Rotary Club of Auckland

I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.   Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the afternoon (Sign)
I then specifically greet you: Don Bendall, President of the Rotary Club of Auckland and your immediate past president, Dr John Hinchcliff;  Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for inviting my wife Susan and I to this luncheon of the Rotary Club of Auckland here at the Auckland Club. 

At the outset, I should offer apologies for an earlier aborted attempt to speak at this gathering.  Sometime ago, I agreed to speak at the Club’s luncheon in mid-April but had to cancel at a late moment when the Government asked me to represent our country at the State Funeral for the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria Kaczynska in Krakow.  Unfortunately, I made it no further than New York before the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano halted almost all air travel in Europe and I had to return unrequited on a number of fronts.

Three months later, it is accordingly a pleasure to be here and to enjoy once more the company of Rotarians and spouses.  For many years I was a foot soldier member and am, now, an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Wellington.  Indeed, there were some friendly murmurs in that Club that a significant reason in accepting the role of Governor-General in 2006 was to avoid what some respectfully regarded as the weightier position of Club President!

But I jest! As one who has been a lawyer, judge, ombudsman and now Governor-General I continue to value the knowledge and skills able to be gained and enjoyed as a Rotarian.  It is in the giving back to the community which one learns through Rotary that one receives so much in return.

This Club has a notable history and will next year celebrates its 90th anniversary, having been established in 1921.  This was one of the first in New Zealand, just 16 years after Paul Harris with his friends Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele and Hiram Shorey met in Madame Gallis’ Italian restaurant in Dearborn St, Chicago and began the Rotary movement on 23 February 1905. 

As an aside, there is a somewhat sad circumstance for this luncheon to be held in these Auckland Club premises, where I was a member for several years.  I have lunched and dined in this fine room on a number of occasions and join those who regret that it will no longer be here after September.

I am honoured to join some 16 of my Governor-General predecessors starting with Sir John Jellicoe, the first Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa in 1924, who have in their time addressed this Club.  I note that the luminaries who have addressed the Club include Paul Harris, himself, as well as a number of Rotary International presidents.  I have also happily agreed to be fined a gold coin to be placed in a mere to mark my visit to the Club.

I have chosen as my topic the challenges and opportunities posed by the internet and information technology and particularly for the community and voluntary sector of which Rotary is such an important part.

It is just 20 years since New Zealand's first link to the Internet was established.  In that short space of time, and particularly since the mid-1990s when the commercialisation began to gain momentum, there seems to be almost no part of our daily lives that has not been touched by what can be called the information revolution. 

The importance of the Internet was, in my view, accurately summarised by American cyber-commentator John Perry Barlow who wrote in 1995 as follows: "With the development of the Internet...we are in the middle of the most transforming technological event since the capture of fire."   As the comment suggests, we are only part of the way on that journey.  I suspect there will be many more twists and turns in the road before the full implications of the digital age become apparent.

\The transformation the internet has wrought has been largely positive.  We are more connected than ever before.  With devices such Blackberrys and iphones, rather than cellphones, we can literally carry a computer in our pocket.

It almost seems passé to say that information technology is transforming our world.  A survey published in the last fortnight by Statistics New Zealand gives a fascinating insight into household use of information and communication technology.  Based on a survey late last year of more than 13,000 homes and compared with a similar survey in 2006 as well as census data, it shows significant increase in adoption of home use internet.

The survey found that three-quarters of New Zealand homes have internet access, compared with just 37 percent in the 2001 census.   The survey found 80 percent of those surveyed had used the internet in the last year, up from 69 percent three years earlier. 

The survey also showed that more than 40 percent of individuals aged 15 and over had made at least one online purchase in the previous year, up significantly on three years earlier.  Those in 25-44 age group were most keen, with 56 percent making an online purchase.

Moreover, this transformation is no longer confined to those born in the last 40 years.  The survey found, for example, that the highest increases in internet usage and mobile phone use occurred with those aged 65 to 74.  In this age group, of which I have been a member for one year and two weeks, two in every three people now have a mobile phone and more than half have used the internet in the last year.

People are buying goods and services over the internet and interacting with government departments online as reflected in the New Zealand State Services Commission's oversight of the Government's e-government strategy.  Those connections vary from paying for motor vehicle registration fees online, through to searching legislation.  Clearly the times have certainly changed since Popular Mechanics forecast 60 years ago that: "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons"!

The internet is an example of what management theorists call a "disruptive technology” in that it is an innovation which disrupts established business models.  One only has to look at the current state of the media to see how established ways of doing business are changing.  The division between electronic and print news media is blurring as each moves into the internet. 

The phenomenon of social media like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, is one that has also taken the world by storm.  A recent New Zealand Herald article noted that Facebook has more than 500 million active users, meaning that about one in every 14 people on the planet has an account.  The same newspaper also reported in an earlier story that a survey by AC Nielsen had found New Zealand had one of the highest rates of social networking in the world, with 1.8 million people or 40 per cent of the population interacting with people online last year. 

