N4L and Govt.nz take out top awards at ANZIA 2015
Innovative local companies have been recognised at the recent 2015 Australia and New Zealand Internet Awards (ANZIA) ceremony that took place in Auckland's central city church, St. Matthew-in-the-city.
The award-winning entries included a digital citizenship program for secondary schools; a managed network designed for schools; an all-of-government information website; culturally relevant education tools for doctors; a crowdfunding platform for community projects; and a local news website for a rural community.
auDA and InternetNZ presented awards to these outstanding online initiatives and said they were 'thoroughly impressed' by the high standard of all the finalist projects.
A few of the New Zealand winners are as follows:
Access - Digital Skills winner: N4L (Network for Learning)
N4L was formed to provide all New Zealand students and teachers equitable access to high quality internet services and dynamic digital content for learning.
The aim is to improve educational outcomes by enabling new learning opportunities presented by digital technologies and the government's investment in ultra-fast broadband (UFB).
The company is achieving this aim by building a Managed Network especially designed for schools and an online learning hub called Pond.
Together, these initiatives are about investing in our young people, digitally empowering their education for a future-ready, world-ready Aotearoa New Zealand, says ANZIA.
Information winner: Govt.nz
Govt.nz is a team within the Government Information Services group at the Department of Internal Affairs. It delivers all-of-government information to the public in a user-centric manner, to make it easier to find and use New Zealand government information online anywhere, anytime.
Information is presented based on topics identified by users and continues to evolve based on evidence from ongoing user testing, feedback and research.
The Leonie Dunbar Memorial Award For Community Websites winner: Tamahere Forum
Tamahere Forum is a community news website primarily for the residents of the rural district of Tamahere, Waikato, New Zealand.
It was established in June 2008 after a fatal explosion and fire at a central Tamahere business, Icepak Coolstores, to keep the community informed of the many issues that arose from the incident.
The forum became an essential medium for sharing and discussing the community's news, events and issues. It attracts interest from outside the district.
About two years after its establishment, the Tamahere Community Committee, whose members represent the community, chose to use Tamahere Forum as its main method for communicating to Tamahere people. On average the site has around 13,000 unique visits a week, according to ANZIA.
