thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

As many of you know I have been working on re-development of a significant NZ government related website which focuses on the roll-out of ultra fast broadband over the next few years.

That site Crown Fibre Holdings finally went live a few weeks ago. I’m very proud of the great design work that has been done on a project of such national significance. In replacing the old site the CFH team and my team wanted to re architect the site and improve usability so that it was much easier to reach out to the key sectors.

I’m delighted that the content and the thinking has progressed along and like all great projects there are some more changes to come.

Crown Fibre - Website by dialogCRM

For the WordPress geeks out there the site is a custom theme which uses lots of video and for government related entities – yes – it is running on a Microsoft IIS server.

Individually and collectively as a group there has been a great deal of effort put in to make the website work on as many levels as possible. It is a learning system and I hope and trust it will become a showcase for all the NZ communities it seeks to represent and engage with.

But wait !- there is more. I’m fascinated by all the debates going on – all day, every day on twitter and other forms of media. Comes a time though -when some straight talking is needed.  I work in marketing and communications and so I organise or help with various events and conferences. I much prefer organising parties  and concerts but conference events have their place as there is no substitute for face to face in real time.

With any project what we are really looking for is for real street level moments of truth. One of my tag lines is “ideas into action”. Yes we need the talk – but we also need to share from our hearts about what moves us and what connects us and what makes a difference and that is ultimately measured in actions.

I was delighted to have Poutaua and Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule as presenters at #WordCampNZ 2012 as our keynote speakers only last week. They believe in speaking the truth with love and humour and it shows.

The clip below comes from another event that I hadn’t seen before today. We have video still coming from #WordCampNZ however here are Nik & Taua’s slides Nikolasa & Potaua Biasiny-Tule – DigitalM?ori & WP Magazine Stylz but watch the video below first.

The conversations we have about ultra fast broadband are important. We need to have more of them and we need to be present and really listen to each other.

As always let me know what you think – are we doing enough to be inclusive and enabling with our ultra fast broadband policy ?and the roll-out? – what more can and should be done?

Please also follow @DigitalMaori over at TangataWhenua.com for more from them.

One of the nicer things about getting older is being able to take a longer term perspective on the future.

More specifically; how our lives and those of our friends turn out based on decisions and actions in time past. It is a truism that we often don’t know or fully understand the significance of key events until much later.

The trigger for some of these thoughts was a long term wedding anniversary which is great achievement in itself but the what I really enjoyed was the opportunity to compare notes across a very wide sample of people ranging from 3 to 70+ .

In some case I talked with people I hadn’t seen in 30 years. With so many people it was a series of quick snapshots on what they or I had been up to and the results were often fascinating.

Marshall McLuhan famously said that “Predicting the present” was more difficult that trying to guess the future.

In answer to the question What Are You Optimistic About? Howard Rhinegold started his answer in this way (in a 2007 series.)

“The tools for cultural production and distribution are in the pockets of 14 year olds.

This does not guarantee that they will do the hard work of democratic self-governance: the tools that enable the free circulation of information and communication of opinion are necessary but not sufficient for the formation of public opinion.

Ask yourself this question: Which kind of population seems more likely to become actively engaged in civic affairs

— a population of passive consumers, sitting slackjawed in their darkened rooms, soaking in mass-manufactured culture that is broadcast by a few to an audience of many,

or a world of creators who might be misinformed or ill-intentioned, but in any case are actively engaged in producing as well as consuming cultural products?

Recent polls indicate that a majority of today’s youth — the “digital natives” for whom laptops and wireless Internet connections are part of the environment, like electricity and running water — have created as well as consumed online content.

I think this bodes well for the possibility that they will take the repair of the world into their own hands, instead of turning away from civic issues, or turning to nihilistic destruction.

In my life I’ve been far more motivated by causes and big ideas than anything else.

My Dad always used to say he wouldn’t know how he’d done till he sees how our children turn out. How is that for a longer term view? My daughter keeps me on my toes  and we are enjoying the journey of being engaged with the world around us and beyond.

I agree with Rhinegold and the idea that we can choose to repair the present and engage with optimism.

With recent events in Egypt still unfolding we can take heart that it is largely the youth of that nation who have called time on the tired old ideas of the past. (Linda Herrera)

“Some characteristics of this global generation are excessive communication, involving many people in decision making, multitasking, group work, blurring of public and private, sharing, individual expression, and collective identification.

Another important distinction between the generations is that the digital generation take what media theorist Clay Shirky calls “symmetrical participation” for granted.

In other words, they are not passive recipients of media and messages, as in the days when television and print media ruled, but take for granted that they can play a role in the simultaneous production, consumption, interaction with, and dissemination of on-line content.”

There is no doubt that the social connections and amplification of these ideas online has made a huge contribution to a far more optimistic future.

When my daughter was 3 she used to ask what I did for a job. She has a much better idea now but to keep things simple I used to say something like this.

“I talk with people, I take lots of notes. Then some web stuff.”

Fairly often now some of this takes place all at the same time. Live twitter streams from events are now part of the (new) media mix.  Services like Be in the Room can aggregate social media feeds and we can take questions from external observers via the use of hashtags.

Here is recent example (August 4th) from the Unitec Forum for the Future series on Auckland Super City debates. Look at earlier posts on theDomm website for more about that event and/ or follow on twitter @UnitecFTF At the UnitecFTF those who couldn’t be there asked questions via twitter.

This was the 6th forum event so far. More are planned. Noted business commentator and journalist Rod Oram is the chair for the event and Associate Professor & Head of Department Rob Davis deserves full credit for being the catalyst & firestarter on this project.

As this debate took place in a TV studio with lots of outside media present some of this was captured on video. I even got a rare chance to see myself at work because when you are on live streaming it all tends to be a bit of blur in the moment.

The super city changeover for Auckland is an important change and  it deserves better, smarter, more engaging media and new media engagement.

Well done Unitec cast and crew for making a difference.