Unlocking the potential of communities

Goal

To enable communities to use technology to realise their social, cultural, and economic aspirations.

Targets

• Implement a contestable Community Partnership Fund in 2005.
• Extend the reach of Project PROBE from schools into community centres and rural businesses from 2005.
• Implement the Connecting Communities Strategy.

Challenge

• To provide communities with the tools they need to fulfil their innovative potential and realise their aspirations.
• To ensure that all communities can enjoy the benefits of ICT, especially access to affordable high-speed broadband.

ICT can enhance our sense of identity and connection to a particular place or group. It can extend services to isolated communities or those excluded from full participation in the life of the community. It can enable people to become more involved in democratic processes and decision-making at all levels.³¹ The government recognises the vital role that community, voluntary, and Māori organisations and iwi play in New Zealand society.³²

‘Community’ means more than geographic communities. The term includes traditional associations such as whānau and hapū, ethnicity or occupation, and virtual communities of interest or practice. Many communities have identified their own vision of the future and have developed innovative and resourceful ways to get there.³³

All communities are different. A top-down programme delivered from Wellington won’t necessarily meet the needs of Taupo, Temuka, or Tolaga Bay. Communities themselves are best placed to determine their own needs, in partnership with local government and other organisations.

Isolated communities need broadband. The economics of technology networks favour roll-out in areas with high population density and high income. Rural areas and regional communities have been marginalised. There are high economic and social gains to be realised by ensuring that all New Zealanders can enjoy the benefits of ICT.

ICT can connect us more deeply with each other, by reducing distance and bringing people together. For instance, Te Whānau a Āpanui in the Bay of Plenty is offering IT training and certification to its high school students in partnership with Cisco Systems, providing career options for its young people, and keeping in touch with the 80% of the iwi who live outside the rohe.

The draft Strategy advocated a grassroots approach to providing services. Feedback agreed that a partnership approach is required. To be effective, initiatives must come from communities themselves. Government can help to provide communities with the tools they need, building on programmes and resources such as CommunityNet Aotearoa³⁴ and using models like the People’s Network that have been shown to work elsewhere.³⁵

Asset mapping is one such tool. It enables communities to identify and map their unique physical and human resources, building on geospatial and other data, so that information can be developed for planning purposes or simply accessed by community members.

The government has committed seed funding to achieve the digital vision for strengthening communities. This partnership funding will allow communities to define their own ICT needs, then apply for contestable resources. Seed funding must be matched by contributions from communities, local government, or the private sector. ³⁶

Actions

The Community Partnership Fund

The concept

The government is providing $20.7 million seed funding over four years to partly fund initiatives by partnerships that will improve people’s capability and skills to use ICT and develop digital content.

Unleashing the potential of communities

ICT can be used to bring communities closer together, to build the capacity of individuals and groups, extend existing services to isolated communities or to those excluded from participating fully, and increase participation in the democratic process. We recognise we need a concerted approach to harness those skills, to map and build on the assets already within communities. We also recognise this is not possible without content that is high quality and meaningful for New Zealand users, as outlined in the Content section of the Digital Strategy.

The Community Partnership Fund will support the many grassroots ICT-related initiatives that draw on the benefits of the broadband infrastructure put in place by Project PROBE and our continued work in the Digital Strategy. The seed funding is to support proposals that will primarily:

• build ICT skills and capability in regions and communities
• map communities’ ICT assets and identify priority gaps
• strengthen community projects through the use of ICT
• address issues of confidence, such as safety and security, in using ICT
• create and digitise distinctive and valuable New Zealand content.

The process

There will be scope for small-scale community initiatives, as well as for a limited number of more significant collaborations of national importance. The process will be contestable, addressing needs identified at the local level. It will be delivered and led primarily through local partnerships, although it will be open to intermediaries or government partners acting as aggregators of demand. Successful proposals are likely to be those that demonstrate the above factors, and can show leverage of other funds to complement and maximise the benefit from the government seed funding, provide a demonstration of the needs and benefits and are part of a longer-term sustainable plan.

Extending the reach of broadband – the PROBE Extension

The concept

The government’s $48 million investment in Project PROBE has helped introduce competition in the market and raised broadband coverage to approximately 95% in each region. The satellite contract being rolled out by ICONZ also through PROBE will mean that potential coverage is now close to 100% – making New Zealand’s broadband coverage excellent by world standards.

But some rural communities and businesses are still excluded from the benefits of affordable broadband. Private sector initiatives such as the Telecom New Zealand deal to provide broadband Internet to all 17,000 Fonterra farmers, are helping to address this, although the market may not reach every community for some time.

Extending PROBE

The government will make $1.44 million available to extend the reach of PROBE, with priority for regions where community coverage has been harder to achieve. The process will be co-ordinated regionally.

We are also considering how the PROBE satellite link can connect Pacific peoples living in New Zealand with their island communities.

Link to Case Study on CommunityNet Aotearoa

³¹ There are a number of developments encouraging participation and e-democracy solutions: see www.decisionmaker.co.nz; an e-democracy group in Waitakere www.wedg.org.nz; and a Christchurch-based software group using the concept of a commons approach to decision making,  www.openstrategies.com.

³² ‘An independent and vibrant community sector is essential to a healthy civil society. Government and the community sector depend on each other to achieve shared goals of social participation, social equity, and strengthened communities.’ Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship, Ministry of Social Development, 2002, http://www.dsw.govt.nz/work-areas/communities-hapu-iwi/community-and-government/statementhtml.html

³³ A new NZ, www.anewnz.org.nz, is just one example.

³⁴ See www.community.net.nz.

³⁵ The People’s Network is the successful initiative to upgrade the ICT capability of all the public libraries in England – see www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk

³⁶ The term ‘matched’ is taken to mean co-funding from communities, local government, the private sector, or other partners, including contributions in kind.

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