agency to offer new "strategic" info services

NEWS STATEMENT Avaiki news agency will soon announce a new range of services. This follows some two years of online research into market gaps within host countries Avaiki and Aotearoa, as well as across the region. Transparency services, e-governance and online media services for public and private organisations will be among some of the offerings. "When Avaiki first started there were a lot of exciting new tools that no one had heard of like weblogs and RSS," says Avaiki editor Jason Brown. "Now these kinds of services are even more exciting." Brown says he is particularly enthused by the new page creator services by Google, allowing easy creation and publishing of free websites. "There have been many promises made by all sorts of people to offer simple website publishing tools but Google is the first to actually deliver on that promise," says Brown. After starting in late 2003 as a part time internet cafe clerk, Brown says he decided to educate himself about building websites. "But I didn't want to be just another rocket scientist, building hugely expensive sites are difficult to update and work with." Instead, Brown began searching for website tools with just two words "simple" and "easy" to use. After taking a look at a few of the several million hits for expensive website construction software, he added the word "free." That is when he stumbled across weblogs and discovered they can be updated as simply as sending an email. "And that's exactly how it works - when you set up a weblog you specify your publishing email address - send an email to that address and your email will be auto-published to your blogsite." Brown admits it has been difficult convincing people as to the worth of weblogs and similar new technologies. Most people want a 'real' website, he says, not realising that many customers are turning away from normal websites and reading blogs. "Until recently, there was nothing to match weblogs for ease of use, but the Google page creator comes close." Along with websites, Google also offers other services that can be linked, "embedded" or plug into each other, like Calendar, Reader, and Spreadsheet. Like other information services, such as those delivered by Google, avaiki has basically been in "beta" or test mode as the agency makes the transition from print-only to include online identities. "Avaiki first went online in May 2004 as a one-man operation and it still pretty much the same," says editor Jason Brown. "However, I think Avaiki has had strong impact regionally, advocating strongly for community media initiatives and information leadership by encouraging big organisations to make use of simple, free tools available online." Brown says it is pleasing to note that organisations like NZAID have adopted community media tools to help get their message across and provide information leadership. "I'm not claiming credit for that but I have consulted and worked with a wide range of national and regional contacts inside the media and stakeholder representatives in the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii." Avaiki will still be in beta when it announces the new services early next month, November 2005. Examples of earlier information e-concepts:

• agency offers support for festival
• agency demonstrates blogging technology
• transparency requirements
• earth species feel the squeeze
• world's most transparent companies
• Official Launch of SPC's Population GIS
• avaiki - jason brown cv
• transparency - reality tv - corporate reform

Random quote:

"Our village ancestors knew everything that went on around them: our global descendants will too."