Three community projects with Jim Mora – Radio New Zealand National
I have just had a lovely 30 minute interview with Jim Mora of Radio New Zealand National talking about three online projects I think exemplify the best of community lead web projects.
One Laptop Per Child – Niue
The first is the news out of Niue [from the BBC] that they having taken delivery of 500 One Laptop per Child machines. This translates to one laptop for every child in this tiny Pacific Island country. This is the first of a number of different island initiatives which will see 500 laptops being distributed around the Pacific Islands.
The project is being lead by the the SPC [ Secretariat to the Pacific Community], as part of their Pacific Rural Internet Connectivity System. One of the key people on the team is the kiwi Ian Thomson who also worked, here in Aotearoa with the Tuhoe iwi on their project to wire their tribal mountain area – the Ureweras.
Aotearoa Peoples Network
I love talking about this project – which is tasked to deliver fast/free Internet access, plus new machines, plus some open source community story telling software , Kete, to a growing number of public libraries in New Zealand
The current offerings are primarily rural. There is a blog, here, which tells some interesting tales. also, a map of the project libraries, here, plus the official site is here.
Kiva
I blogged about the micro lending site Kiva recently. In addition to explaining how it works, in the interview Jim and I talk about the logic of bringing the principles of micro financing closer to home here in Aotearoa in particular and the Pacific in general.
Google Generation is a Myth
The the interview you will also get the familiar Reynolds refrain – when was it okay for this generation to give away the responsibility to invent the future for our kids. And by the by – our kids are stumbling around and need some help.
The research I quote out of the UK is , of course the now famous study from British Library and JISC, here.