stephen blyth’s blog

Over a year down the track it’s good to news to hear the TechSoup New Zealand programme racking up a substantial number of software donations.
At a function at Te Papa last night jointly hosted by TechSoup New Zealand’s local partner, NZFVWO, Barnardos and Microsoft, there was a fair bit of hoopla about the volume of [...]

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As I gaze out my home office window (which I do in exceedingly rare moments when I’m day dreaming turning over thorny ideas) I can see a kowhai gently bending with the breeze. The plant is a farewell gift from the partners behind CommunityCentral.  My paid role Project Manager came to an end last week [...]

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Take my word for it, don’t leave funding applications to the last moment. It can mean missing out.
When I got round to entering the details of a Lottery Community application into the online form it was already 4.30pm on Friday afternoon . Wellington ICT is looking for funding to keep the e-rider IT service going [...]

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The imminent closing date of a new round of the Digital Strategy Community Partnership Fund on 10 November has set off a stampede of creative thinking. There’s no shortage of good ideas, though the $5.8 million available probably won’t be enough to fund everything being dreamed up.
The criteria for funding means existing projects aren’t likely [...]

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Community groups in the Taranaki region will soon have an independent source of IT advice and support. The ICT Gateway is being run by the Bishop’s Action Foundation, a community development organisation based in New Plymouth.
According to the Gateway’s recently appointed coordinator Patrick Edwards, they’re starting out by working with three groups to get a [...]

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I missed Jim Mora’s show today, but I wish I hadn’t. Paul Reynold was talking about “three online projects [he] thinks exemplify the best of community lead web projects”.
The projects he raved expounded on were:

One Laptop Per Child - Niue
Aotearoa People’s Network - free Internet and help in public libraries, plus open source community storytelling [...]

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We’ve been a bit coy of singing too loudly that a new website for the tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector is coming soon.
With major website developments timing can be fickle. It’s really difficult to be sure you have enough to show others.
But later next month, we’ll be unveiling CommunityCentral. There’ll be spaces people can [...]

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Monday night marked a significant milestone for the Wellington e-rider IT service. After all the planning, discussion, highs and lows, we held a big celebration.
As the banner and invite said, “We’re up and rolling”.
About 50 odd people turned up to help us celebrate at Internet NZ’s boardroom. There was a great buzz, and we kept [...]

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Setting out to build a new website or set of online tools can be pretty nerve wracking. No matter what research and insights have been captured, how many people have been surveyed, and advisors consulted it’s hard to know if anyone will actually find what you’ve done as useful and exciting.
The syndrome of “build [...]

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It didn’t take long before I was scribbling down a list of resources and websites to look into after meeting Aba Maison, from the London Advisory Services Alliance (LASA). While on a two month trip around New Zealand, Aba took time out from her sight-seeing to swap notes about using IT to support community groups.
One [...]

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