Kia ora koutou ITP Members and Supporters, do you remember those adverts back when we watched TV - "a little girl waits" - telling us stories of poverty and starvation in far off lands? Well this week that phrase has been sticking in my head as we wait for a government to form, and it feels like it’s taking forever. I mentioned how quiet Wellington’s streets are last week and have subsequently been contacted by people reporting layoffs, standing staff down to 4 days per week (adjusted salaries) to save jobs, restructures and budget cuts happening in both the public and private sectors. John Clegg (Founder of Summer of Tech) updated LinkedIN yesterday that he is stepping down as Co-CEO of this fantastic initiative because the downturn has hit them so hard “Who would have thought 2023 would see a lower demand for interns than 2020?” With 3000 candidates looking and only 67 organisations hiring summer interns this year - things are not great out there. Chris Keall touched on this behind the paywall this morning with TIN200 survey finds New Zealand tech sector booming, but fewer local jobs - plus covered in Peter's in his editorial today.

There is plenty of advice for the new government floating around, mine included, they need to hear this message - a downturn in the digital technology industry, the fasted growing industry here in Aotearoa NZ is not good for our future. 

New topic - With 37 sleeps til Christmas I was reminded at an end of year event this week that not everyone loves this time of year. The first person I spoke to outright told me “I hate these things”, the second (a well dressed man) spent his time scanning the room for a more influential / interesting / important person to speak with than me, then the third asked me how I do it - the dreaded networking event. So I repurposed an old blog of mine - 10 Tips for a great networking experience. Hope this helps you get through the silly season.

Blogs this week

Major cyberattack on Australian ports suggests sabotage by a ‘foreign state actor’ - is our guest blog this week and the big news in Cyber. Learn about what happened, how the Australian response system is kicking in, who might have undertaken this attack and what next. You can read more on this here as well. Doesn’t go as far as telling me when my online shopping orders will get moving again sadly. 

Kiwi tech's global footprint, Tokelau's domain name misery - Peter’s editorial covers these two hefty topics today. As described above something is not quite right in our industry, the indicators say it’s performing ok, continuing to grow but we are not fostering talent, growing our capability, leading the way as we have done before. He also covers the Tokelau domain name situation, fascinating unintended consequences for an under-resourced nation.

NZ’s top CIOs - who made the list? - an overview of the recent CIO50 rankings from Peter.

Embracing the balance: The enhanced benefits of a digital detox - after a mini digital detox last weekend I decided to investigate further. Are the benefits real? What to watch out for if you are becoming addicted to your phone or social media? And some of the benefits if you pick up that device a little less often.

Brendan was inspired by the somewhat heartbreaking story of .TK - Tokelau’s internet domain - covered in Peter’s editorial. Here is a link to an in depth article explaining the history, where things went wrong and what’s happening today. Something Phishy.

Finally - 10 Tips for a great networking experience - my top tips for surviving and thriving this networking season.

Podcast - Bridging the Gap

New episode with the fabulous Libby Schumacher-Knight who changed careers later in life. Listen to her journey from a PE teacher to DT teacher, then attending Dev Academy Aotearoa to become a developer in her 40’s. Really inspiring. 

You can listen to me chatting with Libby on Spotify or Apple

And you can find the other great episodes here.

Events

Reminder we have two fabulous Fireside Chats lined up next week.

• Emily Blythe - to discuss her New Zealand Innovator of the year award, her success in business and the roles mentors have played in her career to date. Coming up Monday (Emily had to postpone from Weds) at 4:30pm. Register here.
• Kendra Ross - to discuss the state of cyber security in Aotearoa NZ, advice for the incoming government and if we have time her career in cyber to date. Coming up Wednesday at 4:30pm. Register here.

AED locations - cool Maps that can save lives

I learned in first aid training yesterday that using an AED - Automated external defribiilllator - on a patient in cardiac arrest will up the odds of their survival from 26% with CPR alone to over 80% - so AED’s really work. 
Shoutout to Wellington free and the Lloyd Morrison trust for the AED’s we are able to access on the outside of buildings all over the Wellington Region. I hadn’t realised this was unique to Wellington either. 

There is also an app that helps you locate an AED near you.

• Website here
• App Store link here
• Google Play Store link here

Tech news in brief this week 

• Accenture are acquiring Solnet, after some major controversy 20 odd years ago Solnet’s cloud capability has led to this acquisition.
• NEC and Mastercard signed an MOU on biometric (face) payment solutions at the checkout “Now, the trusted technology that uses your face to unlock your phone or tablet can soon be used to help consumers speed through in-store checkout”.
• Lots of annoucenements from Microsoft.
  • “After many years of rumors, Microsoft has finally confirmed that it is following rivals Amazon Web Services and Google into the design of custom processors and accelerators for their clouds.” Article here. 
  • .Net 8 has arrived with cloud-native and generative AI capabilities
  • Bing Chat / Bing Chat Enterprises are being rebranded as Copilot products
• Are we finally going to get accurate weather forecasting? AI outperforms conventional weather forecasting for the first time: Google study would indicate yes. Yay?
• Really interesting article on whether a Universal Basic Income discussion should be back on the table with the predictions that AI is coming for our jobs ramping up.
• YouTube announced Dream Track, software that alters your voice to sound like a pop star.
• Amazon have cut over 25,000 jobs this year apparently, now impacting their gaming division.

Te Reo Māori digital technology terms

Plugging a few gaps this week. You can find the full list here. We had a discussion about this yesterday in the office and are planning to turn this list into a navigable resource on our new website eventually. 

First up today is Podcast. I had previously found this translation - Punua pāho - which is small broadcast. Today we have - kōnae ipurangi - which is a collection of digital media files for playback or portable media, also podcast (source https://maoridictionary.co.nz),

Digital = matihiko
Podcast = kōnae ipurangi
Browser = pūtirotiro

Finally

Bird of the Year / Century is over for another year, love the scandals and viral marketing campaigns to draw our attention to endangered species. An American friend once told me we are the most obsessed nation when it comes to birds, we observe them everywhere we go when others are oblivious. Interesting aye. I’ll leave you with this lovely post I stumbled on during Bird of the Year celebrating our fabulous manu māori (native birds). Kia pai tō rā - have a great weekend everyone. Vic