Accessibility A A
Search Help
Search Site
Suggest a resource
Get Panui delivered each month to your mail-box! Subscribe online here.
The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.
"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."
Pacific community groups wanting to strengthen their organisations' capability and capacity are invited to apply to the Lottery Pacific Provider Development Fund (PPDF) 2006/07 funding round. Apply by 16 March 2007. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/pacific-provider-dev-fund.htm.
Expressions of Interest are called for, for part funding of initiatives by partnerships that improve people's capability and skills to use ICT and develop digital content. Send in Expressions of Interest by 5pm, Tuesday 19 December. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/06-07-community-fund.htm.
Applications are still open for the remaining 2006/07 Unlimited Potential Learning Foundation (UPLIFT) training courses, starting on 27 November (apply by 10 November) and 20 February 2007 (apply by 20 December). www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/training/national/uplift.htm.
This year funding is available to establish a project in each of five new combined areas: Horowhenua and Otaki; Western Bay of Plenty and Tauranga; Taupo and Rotorua; North Shore; and Porirua. Apply by 4.00pm on Monday, 27 November. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/cds-applications-close-2711.htm.
The number of gaming machines in New Zealand pubs and clubs continues to decline, according to the latest gambling licensing statistics. The Director of Gambling Compliance, Mike Hill, says the figures show that the Gambling Act 2003 is achieving one of its main purposes, which is to control the growth of gambling. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/pokies-decrease.htm.
New Zealanders' generosity may get an extra boost with a Government proposal to change the way giving is taxed in this country. The proposed changes are aimed at encouraging philanthropic giving and Tangata Whenua and community and voluntary organisations are urging New Zealanders to participate in the debate. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/kiwis-engage-tax-rebates.htm.
The Gambling Commission's decision to suspend Dunedin Casino's licence for failing to take adequate action over a problem gambler sends a strong message to gambling operators. The Commission said its decision would make plain to casino operators the importance of complying with their host responsibility obligations. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/gambling-message.htm.
The Department of Labour wants to hear your views about quality flexible work arrangements. The Department will be releasing a discussion paper in early November outlining the key issues and possible approaches for quality flexible work and will be inviting submissions on the paper until mid December. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/quality-flexible-work.htm.
A discussion paper is likely to be released from IRD shortly which will seek to stimulate discussion about Taxation and Generosity and will be open for submissions. Philanthropic trusts, registered charities, corporate donors, Maori authorities and private givers could all be potentially affected by the proposals. Consultation hui will be held in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/consultation-charities-tax.htm.
New Secretariat; Best Fit for Non Government Organisations in Primary Health Care; Confirmation of policy settings; Ministry of Health Output Plan 2006-07; Reducing Gambling Harm Key Concern. Source: NGO mailing list. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/health-ngo-news.htm.
"Charities are not about to have their charitable status ripped off them for advocating their views. Charities are able to act as advocates for their causes - but their main purpose must be charitable. This means organisations must advance education or religion, relieve poverty or be otherwise beneficial to the community. (An article in the Dominion Post, 16th October 2006, may have caused concern about charitable status.) www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/charities-processes-robust.htm.
The Health and Disability Sector NGO-Ministry of Health Forum was set up in 2002 as an NGO and Ministry of Health response to the 2001 "Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship". The "executive" arm of this Forum is the Working Group and some representatives of the Health and Disability subsectors are elected annually, on a rotational basis to ensure consistency. We are now calling for nominations. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/hd-moh-wg-election-2006.htm.
Last month, BP invited registered charities or volunteer organisations that rely on voluntary assistance and use vehicles to apply for thousands of BP fuel vouchers. BP was overwhelmed by the response, with over 3000 applications received from around the country. The 322 successful applicants are listed at the BP website. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/News/National/petrol-vouchers-allocated.htm.
Forty-one government agencies (36 departments and five crown entities) have submitted work plans on how they intend to implement the NZ Disability Strategy, over the period 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007. Agencies have been encouraged to focus on activity that will make a real difference in the lives of disabled people. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/News/National/disability-strategy-workplans.htm.
The Canadian report on 'Improving the non-profit, voluntary and charitable sector's effectiveness in influencing decisions of government' should be of interest to many in New Zealand, especially those observing the implementation of New Zealand's own Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community Government Relationship. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/News/National/community-influence-govt.htm.
For the first time ever, 1 November this year was International Volunteer Manager Appreciation Day (IVMAD). IVMAD recognises that behind the army of volunteers lies an equally dedicated group of individuals who are responsible for the co-ordination, support, training, administration and recruitment of the world's volunteers. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/News/National/volunteer-manager-appreciation.htm.
