Panui 28th April
Tālofa lava (hello in Samoan) ITP members and supporters. Welcome to this the last digital pānui of April 2023.
I spent the day yesterday judging for one of the major technology awards events coming up and as ever was impressed with the caliber and depth of capability we have emerging in this sector. As ever the entrepreneurs who have started, grown and exited before have a massive advantage over those who are developing their first startup, with their ability to attract talent, funding and experience to the venture. It also got me thinking about awards again. Are they unintentionally bias towards those with experience? and/or the best marketing team? And therefore the best pitch/presentation? Should we be looking to do something different in the awards space to celebrate the quieter achievers? those who aren’t natural spotlight grabbers? Or even moving away from commercial success as a criteria and looking more closely at impact - on society, the planet and people?
May is shaping up to be a somewhat crazy busy month with TechWeek, Sign language week, Pink Shirt Day, Mothers Day (if you are into that kind of holiday) and Samoan Language week to name a few. It feels like the year only really got started in March and has been operating at an incredible pace ever since - so do please remember to take time out for yourselves, breath, enjoy the sunshine and hug your whānau.
Skills and Talent
I had a lovely sit down with Cathy from CIO Magazine on succession planning and developing the next generation of CIO’s earlier this week. We talked about such a diverse range of topics but importantly the upcoming How to be an Effective CIO course and some of my views on NZ government as an employer needing to mature their workforce management approach for digital technologies.
This weeks cartoon was inspired by the Rocket Labs STEM programme, which Peter wrote about earlier in the week. RocketLabs tell us they have reached 20,000 kiwi kids and is now expanding their programme globally.
TEC have issued a new infographic (of sorts) describing the vocational education sector - what do you think?
Local Tech issues
As you know I always look for the good news stories in our local industry. This week however there seem to have been more negative ones so here is a brief round up of those instead for a change.
News from around the world
Brent Carey, CEO of Netsafe has written us a great piece on the online safety code and the increasing interest NZ’s code has been receiving from a range of countries - Homegrown code to tackle online safety now “the Worlds Code”.
As you may have seen the UK Competition and Markets Authority blocked the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft this week, now the backlash is hitting with Microsoft bosses claiming the decision is bad for Britain. All eyes move now to EU and US regulators to see what their position on the purchase looks like.
The UK PM renamed his country to UK = Unicorn Kingdom this week as well. I really don’t know what to make of this. Remember when WCC tried to call Wellington “Silicon Welly” that one didn’t really take off and I don’t think this one will either - but hey if they throw enough money at the startup ecosystem it might.
Did you read about the smart rings that allow couples to read each others heartbeat? need I say more.
More on bitcoin’s environmental impact with “Bitcoin terrible for the environment - can it go green?”, so this time with modifications which could reduce processing footprint. I was a little staggered by this quote - “Bitcoin mining may be responsible for 65.4 megatonnes of CO2 per year … which is comparable to country-level emissions in Greece (56.6 megatonnes in 2019).”
Upcoming events
If you are in Nelson our branch committee have organised a great looking talk from award winning company SnapIT.
Our Fireside Chat series is kicking off again in May. The first is with JD Trask who will be joining me to discuss what’s really going on in the skills and talent space from the perspective of one of our more successful Tech export companies - and whether there will be jobs in 10 years or will our AI overlords have replaced us. Then during TechWeek I will be talking to Jordan Carter on internet governance, what the Australian government is doing that the NZ government is not and his new role with the Australian domain commission.
In both of these I will be asking them some curly questions and facilitating your questions via a Q& A function. More Fireside Chats to come over the winter months so watch this space.
Blogs this week
Peter’s editorial talks about Big Tech’s ‘year of efficiency’ employee cull seems to be working, with the share prices of Google, Microsoft, and Meta experiencing a bump in the wake of their latest quarterly earnings announcements, and how AI is now the answer to every question.
We also have an interesting piece on “A rise in self-service technologies may cause a decline in our sense of community”, discussing the hands off nature of many interactions removing social interaction opportunities. Plus the posts I mentioned earlier.
Te Reo Māori digital technology terms
I got such lovely feedback on introducing us all to the Te Reo Māori terms for saying you’re on mute, “Kua ngū tō reo” and “whakaarahia tō reo” unmute yourself, that I thought I would make this a regular feature with two new Te Reo Māori digital technology terms each week.
Hangarau Matihiko is the term for digital technologies.
Mātai karetao is the Te Reo term for Robotics. Karetao is the word for puppet and can be used for robot.
Manuia le aso (Samoan for have a good day). Vic
