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The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.
"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."
Readership is steadily growing: over 700; 84 more get the clear new format, and 40 get weekly summaries. Last year we asked readers what they liked best in Panui; you said:
Give PANUI a mid life boost and help your friends. We're sure you can think of 5 — or even 50 — people who would find it interesting and useful — committee, staff, volunteers, funders, board…. Please forward this Panui to them and to your networks.
PS The first Panui was sent in October 2001, and can be read at www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/Panui/NgaPanui/Issue1.htm.
We're delighted to welcome back our No. 1 guest writer Karaitiana Taiuru — see Viewpoint below!
Ministry of Economic Development Website entirely overhauled; NZCCSS Website Completely Revamped; The NZFVWO has a new website. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/website-news-med-etc.htm.
Real Work, a report from the national research project on the state of youth work in NZ, is a snapshot of the work done by youth workers across NZ many of whom go unrecognised for their efforts. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/value-of-youth-work.htm.
A compilation of figures on Internet World Stats website shows 76.3 percent of NZers (about 3.2 million people) regularly use the Internet. An Advanced Network will connect NZ universities and research institutes through a fibre-optics network that is 400 times faster than domestic broadband. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/web-use-fast-net.htm.
Electronic submissions on Bills before Parliamentary select committees will become possible later this year. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/electronic-submissions.htm.
ECPAT International has recently released a new global report on Violence against Children in Cyberspace. The report stresses that weak laws and fragmented industry action are exposing children around the world to increasingly serious violence through the Internet and other cyber technologies. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/violence-against-children-in-cyberspace.htm.
The March issue of the NZ Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations magazine, New Dialogue centres around employment issues in the sector. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/new-dialogue-employment.htm.
Non-profit organisations can now have their voice heard in the media for free, thanks to Adaid, a one-year project that pairs non-profit social services providers with the advertising and communications industry. The aim is to produce professional, eye-catching campaigns to raise awareness and funds for their causes. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/robin-hood-helps-out.htm.
The Human Rights Commission has recently published Accessible Journey. Issues covered are those for disabled passengers, transport operators, providers and regulators, planners and funders. It also touches on issues relating to human rights and legal questions. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/accessible-journey.htm.
The greening of NZ's commercial buildings and homes is about to accelerate with the imminent incorporation of a Green Building Council. The Council will establish an official rating system for commercial buildings. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/green-buildings.htm.
MAF Policy has decided to discontinue the Rural Bulletin. Consequently, the March edition is the final one. If you are interested in being on a potential mailing list, then please send an email to marie.farquhar@maf.govt.nz. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/rural-bulletin-discontinued.htm.
This survey is designed to gain an insight into Tangata Whenua, community and voluntary organisations' awareness of the Digital Strategy. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/digi-strat-awareness.htm.
Save the Children New Zealand invites applications from individuals and organisations for the Small Grants Fund. The grant awards range from less than $2,000 to $5,000. Closing date: 15 April 2006. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/small-grants-fund.htm.
March 12 - 18 was Volunteer Awareness Week and Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector Luamanuvao Winnie Laban encouraged Kiwis to thank volunteers and also to put their hand up to help their communities. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/put-your-hand-up.htm.
Building Organisational Capacity in the Community and Voluntary Sector: A Summary Report on Needs and Opportunities (October 2005) was released just before Christmas. The summary report was revised to reflect feedback. Download a copy of the report form the Family and Community Services website. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/facs-and-ocvs-report.htm.
The New Zealand Council of Social Services has released the findings of its research into the nature of relationships between its member Councils of Social Services (COSS) and their local authorities. www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News/National/nzcoss-research.htm.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/News.
An Internet body representing Māori issues and protecting Māori on the Internet. We run an open discussion from our web site and welcome new members. www.amio.maori.nz.
Advocating a rational, humane, and secular view of life without reference to supernatural agencies. Promoting a tolerant, responsible, and open society. www.nzarh.org.nz.