And it is not just "friends"—I place the word in quotes—that are on social media pages.  Businesses have them; the New Zealand Police have harnessed the power of Facebook to search for missing people while last year Associate Judge David Gendall in the High Court in Wellington approved the serving of court papers through Facebook and email.

Government House which has an active website for posting and receiving material is also investigating the potential of social media to communicate the work of the Governor-General. 

The internet and social media have both positive and negative sides.  The use of social media to defame others' reputations is one clear example of its misuse.  New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has recently been at the forefront of international work by privacy agencies by holding web giants Google and Facebook to account over their data and privacy protection policies and practices. 

However, because the technology carries risks, it does not means we should not use it.

It also important not to inflate those risks.  For example, the Statistics New Zealand survey I referred to earlier found that just 2 percent had experienced internet fraud in the past year while 13 percent had lost data due to viruses.  Despite the significant increase in internet usage between the 2006 and 2009 surveys, these figures had not increased. 

So what does this admittedly ad hoc examination of the internet and technology mean for the community and voluntary sector and organisations such as Rotary?  In the sector's parlance it is often said that the key challenge is that of "connecting the dots."  The phrase has two aspects.  It first speaks of connecting organisations—both central and local government agencies, businesses and community groups—working in the same sector.  It secondly refers to a continuing need to ensure that members of the community know of the services which community organisations provide, and can easily obtain access to them.

Professor Ted Zorn and Dr Margaret Richardson, researchers in the management school at the University of Waikato, in February published research into the use of information communication technology by New Zealand's community and voluntary sector.  Their survey found that more than half, of the more than 700 organisations that participated in the research, had websites and, an overwhelming majority recognised the importance of ICT to their work.  However, more than a third cited an inability to afford computers as a key reason for not using the internet to the extent they would like.  More than half cited the need for assistance in website enhancement as a service that would be helpful to their organisation.

It is pleasing to see that the community and voluntary sector has not stood still in the face of these challenges.   For example, through my wife Susan, who is Patron of Rural Women New Zealand, I am aware of that organisation's sterling informative e-bulletin, which connects its members and others with valuable information relevant to what is happening in the country.

Another example that has come to my attention in preparing for this address is the work of the New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations.  Two initiatives particularly stand out.  The first, called Community Central, allows members to post and share e-newsletters and use online tools to undertake collaborative projects.  For example, a discussion document from the government can be posted and member organisations can share their views.

The second, called Techsoup New Zealand, allows registered charities to buy proprietary software at heavily discounted prices.  Organisations as diverse as The Children’s Health Camps—Te Puna Whaiora and New Zealand Drug Foundation  have been able to tap into this service.  In these cash-strapped financial times, having the latest software has not only helped these organisations work more efficiently, but has also resulted in significant cost savings.  Both initiatives are in their infancy but they point to the value of collaboration. 

The potential of online tools to build connections within communities is significant.  An example of how important an online tool can be in facilitating change are initiatives by an organisation called the Quit Group, which runs campaigns encouraging people to give up smoking.  

I am advised that two years ago, the organisation established a Quit blog for people trying to give up smoking.  I understand it was originally conceived as a means for those trying to give up to ask questions of advisers, mirroring the organisation's phoneline.  But it has quickly evolved into something else.  With more than 10,000 posts from about 1800 active bloggers, an "online community" has developed, unfettered by the constraints of time or geography.

As the Quit Group noted in its 2009 Annual Review: "...the blog has rapidly evolved into its own community where quitters interact directly with each other, offering support and advice from their own experiences. We regularly see people who have successfully quit themselves frequently return to the blog to encourage those currently working through the journey towards ‘smokefreedom'."

The challenge then to organisations such Rotary, which often fundraise for other community and voluntary organisations and projects, is to be ready to help these groups move into the online world, as well as harnessing the power of technology in its own work.

An interesting new website was recently launched by the Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Hon Tariana Turia and Economic Development Minister Hon Gerry Brownlee that I suspect would be of particular interest to an organisation such as Rotary.  VolunteerNet provides a free online volunteer recruitment and management tool for event organisers as well as giving people who want to get involved easy access to volunteering opportunities.  Many people are interested in volunteering but simply do not know what is available.   VolunteerNet is particularly attractive to people who want to help with one-off or significant projects or events, but do not want to make a lengthy or lifelong commitment to an organisation. 

Writing almost 140 years ago, the some-time New Zealand author Samuel Butler, in his satirical utopian novel, Erewhon, presented a vision of a world ruled by machines. He wrote as follows: "The machines are gaining ground on us, when we reflect on the increasing number of those who are bound down to them as slaves, and of those who devote their whole souls to the advancement of the mechanical kingdom." 

Connecting the dots should ensure that we are never beholden to the mechanical kingdom.  It should rather always be about building relationships and connections, not between computers, but between people and the many and varied communities of which they are a part.  It is in this work that organisations such as Rotary will play an important role. 

And on that note I will close in New Zealand’s first language by offering everyone greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours.  No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.