PANUI Issue #71, March 2008

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PANUI Issue #71, March 2008.

The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.

"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."

Contents.

  1. Panui News
  2. Community News
  3. New Community Sites
  4. CommunityNet Events: Events coming up soon.
  5. CommunityNet Tip: Web 2.0 Word Builder.
  6. Web Tip of the Month: Kiwis like Internet relationships.
  7. What's Hot on CommunityNet

Panui News

Jude McNabb joins CommunityNet Advisory Group.

CommunityNet Aotearoa Advisory Group and Department of Internal Affairs are pleased to announce the appointment of a new community member to the CommunityNet Advisory Group: Jude McNabb, Manager, Volunteer Nelson, Nelson. The Advisory Group guides the direction and management of the CommunityNet Aotearoa website. Jude brings a breadth of knowledge and representation to the Advisory Group, ensuring the group continues to be strong and balanced.

www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/na tional/jude-mcnabb.htm

Community News

New opportunities for young people.

National youth network Just Focus, supported by the Global Education Centre, have two creative projects for young people around New Zealand to be a part of this year. Just Write is a new programme for budding young journalists and activists, and Media That Matters Aotearoa is a short film festival being run by and for young people in June this year.

www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/nat ional/just-focus.htm

Nominations open for COGS Local Distribution Committees.

There are 37 Local Distribution Committees (LDCs) throughout New Zealand. They are made up of volunteers who consider and make decisions about funding applications from organisations within their local communities. Now is the time for community organisations to nominate a candidate or register their community organisation to vote in the Local Distribution Committee Election 2008.

www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news /national/cogs-elections.htm

Global Education Fund applications close 31 March.

The Global Education Fund (GEF) provides funding for small projects to develop awareness and understanding of global perspectives among New Zealanders, to encourage them to become responsible global citizens, and to create a safe and just world. The next funding round closes 31 March.

www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/ne ws/national/gef-applications.htm

Funding opportunity: Save the Children Small Grants Fund.

Save the Children invites innovative project proposals that focus on making the world a better place for New Zealand children. This is an opportunity for young people’s groups and community organisations to create projects that contribute to positive change in their community.

www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/n ews/national/small-grants-fund.htm

Investing in sustainable community services.

The government has announced a new package to boost and guarantee funding for community organisations that provide essential services to families, children, and young people. Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson said today the funding package is worth $446 million over the next four years. It provides full funding for contracted essential social services delivered by community groups as well as automatic funding adjustments for volume increases and annual cost adjustment payments.

www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/ news/national/community-services.htm

Latest community news, events, jobs and ads are online at:
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news.

New Community Links

The Pacific - Online Island Community.

The Pacific brings Pacific Island communities together online. This is a place to share information about Pacific cultures, traditions, music, arts and much more.

www.thepacific.co.nz

Pacific Islands Heartbeat.

Pacific Islands Heartbeat (PIHB) is a community health promotion initiative of The National Heart Foundation. PIHB aims to make a difference by encouraging and supporting individuals and community groups to make positive lifestyle changes.

www.pacificheart.org.nz

I Heart Food.

A vegan and gluten-free food blog.

www.iheartfood.net

Google Book Search.

Find the perfect book for your purposes and discover new ones that interest you. Book Search works just like web search, when Google finds a book with content that contains a match for your search terms, they link to it in your search results.

http://books.google.com

Community Links NZ.

Community Links NZ (Inc) is a social service agency based in Uper Hutt, Wellington. We provide advocacy, budgeting advice, counselling (generic and addictions) with qualified A&D clinical practitioners and generic counsellors.

http://communitylinks.wellington.net.nz

Ngati Awa Social and Health Services Trust.

Ngati Awa Social and Health Services Trust is one of the largest Maori providers in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. The organisation is constituted and mandated to provide all social, health and employment services to Ngati Awa and the wider community within the Ngati Awa rohe.

www.nash.org.nz

Tiaho Trust.

Empowering disabled people by providing disability news and information for Northland. Tiaho provides a medium for disabled people to express their views and opinions on issues that affect them. Tiaho works collaboratively with community groups, local and regional government bodies on projects that promote the value and inclusion of disabled people in our communities.

www.tiaho.org.nz

ADHD.org.nz.

New Zealand’s leading source of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) information. We hope to try and answer many of the questions that arise with ADHD.

www.adhd.org.nz

Canterbury Not-For-Profit Forum.

