Speakers

Alison has been using free and open source software both professionally, as an events manager, for voluntary work and at home for many years.

She has worked in the UK and New Zealand analysing training needs and delivering customised IT training to organisations in the voluntary, private and public sectors.

David Barrow is an experienced communications professional with many years involvement in the central government sector, but latterly in the community & voluntary sector. He is passionate about the web as a key business tool for any organisation and, like many of us, considers himself a 'digital immigrant' with the onset of the latest social networking technologies.

David is Communications Manager for the NZ Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations. He acknowledges that the speed of technology developments means that we are experiencing a veritable wave of opportunities, initiatives and issues for using ICT in our sector. The costs in terms of money, time and skill that are required to use it effectively present us with considerable challenges. The good news is that, he says, we can all use these technologies and we don't have to feel submerged by the waves of new technology.

After diving into the deep-end to help create the first version of CommunityNet Aotearoa website in 1998, Stephen has worked on many websites for NGOs and governament agencies. Over the years he has worked as a project manager for websites (including CommunityCentral and The Couch), webmaster, and advisor to organisations upgrading their web presence or designing online learning networks. Stephen is always delighted when he finds new ways not-for-profit organisations are using the Internet for their good causes. He shares what he learns at: www.commonknowledge.net.nz

Chris Brown is Director of Wellington-based brand and PR firm Sputnik. Chris advises a wide range of New Zealand companies and not-for-profit organizations on how to communicate more effectively with their audiences. Chris is an experienced online communication strategist and has advised some of New Zealand's most exciting internet start ups. He is a past winner of the New York Festivals Silver Pencil award for online copywriting and co-author with Jill Caldwell of the book 8 Tribes: The Hidden Classes of New Zealand, a values-based social anthropology of New Zealanders. Prior to his PR career, Chris was a translator of Japanese for the New Zealand Government and received an MA from the University of London.

Ros Coote has fifteen years of experience delivering user friendly information technology in the government sector. She is a part-time Community Intern with NZFVWO, and also works for the State Services Commission as a Senior Advisor government ICT. Ros has proven level of achievement in a variety of hands-on roles including strategist and innovator. She feels hugely inspired by all of the people she now has the opportunity to meet and work with in the community sector.

Stephen is a partner in Storyboards a company that specialises in helping people tell their story. An inaugural Flexible Learning Leader, he trained as a facilitator of the digital storytelling process with digital storytelling co-creator Joe Lambert in San Francisco. A founding trustee of the Waikato 2020 Communications trust, Stephen is passionate about public participation in our increasingly networked world. When he's not networked, Stephen's a keen bass player, home brewer and urban farmer.

Nathalie is the founder of Givealittle.co.nz, an online giving platform for social good. She is also mum to 18-month old Jett, a founding trustee of local organisation Capital Cause Charitable Trust and also a director of Human Capital Development, the family business in vocational rehabilitation and employment services.

Colin Jackson is a Wellington-based independent technology consultant and writer. He has over twenty years' private and public sector experience as a technologist, covering IT policy, the Internet, IT strategy, project management and IT security.

Colin has always been passionate about the potential of the Internet for New Zealand society. He was an inaurgural trustee of the 2020 Communications Trust and a founder of InternetNZ, of which he later became president.

Colin also explains technology and the policy issues around it for a general audience. Since December 2006 he has been a regular technology contributor for Radio New Zealand National's Nine to Noon programme.

Courtney Johnston is the Web Manager at the National Library of New Zealand, where she works with a small team of great people to create and run websites. She also oversees or runs herself the Library's social media presences, including three blogs, two Flickr accounts, and one Twitter stream. Here's where you can find her blog posts.

Miraz Jordan has been using the Internet, and training others to use it, for close to 20 years. She writes extensively both about and for the Internet.

She is the author of monthly Panui Tips, weekly MacTips, the Webguide, WordPress 2 Visual QuickStart Guide, and other publications.

Miraz currently writes several blogs, including: http://knowit.co.nz, http://mactips.info, http://runspotrun.info and http://doglobby.org.

Natasha Lampard has had her hand in many pieces of the web pie, and in all these roles, she has been a strong advocate of the users of websites.

Her career began at Yahoo in London, and after returning to New Zealand, she became the lead User Advocate at Trade Me. She is now working as a Community Manager in the public sector.

Natasha is a co-founder of Webstock, a successful conference which aims to inspire and educate the web industry in New Zealand.

Earl Mardle is an information society consultant who deals with the effect and use of information technology in organisations and the broader community. After 23 years as a current affairs broadcaster he moved to Community Access Radio and was asked by Wellington City in 1996 to establish the 2020 Communications Trust which has since grown to a national organisation with multiple affiliates through the country.

He has spent much of the last 10 years working with international organisations including the Stockholm Challenge Award, Jhai Foundation, the Development Gateway, AusAid and Bering Point. He is now an independent consultant living in Auckland.

Terry has worked in flexible learning within the ITP sector for nine years. She began as a member of the team introducing e-learning at the Open Polytechnic and then moved to manage the online learning team at Whitireia. Four years ago she shifted to manage four national projects for ITPNZ - two building e-capability within seven polytechnics and two understanding the use of technology to support Ma-ori and Pacific learners. In 2005, she won a Flexible Learning Leader award to investigate international examples of institutions collaborating for flexible learning, in 2005.

In 2007, Terry established a small consultancy firm, Blended Solutions, which works with tertiary institutions, government agencies and corporates to strategise about, implement and evaluate e-learning initiatives. Over the last 18 months Terry has co-led the Second Life Education in New Zealand project. SLENZ aims to understand how multi-user virtual environments might be used to add value in adult learning experiences.

Deb is an ex-librarian turned free lance IT contractor who plays with network, Internet, and World Wide Web technologies. She began her IT career with a startup ISP in the pre-historic days of the early 90's before moving on to web site design, development and implementation. One of her sites even made it onto a 'world top 10' list in a time when such things were still possible.

As she has been increasingly drawn to the technical end of computer networks, Deb has added a BSc in Computer Science and a Post Graduate Diploma in Science (Computer Science) to her arsenal. She is currently working on her Masters thesis in network routing protocols.

Deb enjoys the success she has achieved as an occasional teacher of the same technologies she works with on a daily basis. She has taught as a trainer in adult education and professional training centres, as a guest teacher in secondary schools, and as a contract lecturer in a university.

Andrea is the Online Communications Officer at Oxfam New Zealand. She ispart of a multi-tasking team covering media, web, video and supporter communications, as well as public campaigning. Her role involves managing Oxfam's websites and online communications - including email newsletters and social media. Originally from the UK, Andrea has also lived and worked in America and Japan.