ITP Techblog

Kia ora koutou Te Pou Hangarau Ngaio, IT Professionals Members and Supporters! 

Today marks the start of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori language week) which is awesome! This week is about prompting all of us to start using Te Reo Māori, or  get more serious about learning more of the language. Stuff have created some accessible content for us including this awesome quiz - give it a go it’s a great way to learn new words. 

Adding a Technology slant to the Te Reo Māori conversation I thought I would share a couple of my favourite apps

• Rongo app - designed to ease the whakamā (embarrassment) when learning Te Reo Māori by helping with your pronunciation. I am an Apple user so here is a link to the App store. 
• Kia Mataara app - brought to us by the fab crew at Kiwa Digital, this app provides a variety of information on Te Reo Māori, tikanga (customs), mātāpono me ngā kaingākau (principles and values), whakatauki (proverbs) and waiata (songs). Here is a link to the Apple App Store. 

Would love you hear about other fab Te Reo Māori apps and resources out there worth exploring. I am still sick with the dreaded Covid-19, it’s been fascinating hearing stories from friends and whānau, the one constant theme is that every experience of the virus is unique. Thank you to everyone who has sent me well wishes. There is a great phrase to describe how I feel now - kua pau te hau - or out of oomph. Kia pai tō wiki (have a good week)! Vic 

Interesting reading this week

• Digital Drivers Licesnes - NZTA is now exploring introduction of a Digital drivers license - I have previously expressed my concerns at the data matching between NZTA and DIA that already occurs, happens without explicit consent. So will be keeping a close eye on the attention NZTA place on privacy and protecting the rights of citizens. 
• Platform tax - amongst a range of other GST and Tax tweaks the Government has developed legilation to extend existing GST marketplace rules to capture accommodation, ride-sharing, food and beverage delivery services. Basically this is to plug an existing hole. 
• Anti-virus software compared - Consumer NZ has ventured into comparing anti-virus software, the summary guide is pretty good as an explainer of what anti-virus software can do, the comparison is behind their paywall and well worth a subscription for. 
• John Edwards has been busy again - this time the UK watchdog has reprimanded two government departments. 

Making New Zealand’s cities smarter

Chapter 15 of From Yesterday to Tomorrow is all about Smart Cities. Now I knew nothing about Smart Cities before I read this chapter and found it a wealth of information - thanks Mark Thomas for pulling this great overview together. Really usefully Mark included lots of diagrams, I found this one really useful to provide context: 

He then takes us through the Aotearoa New Zealand investment and context for developing smarter cities, with insights into the experiences in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. 

“The second decade of the 21st century has firmly established a smart cities foundation in New Zealand. The opportunity exists now for an alignment with central government coordination, council leadership and private and not-for-profit sector partnership to strengthen and substantially grow this base.”

My conclusion, the notion of smart cities could not only save us a fortune as tax payers, could vastly improve councils abilities to proactively maintain assets but has a range of benefits we as citizens can leverage if our councils invest wisely and coordinate their efforts. 

Reminders

• For ITP Members - ITP’s AGM is this Wednesday and voting for National Board and branch members closes tomorrow at 5pm. 
• Tech Users Day is this Thursday in Auckland, with speakers like Minister Clark talking about the Digital Strategy for Aotearoa, fabulous panels on Digital Equity, Online Safety and in the final panel of the day the Hon Judith Collins to talk about What’s next. For ITP members there is a discount offer on ticket pricing, use the promo code ITPMember. 
• How do we feel survey - if you haven’t already please fill out our first surveys. A new one will be out this week once I am back on deck. 
• If you are in the Education space the CITRENZ conference is on during the first week of October, a great opportunity to learn about the future of education in the digital technology space.