ITP Techblog

Kia ora koutou, ITP members and supporters, it’s Rāhina (Monday) so time for a brief summary of news. 

I was sent a link to this mind-blowing blog post today on “the assassination of contractor recruitment in New Zealand as we know it”. It seems after years of paying contractor margins to recruiters on hourly rates, often with the frightening “double bubble” margins (when a company not on the AOG panel subcontracts into a panel business, both applying margin) the government has woken up and said no more. This government sanctioned rort has been going on for as long as I can recall, admittedly with every new rendition of the All of Government  Talent Acquisition Services Supplier panel the margins have reduced. With this Generation Three they are gone in favour of a one off up front fixed fee! Laurence Pidcock - I salute you. 

All of that said recruiters hold a really important role in our ecosystem and many act ethically providing a fantastic value based service. I really do feel for them if they were blindsided by this change as the blog post suggests. In the last month a number of global recruitment platforms - ones with no people involved just software platforms - have been spamming me asking if I need staff, that they enable / broker employment of staff who can work for me from anywhere in the world, less than local rates etc etc. So two front recruiters are having to fend off in these interesting times.

Calming down from that excitement! My inbox was also chocker full of consultation emails today, here is just a subset I thought our community might be most interested in. I have always been fascinated by the government dropping consultations on us all at once, the last time was late October 2021 when they were turning up at a rate that simply made it impossible to keep track let alone respond - so I commend these agencies for their consultation processes coming out earlier, well clear of the pre-Christmas rush.

For those in the South Island (Te Waipounamu) I hope you manage to stay dry this week. Noho ora mai (stay well, look after yourself). Vic

Feedback / Consultation opportunities

One for Entrepreneurs
GEN NZ - the NZ chapter of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, led here by the amazing Dave Moskovitz - is exploring the concept of an "Entrepreneur's Playbook" to support entrepreneurs in Aotearoa New Zealand. (You can read more about it here)
They are currently running a survey to find out where the challenges lie for our entrepreneurs. They are trying to get this survey sent far and wide. It's a short survey so if you identify as an entrepreneur please fill it in, or pass onto any entrepreneurs you know. The team are happy to get your feedback via a short interview as well. 
The survey can be found here.

Office of the Privacy Commission - Biometrics and Facial Recognition
As if they have been reading my rants the OPC today came out for consultation on Facial Recognition and other Biometric technologies. 
Their consultation page is here.

I for one will be submitting on this which is very topical - see below Challenging technologies: Perspectives from the Privacy Commissioner - my favourite chapter so far in the history of IT in Aotearoa NZ. 

New Zealand’s first National Security Strategy
DPMC are out for consultation on the first National Security Strategy for Aotearoa and we all get to have a say. 
The consultation page is here.
They have also published the National Security Long-term Insights Briefing - including a summary of public consultation feedback. Here is a link to that. 

Te Pūkenga organisational design
For anyone with a real interest in the Vocational Education space. Te Pūkenga is out for consultation - Tā tātou huarahi | Our pathway: Te Pūkenga organisational direction and design.
Their consultation document can be found here. This includes info on the consultation process on page 27.  There is a survey form. Or via email to [email protected]

Challenging technologies: Perspectives from the Privacy Commissioner

Everyone should read this chapter, co-written by our former Privacy Commissioner John Edwards and Lauren Bennett, Perspectives from the Privacy Commissioner, Chapter 12 of From Yesterday to Tomorrow, provides a comprehensive assessment of the Privacy landscape in Aotearoa NZ. 
John, as you likely know, is now the UK’s Information Commissioner which warrants a Wikipedia page about him. 
Never afraid to confront a challenge front on, in this chapter John and his co-author help explain the ongoing changes we face in privacy terms, the impacts of new technologies, considerations for Māori and cultural approaches to privacy.

John goes a step further providing context for us as an industry, our responsibilities as the creators of technology
“I think it is important that we recognise that engineers and coders are really the architects of society, and we have to engage with the people who are building the technology or they will build stuff that we then have to live with, like it or not, and that may have implications.”

Honestly this chapter is well worth reading. I learned a lot. 

Short Courses coming up 

How to be an effective CIO - for aspiring or new CIO’s this course is delivered as a digestible series of short blocks over a period of 3 months, a mixture of inperson and online delivery. You will learn from industry experts on how to help you think strategically and equip you with the tools you need to succeed as a CIO in 2022. Previous feedback on this course has been universally glowing, attendees leave with practical techniques and frameworks. 
You can read about this course here.

New Zealand Information Security Manual (NZISM) Fundamentals - back by popular demand Dr Elf Eldridge will be delivering his NZISM Fundimentals Course again in September. A must for anyone delivering services to the NZ Government or anyone seeking to comply with government Cyber Security requirements. We run this multiple times a year because it is that popular and Elf is a fantastic trainer. 
You can read about this course here.

Reminder - How do we feel? about Where we Work
If you haven’t seen it already the first in our How do we feel? survey series is on Where we work. It’s short, takes 2 minutes to complete, and will give us all some collective insight into our post Covid workplaces. Please pass this onto your colleagues and friends who have digital technology jobs. Thanks very much!
You can read more about why we are doing this here. And the survey link is here.