Nabuur.Com's mission is to give communities in developing countries access to their global Neighbours via the Internet. And through these Neighbours to the huge reservoir of resources (knowledge, solutions, energy and money) that is available elsewhere. www.nabuur.com.
Peace Movement Aotearoa is the national networking organisation in Aotearoa/New Zealand for people interested in peace and social justice. www.converge.org.nz/pma.
A membership organisation supporting people, businesses and organisations involved in events in the Wellington region. www.wotzon.com/w/eventswellington.
Statisphere is managed by Statistics NZ to provides a readily accessible gateway to official statistics. Launched in October 2005 the portal can be searched A-Z by subject, under 37 government agencies. www.statisphere.govt.nz.
More than a third of the world's people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Today, more than 130 journalists around the world are in prison simply for doing their job. Reporters Without Borders believes imprisoning or killing a journalist threatens everyone's right to be informed. www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=20.
An international fellowship of Christian churches, built upon the foundation of encounter, dialogue and collaboration. www.wcc-coe.org.
'Nothing for us, without us'. People First is a self advocacy organisation run by / for people with a learning disability. There are groups throughout the regions of New Zealand. www.peoplefirst.org.nz.
Maharaji speaks with simplicity about the value of appreciating life and rediscovering the simple joy of existence. He introduces the possibility of finding inner peace and contentment. www.wordsofpeace.org.nz.
Assistive Technology News Portal. www.axistive.com.
An extensive web based memorial system for deceased New Zealanders that preserves precious moments forever. Remember your loved one and archive their photographs, video and audio clips. www.remembering.co.nz.
COmVOiceS is an independent coalition of Tangata Whenua and leading community and voluntary organisations set up to promote and make visible the enormous contribution of the whole voluntary sector to our society. They offer a mailing list, resources including a simple communications toolkit, casestudies and key messages. www.nzfvwo.org.nz/comvoices.
www.community.net.nz/Links.
In October 2001 Panui #1 included an opinion piece from Karaitiana Taiuru about Māori and domain names.
www.community.net.nz/CommunityCentre/Panui/NgaPanui/Issue1.htm.
He kindly took time from a busy week of meetings with the international ICANN body who look after domain names worldwide to update us on this issue.
.maori.nz was accepted and implemented about 4 years ago. It was the first public indigenous second level domain name to be created in the world. To date it is still the only one.
We now have over 400 .maori.nz domain names registered. .maori.nz has created an opportunity for many Māori to create a web site and to become active in the Internet. It has also made other indigenous people around the world contemplate their own domain name in the European dominated world of Internet names and addresses.
Pre and post implementation had a few problems with racists and people trying to exploit Māori. These were quickly rectified by Aotearoa Māori Internet Organisation (AMIO) the successor of the former NZ Māori Internet Organisation.
One of other minor problem was a technical one on behalf of the companies selling the domains. With the sudden influx of registrations there were cases of two people buying the same name. aotearoa.maori.nz was one of these. The matter was rectified by the first person who purchased the domain being given it.
On the day of implementation we faced a huge issue of non Māori buying domain names that represented Tribal names and other generic names such "tereo" and some government names including tpk.maori.nz. The names were then advertised for sale at over 1000 times more the original price.
This was perfectly legal and at the time there was no disputes process except High Court action to dispute the matter. Aotearoa Māori Internet Organisation threatened the offending organisation with legal action and exposed them to the media. Exposing the organisation in the media and threats of High Court Action resulted in the domain names being offered back to the tribal groups free of charge and other names being given up.
Over the years there have been several racist and derogatory registrations of names ending in .maori.nz. Fortunately the people who registered these domain names used false identities to purchase the names, which is a breach of the registration rules. As a result AMIO made formal complaints to the Domain Name Commissioner who then removed registered domain names.
Looking forward. I believe Māori have 2 future Internet issues we need to address immediately.