The Online Participation project is to improve the opportunity for people to participate in government through the use of information and communication technology. Participation includes making government information available to people in accessible and relevant ways, and creating opportunities for people to be actively involved in the design and delivery of government policies and services. www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/News/National/e-govt-online-participation.htm.
Latest community news, events, jobs and ads are online at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news.
The mission of the Young Pleiades Foundation is to support children with exceptional abilities. The foundation helps talented kids at an age when they need reassurance and understanding for their gift to blossom. pleiades.ellefun.com.
MSSA Trust is a non-profit agency in New Zealand dedicated to addressing the problems of sexually victimised boys and men. The purpose of the Trust is to empower male survivors of sexual abuse in their recovery process and to work towards changing the way the community views the sexual abuse of males, the effects, the victims and the perpetrators. Our goal is to educate about, advocate for, and to ensure that proper treatment is available to victimised boys and men. www.survivor.org.nz.
Challenge 2000 is a Youth Development and Family Agency that provides a wide range of education, therapeutic, developmental programmes and services to young people from all walks of life. Check out our Alternative Education Centre, Transition Unit, Family Services, Holiday Programmes and much more! www.challenge2000.org.nz.
Community Outcomes Process: Central and Local Government Working Together. This website's useful information includes publications and research. www.localcentral.govt.nz/COPwebsite.nsf.
To foster solidarity, goodwill and maintain the cultural diversity, which Malaysia offers from its mixed ethnic people. It was also set up to assist and assimilate new Malaysian migrants into the New Zealand culture. www.malaysianz.org.nz.
Asia New Zealand Foundation aims to promote initiatives which deepen understanding and relationships between New Zealanders and the peoples of Asia. Founded in 1994, it is a non-profit, apolitical organisation. The website sections include news, events, business, community, culture, education, grants, media and research. www.asianz.org.nz.
The Asia:NZ Foundation list hundreds of Asian community and Asia related organisations. Browse or search. www.asianz.org.nz/community.
Communities Online aims to address issues of sustainability, regeneration, social inclusion and healthier economies by focusing on the use of new communications technologies in communities and neighbourhoods. Communities Online is a not-for-profit registered company which exists to harness the potential of information and communications technology for the benefit of all. www.communities.org.uk.
The Community Web Developers Arena aims to provide a meeting place and a source of information to help people working on a voluntary basis to produce community-based, not-for-profit web sites. This includes such sites as towns and villages, clubs and societies, or special interest groups of almost any kind. www.cwda.org.uk.
You'll find these and more links at: www.community.net.nz/links.
These Events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/events.
These Training events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/training.
This month we explore a free Google service called Google Docs and Spreadsheets. It lets you create, edit and work with documents and spreadsheets online. You can store them online, download them and even share them. This collaborative storage, editing and publishing tool has great potential for community groups.
Log in with your (free) Google account name and click on the New Document or New Spreadsheet link. Now you can paste existing text or type your document. Google Docs saves all documents automatically.
If you already have a file on your computer you can upload it and work on it online. Once you have documents stored online they will be displayed in a list and you can choose to edit, archive, or delete them, using the kinds of tools and menus familiar from Microsoft Word and Excel.
Invite others to edit the document by clicking the Collaborate tab. Collaborators have permission to edit the document and to invite others, or you can invite people to be viewers only. A viewer is able to see the document, but they aren't able to make changes to it.
Choose whether the invitee should be a collaborator or simply a viewer and enter their email address in the correct box. Once you press the button to invite these people you can choose whether to email them immediately or later, and to enter a message. The system sends them an email at the appointed time, they log in and can work with the document in the way you chose for them.
If you'd like anyone at all to be able to view a word-processing document you can choose the Publish tab. You don't need a website, instead Google provides an URL where the document can be viewed. We published a sample here: docs.google.com/View?docid=dhkp5vts_87btzts.
If you edit and Save the document then the published page reflects those changes.
If you have a Blogger blog, you can also publish the document there.
If you have a spreadsheet you can choose the Discuss tab and use Google Chat to have a real-time discussion about it.
Google make it easy for you to download and export your word-processing file or spreadsheet in various formats, including HTML and PDF.
It's been 10 years now since the Internet became popular and transformed the computer from a private device standing alone on a desk to a useful tool in a worldwide network. Email and the web have connected us in ways we had never dreamed of.
