Kia ora koutou ITP members and supporters, I really hope you all enjoyed this 5 day week. It’s been a diverse one for me with projects like the History of Computing in Aotearoa and IT Professionals constitution and rules modernisation ramping up. I have also been talking to schools, polytechnics, universities and employers about the current environment, pending changes to the education system, government layoffs and employment challenges. People are nervous. But there is also great news out there too. 

My team is working on sketching up the structure of a new conference and awards for later in 2024, watch this space. We are working with some great course providers to bring discounted and diverse courses to all of you too this year. Lots of great stuff in the pipeline. 

Meanwhile iit’s the first day of Autumn and the sun is shining here on the Kāpiti coast. I will be on the road next week visiting folks in Auckland for a couple of days and spending more time in the digital equity space. 

Opening young minds to the possibilities of digital technology

Earlier in the week I attended the Techstep.nz Kāpiti event. Held at a recreation ground business folks were invited to listen to stories and observe the programme. I had a mixed response, disclaimer I was part of a group who bid for this mahi, and have been on the reference group for this programme (which hasn’t met in 6 months) so have been connected.

First up to praise the speakers - Pera Barrett, brilliant storyteller as ever, barley spoke about tech at all rather how this industry can be part of your why? pressing upon the student audience the importance of doing things you are passionate about, things you love in life, being brave and taking chances to pursue your why. Inspirational.

The other speaker Katherine Corich told the Sysdocs story, how she brought aviation engineering precision to the digital technology space and how anyone can find their place in digital tech.

Both speakers were brilliant.

To the not so great. All of the students I spoke to were already studying digital technology - this programme was designed to open young minds to the possibilities of digital tech yet these activation events appear to be “preaching to the converted”. I’d say of the 50 odd students 45ish of them were boys. And it was an activation event, a day out of the classroom to be inspired - but there was no “what’s next” no pathways into higher education or into the workforce discussions. In all I left disappointed (sorry Simon Bridges). If this roadshow came into schools, the same talks were delivered to the hundreds of learners not studying DT already - then we’d be in business.

STEAM education 

This whole experience got me thinking about STEAM education. You will have seen I already have a webinar lined up with Paula Browning from WeCreate to discuss the convergence of digital and creative sectors and how the education sector is preparing our workforce. 

The Engineering Leadership Forum have also been discussing our concerns as a sector with the reorientation of our education system potentially forsaking rather than embracing STEAM. I’ve also been talking to educators and DTTA (digital technology teachers association) members about their concerns. All of this frustration, the complex issues need to be addressed. 

So I got a bit feisty and wrote a blog - Back to Basics or backwards thinking? Education changes ignore the digital age. Just a first step in directing some energy into the topic of preparing our ākonga for the future they are going to be facing. In coming weeks I plan to tackle modern concepts like work integrated learning, why we can’t seem to crack apprenticeships here in Aotearoa like other nations have done? Gamification in the classroom. Our DT teacher shortage. So many issues to discuss.

Have a read and let me know what you think? 

“It’s going to take a concerted effort, a rethink and a brave government to reengineer our compulsory education system - embrace the digital technologies curriculum the last National Government introduced and has languished for years.”

Blogs this week

The biggest news this week was the Newshub announcement, Peter has written a great editorial on this - Newshub - disrupted and down, but not out. How it came about, what the impact will be and more on the way a small number of tech giants are now controlling our news - our echo chambers and our doom scrolling. 

“Each country has to find its own solutions to the disruption of news media. But the prevailing trend internationally can’t be denied - the wholesale transferral of advertising revenue from media companies to a handful of tech giants. That needs to be addressed if we care about having a plurality of healthy news media outlets.”

Brendan followed this up with a Cartoon which makes quite a statement- Democracy Jenga

The secret sauce of Coles and Woolworths profits: high tech surveillance and control - was posted by Peter earlier in the week. There is an ongoing enquiry into their practices happening on the other side of the Tasman - labeled as unfair practices, anti-competitive, breaching privacy - Coles and Woolworths have a lot to answer for. On this side of the Tasman we’ve had commentary from the Privacy commissioner on the facial recognition deployment Foodstuffs have undertaken recently, described as “like taking fingerprint or DNA”. 

Peter also covered Xero’s AI product JAX, or Just ask Xero. Just ask Xero: Software giant takes the plunge into generative AI. Described as a conversational interface JAX will respond to queries, point out discrepancies, proactively give insights into customer data and take actions in the Xero app on the users behalf. 