The main focus of the website is the distribution of e-mails about funding and training opportunities for not-for-profit organisations in Canterbury, as well as providing access to resources that will help with business planning for community enterprises. Anyone with an interest in the community in Canterbury is welcome to join, contribute, debate or share resources with other people with a similar interest.

http://groups.google.com/group/cantyforum

Business Plan Guidelines for Not-for-Profit Organisations.

A business planning template for community groups, particularly concentrating on cashflow forecasts. It also contains funding application hints and links.

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dckccjx7_14cm7n79gn& amp;pli=1

Catapult Employment Services Trust.

Catapult Employment Services Trust is a free supported employment service to both employers and jobseekers. Catapult works with people who by virtue of condition, illness, impairment or disability are marginalised in open employment.

www.catapult.org.nz

You'll find these and more links at:
www.community.net.nz/links.

CommunityNet Events: Events coming up soon

Events.

These Events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at:
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/events.

  • Stress Strategies Workshop, North Shore City.
  • Community Broadband Meetings, Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay.
  • Helping Hand community projects, Auckland.
  • Community House Funding Expo, Christchurch.
  • Friday Forum - Water: Supply and Storage, Christchurch.
  • National Conference for the Not-For-Profit Sector, Napier.
  • "Why Volunteer?", Christchurch.
  • Workshop: how to register with the Charities Commission, Christchurch.
  • Meditation Workshop, North Shore City.
  • Intimate Encounters: Disability and Sexuality exhibition, Whangarei.
  • ANGOA Monthly Roundtable, Wellington.
  • Work and Income Seminar, Christchurch.
  • Two workshops by Warwick Pudney, Palmerston North.
  • Community Radio Hamilton Open Day, Hamilton.
  • Truby King House and Park Volunteer Day, Wellington.
  • Assertiveness Workshop, North Shore City.

Training.

These Training events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at:
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/training.

  • Inner Child Workshops, North Shore City.
  • 21st Century Volunteering - Beyond the stereotypes, Christchurch.
  • Quick Course - How to Run a Productive Meeting, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt.
  • The Art of Facilitation, Auckland.
  • Volunteer Management: Tackling the tricky edges, Wellington.
  • Assertiveness Training for Japanese women, Christchurch.
  • Iyengar yoga, Christchurch.
  • Rickter Scale Training, Palmerston North.
  • Do You Have Clutter?, Christchurch.
  • Psychodrama - Being in Action, Auckland.
  • Refugee Support Volunteer Programme, Hamilton.
  • Mid-life Reawakening for Women, North Shore City.
  • BodyReal Training Workshops, Auckland.
  • Legal education for everyone!, Hamilton.
  • Wintec Community Group modules, Hamilton.
  • Creative Juice, Christchurch.

CommunityNet tip: Web 2.0 Word Builder.

The Internet is abuzz with a whole new vocabulary: memes and tags, posts and mashups, LOLcats, tweets and RSS. Friends, characters, flag, subscribe and interesting have a whole new meaning. This article helps you find your way in the new Web 2.0 world.

characters --- letters, numbers, symbols, or spaces. When you send a txt message with a cellphone or a tweet through Twitter, you'll be cut off after about 140 characters.

flag --- Seen a photo on Flickr or a YouTube video that you find offensive? Flag it for the staff to review.

Flickr --- An online service for storing and sharing photos. Add comments and tags. Subscribe to an RSS feed to automatically catch all photos from friends. Search or explore by many criteria.

friends --- On social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn a friend is anyone you set up a connection with, whether you know them personally or not.

interesting --- Flickr calculate an 'interestingness' score for each photo, based on tags, clicks, comments and so on. Explore the most interesting photos at www.flickr.com/explore/interesting.

LOLcats --- pictures of cats, with humorous captions, written to a certain style. LOL is short for 'Lots of Laughs'. Example: http://www.lolcats.com/view/55.

mashups --- putting information together from more than one source. For example, combining crime statistics and Google maps CSI-style at www.fresnobee.com/static/crime.

memes --- An idea, saying or activity that takes hold and becomes popular. For example, LOLcats.

posts --- Articles and other contributions to blogs, forums, etc.

