to New Zealand society.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/comvoices-coalition.htm.

New Community Sites

Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Aims to encourage the development and dissemination of sociological knowledge, to encourage and assist the sociological examination of New Zealand society and to contribute to policy initiatives and investigations.
saanz.science.org.nz.
Dev-Zone.
Informs and educates New Zealanders about international development and global issues. RSS feeds available.
www.dev-zone.org.
Linknz search.
A New Zealand based search engine. They are offering free indexing within twenty four hours for any suggested Kiwi websites.
www.linknz.co.nz.
Community Informatics Research Network.
The Community Informatics Research Network runs listservs, organises an annual conference and publishes the quarterly Journal of Community Informatics.
www.ciresearch.net.
The Smith Family.
An Australian independent social enterprise, The Smith Family helps disadvantaged children and families.
www.smithfamily.com.au.
National Services Directory (FACS).
Lists over 4000 organisations who can help you. With a family focus, it also lists many community organisations and services.
www.familyservices.govt.nz/directory/.
Localcouncils.govt.nz - Dept. of Internal Affairs.
Aims to help people understand more about what councils do and to encourage participation in local council processes.
www.localcouncils.govt.nz.
The Monarch Butterfly New Zealand Trust.
Established to encourage the protection and promotion of the Monarch Butterfly throughout New Zealand.
www.monarch.org.nz.
NZ Association for Environmental Education.
Foster the development of environmental education in New Zealand.
www.nzaee.org.nz.
forum-patients-hospitals.
A forum for those former patients who claim to have suffered abuse while in hospital.
www.confidentialforum.govt.nz.
Cloud 9 Childrens Foundation (Asperger's support).
A charitable trust which supports children with Asperger's Syndrome / High Functioning Autism and their families.
www.withyoueverystepoftheway.com.
Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand Inc.
A federation of regional Muslim Associations of New Zealand.
www.fianz.co.nz.
Artscalendar.co.nz.
A New Zealand-wide arts calendar of current and forthcoming events.
www.artscalendar.co.nz.
National Association of NZ Quilters.
Promote the art and craft of patchwork and quilting within New Zealand.
www.nanzq.org.nz.
Counselling Services Centre Manukau City.
Provides Crisis Intervention for Sexual Assault victims and their families / whanau.
csccounselling.org.nz.

CommunityNet Tip: Use Strong Passwords.

The best kind of password to protect sensitive, personal or financial information is what's called a "strong" password.

Strong passwords are nine or more characters taken from each of the following four categories:

  • uppercase characters (A through Z).
  • lowercase characters (a through z).
  • numbers 0 through 9.
  • non-alphanumeric characters (eg !, $, #, %).

So H#roH&23+ is a strong password, but it would be difficult to remember and you might be tempted to write it down somewhere (also a no no).

A good way of getting a strong password is to start by using a phrase or song title of three or more words that you will remember eg "Jack and Jill went up the hill" or "Are you lonesome tonight" or "It's a fine day on the farm".

Then take the first two or three letters from each word in the phrase and say, make the first letter from each word uppercase, and use say, 8 instead of "ate" 1 instead of "i", 6 for an "S" and & for "and" etc. Or you might remove any vowels etc.

So using the above technique "Jack and Jill went up the hill" would become Ja&J1WeUp. It looks complicated, but using the phrase really works. Try it a few times before you decide on your password. Then commit it to memory and don't write it or the phrase down and don't share it with anyone else.

Just to give you the complete picture, weak passwords that shouldn't be used are ones that

  • are the actual word "password" or any derivation.
  • contain all or part of the user's name or User ID.
  • use the names of the month or any derivation.
  • use words that would be found in a dictionary.
  • are word or number patterns such as aaabbb, qwerty, zyxwvuts, 123321, etc.
  • any of the above spelled backwards.
  • any of the above preceded or followed by a digit (e.g., secret1, 1secret).
  • also since I've written it down above, you mustn't use "Ja&J1WeUp" either.

All of the above weak passwords are relatively easy for a hacker to discover. Given enough time and computer power a determined hacker could eventually break a strong password too. However since such an attack would take a long time it would be noticed and stopped.

Remember the four key things are:

  • Use strong passwords.
  • Don't write passwords down.
  • Don't divulge or share passwords.
  • Don't use one password for other systems as well.

(With thanks to the Internal Affairs IT support team.)

Website Tip: Flickr your photos.

[September 2005] One thing community groups often want to do is take and share photos. Your conference, new committee, fundraising day, end of year picnic — whatever the occasion you might like to take some photos. And having collected a memory card full of photos, what do you do with them?

If you have a website you might share them that way, but many websites aren't really set up to share photos in bulk. You could also email the photos to everyone, but as we've mentioned before, email attachments are becoming increasingly problematic. So how about looking into Flickr?

Flickr offers two levels of service: free and paid. It's easy to add your photos, make them public or keep them just for friends and family, and even to add a photo link from your own website to your Flickr album.

On top of that, you can add 'tags' (keywords) to your photos, meaning visitors from around the world can find your photos and make connections with you. This is a great community-building technique.

What's more Flickr provides automatic RSS news feeds so people can subscribe to your albums and automatically receive the photos, or even subscribe to feeds of all photos related to a particular topic from all Flickr users.

For example, after seeing a recent TV documentary, I searched on the word 'thalidomide'. That brought me to two photos, while a search on 'wheelchair' found 532.

We have a small, experimental album on Flickr, and you're welcome to use ours to give it a try before you sign up for yourself. Email information@community.net.nz and ask for the password.

Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.

What's Hot on CommunityNet

Digital Strategy News.

Research links and an e-Riders toolkit have been added to the Digital Strategy Hot Topic.
www.community.net.nz/HotTopics/Digital-Strategy.

Accessibility improvements.

In June AccEase tested CommunityNet, using a range of assistive technologies, and concluded CommunityNet was the best site they had tested in the last year.

We've now implemented a number of their suggestions to make it even better. We've made changes to the Submit forms for reader software and for alternative browsers, improved text clarity in some places, standardised shortcut keys, and improved the accessibility page. www.community.net.nz/About/Help/accessibility-access-key.htm.

CommunityNet Statistics.

In August 2005 there were:

Visits
52,014 (53,533). Up 17% in July, down 5% in August.
New items:
15 news articles.
16 links to new websites.
9 jobs advertised.
20 events advertised.
1 classified advertisement.
18 training courses or resources.

Send in your free community advertisement at: www.community.net.nz/About/Submit/default.htm.

The most popular How To Guides were:

  1. IT and Internet: 1,843 visits (2,089).
  2. Legal Structure: 1,614 visits (1,589).
  3. Community Research: 1,556 visits (1,759).

The most popular file download was:

  1. Sample charitable Trust Deed: 183 downloads (301).

Please do forward the complete Panui to others who'll find it useful.

Miraz Jordan, Webmaestro.

Notes

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Credits.

Panui and CommunityNet Aotearoa are guided by an Advisory Group drawn from community organisations and are published by Department of Internal Affairs, PO Box 805, Wellington. Phone: 04 4957200. Email: information@community.net.nz.

Disclaimer.

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information n this publication, the publishers accept no liability for any errors and omissions. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors, not the publishers.