1. Macrons in domain names. The technical issues are being worked upon at an international level. Māori issues will be how do we implement macrons in domain names. For example will www.amio.māori.nz [with a macron] be the same as www.amio.maori.nz [without a macron] or will the two constitute different addresses and if they are different how will people without macron technology access web sites that utilize macrons.
[Editor's note: this issue is clearly exemplified by the fact that we are unable to use the macrons in the text-only edition of this Panui, and that in the formatted Panui it may not display correctly for some readers.]
The second issue is whether or not the Māori are fairly represented in the Internet domain name space or do we need more 2nd Level domains to join the existing 2nd Level Domains .iwi.nz and .maori.nz. Examples could include .kura and .kohanaga.
More details of .maori.nz can be accessed at www.amio.maori.nz domain.
Karaitiana Taiuru
Karaitiana is Director of several commercial companies and resides on several national and international community boards in various positions from Chair to Trustee.
[April 2006] Does your community group sell a few books or resource kits? Would you like to receive donations? You don't need a whole e-commerce setup on your website for small scale, casual sales. Many people around the world use Paypal to send and receive payments.
www.paypal.com.
First you sign up for a Paypal account. There is no sign-up fee or annual cost. PayPal take a small percentage on each transaction.
Unfortunately PayPal doesn't deal in New Zealand dollars. You'll need to choose from US Dollars, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, pounds Sterling or Yen. This can be a bit of a problem, give our fluctuating exchange rate and the expectation that we would pay NZ dollars in New Zealand for NZ goods and services. The exchange rate doesn't matter so much if you're simply requesting donations.
Once you've registered log in to your account and visit the Merchant Tools section. Create a payment button, then copy the code PayPal provide and add it to your website or use it in emails. The code contains your 'business name', which allows PayPal to credit payments to the correct accounts.
If you wish, you can create customised code for each product or group of products. This is useful where various items you sell have distinct prices, such as books.
PayPal have a special form to allow you to send invoices by email. You fill in detail lines, optionally add a shipping cost and the recipient's email address. They receive an email with instructions on how to make payment. You receive an email to confirm the invoice was sent.
If the person receiving the invoice is a PayPal user they log in, click a button and the transaction is complete. If they are not a PayPal user they enter credit card details into a secure form.
PayPal charge their credit card or PayPal account and forward the funds to your PayPal account less a transaction fee.
At the Standard Rate the recipient of funds pays 3.4% on each transaction plus 30 cents US. At the current exchange rate of approx 61 cents to the US dollar you would receive approximately (in NZ$):
PayPal is a popular target for phishers: fraudsters who try to trick you into giving away your username and password. They often send emails purporting to come from PayPal (they look extremely realistic) asking you to log in to confirm your details. If you click the link they provide you're taken to a website that looks exactly like PayPal but is really just a sham that captures your details.
PayPal will never send you that kind of email. Always type in the address for PayPal yourself. Never visit it from a link you've clicked.
PayPal gives individuals, businesses and community groups the opportunity to request and receive small payments without the hassle of setting up an e-commerce system. If your group would like to accept payment via your website it's worth spending a little time exploring this option in more detail.
A quick Google search showed that these New Zealand community organisations (and others) accept donations and payments via PayPal:
Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.
We've made extensive changes "under the bonnet" recently. Most of the changes are (we hope!) invisible, but should make the website faster, (even) more accessible and easier to develop further.
Visible changes, made in response to your feedback, make the basic text size smaller, and page printing more concise and reliable. We'll be fine-tuning these changes over the next few weeks.
We're also working on some problems with Search in Mozilla and Firefox browsers. Please contact us if anything is not working properly for you. information@community.net.nz.
In March 2006 there were: Visits: 27,492 people; 24% up on February's 22,112.
New items:
Send in your free community advertisement at: www.community.net.nz/About/Submit/default.htm.
The most popular file download was: Managing Well Catalogue: 862 downloads.
Remember: please do forward the complete Panui to others who'll find it useful.
Miraz Jordan, Webmaestro.
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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.
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