Mōrena ITP members and supporters. It was International Women’s day this week, we have a thought provoking article on looking at investment through a gender lens, and supporting companies who are making a difference in the gender equity space. Unfortunately there isn’t a register of which companies we should be spending our money with. 
The day almost passed me by and I apologise we didn’t host an ITP event, I didn’t even commission my usual IWD t-shirt. I did write a blog post sharing a very personal recent experience where I was bullied in the boardroom, what I am going to start doing today and a short list of things all of us can do to help women thrive in the workplace. 

Peter's editorial this week poses the question whether we should double down on developing digital technology skills and capability in the face of layoffs? you will have all seen Xero’s layoff news yesterday, they aren’t the first local SAAS company to massively reduce staff in Aotearoa this year with Sharesies and it is worth also mentioning Atlassian across the Tasman’s layoffs too. In a market when employers are crying out for skills and talent those impacted by these cuts should be able to find work right now - this is a very interesting space to watch. 

Peter also provided us with a summary of the main findings of the latest Internet Insights report from InternetNZ this week. Wearing my DECA hat in post-Cyclone Gabrielle hui, I have witnessed remarkable and tireless efforts by Māori and Pacific women helping communities reconnect, they have been sourcing internet connections and laptops and providing other forms of support. Hearing about the challenges they have faced in these efforts has been a powerful experience, putting this into context alongside the insights from InternetNZ on how far we have to go with providing affordable internet access for vulnerable communities and reminds me quite starkly just how much work we have to do,

In other random tech news this week - Meta’s LLaMa language model leak, two more massive data breaches in the USA with Acer and Washington DC Health insurer Health Link, NASA had to revert to rebooting a spacecraft this week, and if you are into databases like I am you will enjoy this weeks debate topic on The Register, are Graph databases better? 

In ITP news our team member Dan was interviewed by Kim Hill on Saturday, about his other life away from ITP - as lead singer of punk rock band Dartz and a really successful graphic artist, you can read more and listen to Danz story here. 

I shouted myself a new iPhone 14 Pro last week and so far I am pretty impressed especially with the screen quality. I haven’t really used Dynamic Island yet but can already see how it improves the whole UX, the battery life is amazing and I think sound quality has improved but that doesn’t feature in mainstream reviews. As ever the whole swap over process was seamless and painless, especially with my iPad sitting alongside for easy confirmations (yay Apple ecosystem). What I am most looking forward to is seeing how the camera performs while I am on holiday down south next week, I am hoping to get some Aurora photos which I know my 11 wouldn’t have done justice. It was an expensive upgrade but the whānau hand-me-down-phone system that triggers whenever I upgrade a phone keeps many people happy. 

Brendan is still away so here is one of his previous cartoons that seems relevant on a few levels. Ngā manaakitanga, warm regards Vic