stephen blyth’s blog

Just over three and half years ago Wellington ICT ran a workshop to see if there was interest in a service providing IT advice and support to local community groups. We were entering an unknown process with a real sense of optimism.

Although I can’t locate the notes from that workshop right now, I did find a blog post I wrote the night before the workshop (see “Wellington IT support planning begins tomorrow” posted 27 September 2005).

We knew there were IT needs but didn’t want to presume too much. I wrote:

… we have decided to engage with local organisations and community advisors working with them, [so] I’m prepared for a different set of information and technology needs to emerge. It’s best we have clear agreement and buy-in from the outset, or a solution we devise is not likely to succeed.

Months later, we’ve come a long way to delivering on the early promise. We’ve set-up and delivered IT advice to over 35 organisations. The 18 month pilot project, which ended on 31 March 2009, answered two of the questions we started out with: is there demand? and can we deliver quality services?

1. Yes. There is definitely demand for affordable, independent IT advice and support tailored to the needs of community and voluntary organisations.
2. Yes. During the pilot the service was able to meet the majority of requests received, operate efficiently and establish effective management systems.

Organisations have told us they appreciated the way Lindsay Hunter, our friendly IT professional has worked. It’s been acknowledged we understand the values and constraints faced by organisations.

We’ve learned a lot as we’ve gone. Much of this is captured in two thorough evaluation reports prepared by Massey University. Copies are available on the e-rider website or from The Clearing House.

With a real swagger in our step, when we applied for funding we proposed with our partners to roll-out a  nationwide service at the end of the pilot. Now, this isn’t actually going to be possible. We’re still building foundations in Wellington and we don’t think the approach we’ve taken will necessarily apply around the country.

Instead of a definitive roadmap what needs to happen is a combination of conversation and research. We’ve  proposed a scoping process involving interested organisations, government agencies and funders. The aim is to jointly plan how to make sure all New Zealand tangata whenua, community and voluntary organisations can access quality, affordable IT support and advice. Wellington ICT’s thinking is set out in a concept paper e-rider project: phase three (national roll-out) concept plan (October 2008) (PDF 404 KB) .

We’re not alone in this. Both 2020 Communications Trust and Rotorua Community ICT Trust see merit in a coordinated approach. Already some ideas about being slung around.

Everyone involved in the project at Wellington ICT is willing to join a conversation (and share lessons about what we’ve achieved). It’s going to take a while to gather momentum for any sort of national approach so we’d love to hear some people around the country. Ideas and enthusiasm are welcome.

For now, the Wellington e-rider carries on his way repairing printers, advising on computer purchases, installing RAM, suggesting new policies and much more. Fundraising is in full swing on behalf of organisations so we can keep offering the service at affordable rates. As they say, watch this space.