Emailing around word-processing documents or spreadsheets has become common for those wishing to collaborate on a proposal, report or discussion document. Now Google Docs opens up collaboration to those who don't have private networks.
This tool has the potential to make collaboration really easy within and between community groups. This Tip has only opened to the door to what it can do. It's worth investigating it for yourself.
[November 2006] First words matter most. Whether you're writing your own web page, or sending in a notice to CommunityNet Aotearoa, the first words are the most important.
When people visit web pages they quickly skim to find things of interest. If they are experienced users of the web they will probably ignore any 'banner' shaped areas, such as the header logo and graphic and skip straight to the content.
First they look at the top left area of text, and along the first line. Next they skip down the page a bit and glance about half way across the page. Finally they skim down the left edge of the text, glancing at the headings as they go. This reading pattern resembles the shape of an upper case F. No one starts at the top of a web page and carefully reads the whole thing.
See Rachel MacAlpine's article: Eyes top left: lessons from Eyetrack III, and Jakob Nielsen's article: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content.
You've probably just lost your readers if your web page starts slow, with long introductory greetings and background information. The rest of the Internet is only one click away, and the truth is your readers want the goods now. Right now. They will leave if they haven't found out what your web page is about within the first couple of seconds.
Put the crucial information first, to hook in your visitors. The first heading or sentence is the place to put the single most important item of information.
In headings, summarise other important content, again with key words first.
Use informative words at the start of bullet points.
The first couple of lines on content pages are used on index or summary pages on many websites, including CommunityNet Aotearoa. Just take a look at the Vacancies or Events summary pages:
The title and the first sentence of the notice itself are the most important parts of notices you submit to CommunityNet Aotearoa.
The title of your notice should be able to stand alone. Rather than just Conference, write Adult Literacy Conference, or Maori Health Workers Conference, for example.
The first sentence of your notice appears on the summary page and is your only chance to catch the visitor's interest, pulling them in to read the rest.
Boring: The Society for the Preservation of Online Content was formed in blah blah blah … blah blah blah fundraising event.
Suction: Fundraising concert brings big name talent.
Think for a minute about what's most important, before you write your next web page or CommunityNet Aotearoa notice. Put the important words and phrases first. Leave the background for later.
Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.
The Advisory Group is where people from community and voluntary groups are actively involved in setting editorial policies and long-term strategy, to ensure CommunityNet meets groups' needs. Advisory Group members have knowledge of the community and voluntary sector and its Information and Communications Technology needs, are committed to implementing the Treaty of Waitangi, and are experienced at organisational governance.
Membership of the Advisory Group is broadly representative of the community sector, so we prefer nominations from people with backgrounds, locations and organisations that will complement continuing members. One position is open for community, voluntary and Maori organisation nominations. Nominations must be received by 13th November.
This comprehensive resource kit provides an easy-to-use guide for people setting up and running community groups in New Zealand. Topics covered in 12 packed chapters include planning, employment, financial management and an introduction to the community sector. The development of the kit was a joint project between community, FACS and DIA, and updates and replaces the DIA Community Development Resource Kit. www.community.net.nz/how-toguides/crk.
Cut out the clutter and now show just the jobs, training courses and events near you. Choose Northern, Central or Southern in Notice Board. National shows all events, news or other items of national significance (events will also appear in the relevant location), and All shows everything, as before. There is also scope for local news items, so send them in! As volumes grow, we can further subdivide down to a regional level. Try it out at:
In October 2006 there were 29,680 visits (September: 34,122).
In October, 57 new community items were published (September: 67):
Send in your free community advertisement at: www.community.net.nz/about/submit.
There were 7,429 files downloaded. The most popular file download was: Managing Well Catalogue: 407 downloads.
Find CommunityNet statistics at: www.community.net.nz/about/website/statistics.htm.
Remember: please forward the complete Panui to others who'll find it useful.
Miraz Jordan, Webmaestro.
Subscribe or unsubscribe at www.community.net.nz/panui. Select one or more of:
Or email information@community.net.nz with the following details:
CommunityNet Aotearoa RSS Feed is available at: lists.community.net.nz/cna/wp-rdf.php.
Publish your news, jobs, events, training and adverts free at www.community.net.nz/about/submit.
Send Panui articles and ideas with Subject "Panui contribution" to: information@community.net.nz.
Please forward Panui to others, but all of it please.
You are welcome to reproduce material, provided you acknowledge the source, like this:
"Reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, November 2006, www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/panui ".
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.
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.