RSS --- Automatically delivers information from websites and other sources. For example, subscribe to the RSS feed for a particular person's Flickr photos and any new photos appear automatically in your reader. Example National Library (NZ) photo feed: http://api.fli ckr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=8458540@N06&lang=en-us&format=rss_200.
(http://tinyurl.com/2dxk4w.)

subscribe --- Usually free of charge. When you subscribe to something you add it to a list of items you will check regularly or receive automatically. For example, you might subscribe to the BBC Worldwide YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/BBCWorldwide.

tags --- Words that help describe something. A photo might be titled 'Solace in the wind', but have tags such as: wellington, waterfront, sculpture, statue, and so on.

tweets --- Messages sent through the Twitter service.

Twitter --- A service for broadcasting short text messages. People use it as a way to keep in touch and up-to-date with friends and colleagues, or news. Example: http://twitter.com/StuffNZ_World.

User generated --- this means that you do the work. If you visit a website you may leave comments, upload images or movies, add information --- that is all 'user' or 'consumer' generated.

Web 2.0 --- Websites and services that make it easy for people to connect with one another by rating items, marking favourites, sharing, commenting and so on.

YouTube --- An online service for storing and sharing short videos. Add comments and tags. Subscribe to an RSS feed to automatically catch all new videos from a given topic. Search or explore by many criteria. Example, WildlifeDirect: www.youtube.com/WildlifeDirect.

Website tip: Kiwis like Internet relationships.

In February 2008 Nielsen Online revealed that most New Zealand Internet users are generating web content. (Source: 02/26/2008 Consumer Generated Media: Evolution or Revolution? http://www.netratings.com.)

We like photos, videos, music, blogs.

In plain English: we share photos, links and videos, through websites such as Flickr, YouTube, MySpace. We read and write blogs and wikis. We download and stream audio and video content. We like photos, movies, music, and probably podcasts. We edit and comment; we upload.

The report also found that once people are comfortable online, they then often become *more* involved --- they actively edit and comment on content from others and upload video and music to the web.

It's a revolution in relationships.

"We are seeing a revolution in the way in which consumers here in the Pacific and around the world are interacting, communicating, creating and nurturing personal and professional relationships, expressing and publishing their opinions and thoughts, creating and distributing content for and to one another, and entertaining themselves," says Melanie Ingrey, Market Research Director, Asia Pacific, Nielsen Online.

Nielsen Online found that people tend to take up these activities if their friends and peers are doing them. They join services (such as Bebo) if their friends recommend them.

Problems facing us here in New Zealand are lack of time, slow Internet connections and concerns about security.

Kiwis want to reconnect.

A further report tells us that 62% of online New Zealanders have browsed other people's online profiles within the past 12 months, and 49% have actively updated their own online profile. (Source: 02/12/2008 New Zealand Surfers Ride Social Networking Boom, www.netratings.com.)

Old Friends, Bebo and MySpace.

Their profiles are on Old Friends, Bebo and MySpace. Kiwis want to reconnect with people from the past such as former colleagues and old schoolmates.

"... different social networking platforms cater to varying online identity desires," notes Melanie Ingrey, Market Research Director, Asia Pacific, Nielsen Online. "Sites such as MySpace essentially promote a fantasised identity where relationships are based on common network interests while Facebook is grounded in real identity and online connections are simply an extension of real friendships. Then you have sites such as LinkedIn which promote social networking for business and career advancement purposes."

What are you doing?

So, that's what Kiwis are doing this year. What's your organisation doing in response?

Do you have a blog where visitors can comment on what you're doing? Bloggers can also track your activities and write about you on their own blogs.

Do you share photos and videos from your events, using services such as Flickr and YouTube? If you do, then others will spread the word about your organisation when they tell others about your content.

Do you recruit volunteers by means of a MySpace or Bebo profile?

Kiwis want to participate. Do you know how to Engage your Community (http://webguide.net.nz/engage-your-community)?

Panui tips contributed by Miraz Jordan, http://mactips.info/

Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.

What's Hot on CommunityNet

Web statistics.

In February 2008 there were there were 43,924 visits (January: 34,639).

Last month, 66 new community items were published.

  • 02 news articles.
  • 11 links to new websites.
  • 12 jobs advertised.
  • 23 events advertised.
  • 18 training courses or resources.

Send in your free community notice or advertisement at:

www.community.net.nz/about/submit.

File downloads.

There were 6,231 files downloaded (January: 6,419). The most popular file download in February was the Sample Charitable Trust Deed and Guide to its Clauses with 276 downloads. In January this was the Sample MOU (443 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.

Nick Stanley, Web Content Writer.

Notes.

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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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