Connecting the Pixels

I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, 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 specifically greet you: Claire Matthews, Chair of the Eastern and Central Community Trust representing the host for this year's conference; delegates from Community Trusts from throughout New Zealand; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen. 

Thank you for inviting me to make a contribution to this year's Combined Community Trusts' Conference here in Napier. 

I would like to say how good it is to have a reason to be back in the Hawke's Bay.  Since being appointed Governor-General in August 2006, my wife, Susan, and I have had several opportunities to visit here.  We undertook a significant regional visit to the region in March 2007, with our last visit being almost a year ago when we attended the drawn test match between India and the Blackcaps at McLean Park.

The theme of this conference - A Hundred Pathways - draws its inspiration from a Ngāti Kahungunu proverb that describes the Heretaunga Plains.  The proverb speaks of the diverse beauty of the area and its fertile soils, crissed-crossed by the Tutaekuri, Ngaruroro and Tukituki rivers which give life to the land. 

As the conference programme notes, however, it also captures something of the spirit of the people that Community Trusts serve, and the resilience they need to demonstrate in finding their own pathways.  It also speaks of service to others and the contribution your organisations make to New Zealand.

As the programme also outlines, there are many challenges facing the Community Trust sector which pinpoints maintaining its relevance as our population ages and becomes more ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse.  There are also the challenges from the current economic situation, and the impact that has had on the philanthropic sector.

What I would like to address is a little different-namely the impact of the internet on the community and voluntary sector.  I will make some comment about the influence of the internet generally, before examining its potential and challenges for the communities you serve, before then concluding with a challenge.

It is just 20 years since New Zealand's first link to the Internet was established.  This is similar to the time that New Zealand has had Community Trusts.  But in that short space of time, and particularly since the mid-1990s when the commercialisation of the Internet 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. I used to think that it was just the biggest thing since Gutenberg, but now I think you have to go back farther." 

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 will become apparent.

We will all know how the internet and IT equipment have changed our working lives. How many among us who can recall saying things like: "How did we ever survive without the fax machine?"  Now, as we know, the fax machine is a lonely piece of equipment that sits in the corner gathering dust and startles everyone on the odd occasion that it unexpectedly starts hooting and honking. 

The transformation the internet has wrought has been largely positive.  We are more connected than ever before.  With devices such Blackberrys and iphones, now called "pda's" (personal digital assistants) rather than cellphones, we can literally carry a computer in our pocket. Emails and text messages can be sent and answered, the internet can be surfed and phone calls can be made at anytime and in almost any place.  

People are not only buying goods and services over the internet, but are also interacting with their governments online as reflecting in the New Zealand State Services Commission's oversight of the Government's e-government strategy.    Those connections vary from paying one's motor vehicle registration fees online, through to consulting on legislation.  For example, the innovative use by the New Zealand Police to consult the public on a new Policing Act using wiki technology drew international attention and plaudits.    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.  Many newspapers and Television and Radio Stations have internet sites.  I have noticed, for example, that events at Government House today are increasingly attended not only by video crews from television stations, but also from newspaper websites.

The changes have not only affected business models, but also how we relate to others. In 1996, then President Bill Clinton noted that when he took office three years earlier, only high energy physicists had heard of the internet.  He then quipped: "Now even my cat has its own web page."   Well if the Clinton's cat "Socks" was still alive today,  he no doubt would have had more than a webpage.  Socks probably would also have had a blog, a Facebook page and would have been regularly "tweeting" on a number of topics, including, perhaps, the price of milk.

The phenomenon of social media is one that has taken the world by storm.  I understand that Facebook, for example, has more than 400 million active users who share more than 5 billion pieces of content every week.   A recent feature in The New Zealand Listener outlined how these social media are changing the concept of friendship.  Instead of friends coming and going throughout one's life, with social media they never go away-and sometimes acquaintances from the past come back to haunt us.   Like all technologies, they have had both their positive and negative sides.  The use of social media in defaming others' reputations is but one example of its misuse.  

And it is not just "friends" - I place the word in quotes - that are on social media pages.  Businesses have them, and so do many world leaders, including Prime Minister John Key.  Prince William's recent visit to New Zealand included, for the first time, a Facebook page. The Royal Family also uses Twitter to let the public to know of forthcoming engagements.  However, they do not use it to comment on events - a tweet from Her Majesty before or after the next State Opening of Parliament is not to be expected.  Government House is also investigating the potential of social media to communicate the work of the Governor-General.  I note that the ASB Community Trust has a presence in both Facebook and Twitter.

So what does this admittedly ad hoc examination of the internet and technology mean for the community and voluntary sector?  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 access them.

In the age of the internet, one might wonder if the challenge of community engagement is not just connecting the dots, but rather, "connecting the pixels"?   To refer to the theme of this conference, in cyberspace there are not just "a hundred pathways" but rather millions of pathways.  For the community and voluntary sector - and for community trusts as key funders of many community initiatives - these many pathways equally pose many challenges.  Information communication technology is vital in ensuring that organisations are not only connected with each other but also with the communities they serve.

Professor Ted Zorn and Dr Margaret Richardson, researchers in the management school at the University of Waikato, last month 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 Water Safety New Zealand  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.  But what of the other side of the coin-connecting organisations with communities?  The University of Waikato research, to which I referred earlier, found high use of ICT for communication within and between organisations and for general promotion, but found much lower use of the internet to deliver services to clients or in encouraging community involvement in programmes.

However, 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 major campaigns encouraging people to give up smoking.  

I am advised that 18 months 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 as community trusts, as funders of community projects, is to be ready to support community and voluntary organisations as they move into what can be called the online world.  As the custodians of significant community funds, I feel certain you will continue to apply the same rigorous criteria to all projects you decide to support. 

All of the Community Trusts represented here today were established in 1988 by virtue of the Trustee Banks Restructuring Act 1988, which separated out the management and ownership roles of the former trustee banks.  Picking up on a long history of philanthropy, you have all evolved into significant funders of community initiatives. 

Those initiatives have always been about more than just new or improved facilities and services. They have been an investment in our communities' social capital and in building relationships among people and groups that give them the capacity to act in common causes.  Because some of that investment maybe in bytes and bits rather than bricks and mortar does not make it any less valuable.  

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 pixels 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 Community Trusts and others in the philanthropic community undertake that will play an important role. 

And on a note of optimism for the future of Community Trusts in our country, I will close in New Zealand's first language Māori, 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.