Events

Thanks everyone for sending in your events. So many to highlight.

Reminder - Fireside Chat webinars coming up - join me, ask questions, listen to great insight. Emily next week on Wednesday should be fascinating. 

• Fireside Chat with Kendra Ross - as scheduled in 2023, Kendra and I will be talking about all things Cyber Security, advice for the new Government and Ministers and what she thinks of our Cyber preparedness as a nation. Online, all welcome Wednesday 13th March at 4:30pm. Register here. 
• Emily Blythe has also rescheduled for March 6th at 4:30pm, where we will discuss her Kiwibank Entrepreneur of the year award, the roles of mentors in her success and life as an entrepreneur. All welcome. Register here. 
• Paula Browning from WeCreate is also joining me on the 20th of March at 4:30pm, we will talk about the convergence of creative and tech beyond gaming and multimedia, our education challenges in STEAM, and might get time to discuss where government could be focusing. Register here. 
  
  

Are there any project professionals e.g. project managers or business analysts,  who would like to participate in a pro-bono Project Management Day of Service (PMDOS) event at the Beehive on Friday 15 March? Your project management skills on the day will help one of the nominated not for profit organisations and widen your peer network. The event is fully catered. Register here. 

In Palmerston North / Manawatū?  there is a breakfast meetup on March 14th at 7:30am in the fabulous Hope Cafe. Registration information is here. 

In Dunedin Ōtepoti? get together for drinks and a meal on Tuesday the 5th after work. Register here. 

Reminder Auckland have a fabulous networking event for IT Professionals and Students coming up on 21st March at the Grid AKL. Register here.

Also in Auckland, Unitec Careers Event on 19th March 3-5pm at Unitec campus

• Unitec warmly invites Employers to hold booths at their Mt Albert campus for an afternoon of connecting with students and recent graduates at Unitec's Business and IT Career Fair for 2024!
• Computing and Computer Studies, Information Technology, Cyber Security, Accounting, Business Administration, Management, Marketing, Human Resources Management.
• What’s in it for you and your organisation? Increase Brand Awareness, Recruit up and coming talent, Promote your current opportunities for employment and Strengthen relationships with Unitec
  Register here. 

News in brief

• You will have all seen the Leap year problem raised it's head again here in Aotearoa yesterday at the fuel pumps. 
• Bitcoin was in the news this week with monthly gains in February 
• The Winklevoss twins crypto firm Gemini returning $1.1bn to customers
• Staff shortage looming in the Indian visual effects industry. At the moment around 250,000 people work in the VFX and animation industry, according to the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic (AVGC) Task Force. But it estimates that by 2032 that number will have ballooned to 2.2 million.
• Personally I love voice notes, my friends in the UK and I use them for in the moment updates that won’t be listened to until the timezone allows the recipient to listen when it best works for them. Some weeks we have them going back and forwards for days, like a delayed version of a real time conversation. So it’s interesting to read not everyone loves them. 
• NZ Brand marketing platform Tracksuit raise $20.5M which is cool and the first local raise of this size we’ve seen in the media recently. 
• Sony announced loads of layoffs - is anyone here in Aotearoa impacted by this?
• Not just Tv3 struggling - TVNZ announced large losses
• When I was on that website I saw this clickbait about Peppa Pig weight shaming, last week it was Peppa Pig giving American kids British accents in the news. Poor Peppa Pig. 
• Australia considering making working from home a legal right for workers

Tech Talk

Federated Learning - Federated Learning is a distributed machine learning approach. Unlike traditional machine learning methods where data is uploaded to one central server, federated learning allows for the training of an algorithm across multiple decentralised edge devices or servers while keeping the data localised. This approach is particularly beneficial in scenarios where data privacy is important or where data cannot be easily shared due to size or bandwidth constraints.

Since I’ve been writing about learning today introducing this concept seemed appropriate. I think that Federated Learning represents a significant shift in the paradigm of data science and machine learning. It offers a balanced approach between leveraging large-scale data and respecting user privacy. As technology continues to evolve, federated learning could become a standard for privacy-preserving, distributed machine learning applications.

You can read more about Federated learning on all of the big tech vendors websites and others eg:

• This one explains what edge computing is too
• This guide explains how it works quite well

Finally

Hope you enjoyed this bumper digital pānui. Hei konei rā i roto i te ao matihiko (Farewell in the digital world). May the week ahead bring you new digital discoveries and insights. Vic