Russell Brown goes off the grid on Great Barrier Island to see out what it takes to get the local community online and connected. In the lead-up to Christmas on Aotea Great Barrier Island, locals were bracing for the deluge. Every holiday season, the island’s permanent population of around 900 multiplies and this summer, with … Read more
How do productive people use their phones to their advantage? In the first part of a new series, The Spinoff asks Vodafone NZ’s head of platforms Sharina Nisha how she makes her phone work for her, and the apps she considers crucial. Sharina Nisha is the head of platforms at Vodafone NZ, a short title … Read more
When it works, wifi feels like magic; when it doesn’t, it feels like the world has stalled. The Spinoff spoke to Vodafone wifi expert Mark Beaton about how its rapid evolution is changing the way we live and creating better connections. In the early years of the internet, it was all about plugging in. Surfing … Read more
The Ones to Watch programme has landed in New Zealand, providing up and coming musicians with a platform for their work and an opportunity to showcase their music to a wide range of audiences. The Spinoff talks to emerging artists RIIKI and Park Rd about where they’ve come from, and where 2020 has taken them. … Read more
The global pandemic forced millions inside and online, changing the way the world interacts and does business, and accelerating technology adoption. George Driver discovers how this year, New Zealand brought the future a little closer. March 22, 2020: I am standing at the door of my tent in a deserted campground on a Northland beach, … Read more
The outgoing director of grassroots community campaigning organisation ActionStation joins Duncan Greive to talk about a busy, and effective, few years in the job. ActionStation was formed in 2014, but it feels like it’s been around much longer than that. The independent, crowdfunded community organisation has led a number of highly visible and successful campaigns … Read more
A new series of videos uses comedy to debunk misinformation that’s proved to be particularly visible in South Auckland. Justin Latif spoke with local community leaders about why these theories find South Auckland such fertile ground, and what can be done to curtail their spread. “I have family who believes in all sorts of conspiracies … Read more
Some of the smartest people in the country examine the effects of the pandemic on Aotearoa’s future in 400 words or fewer. Read part one here. Beyond the horrific global death toll and the economic shutdowns, there is hope that Covid-19 will allow us to build a better society in the future. While much of … Read more
Some of the smartest people in the country examine the effects of the pandemic on Aotearoa’s future in 400 words or fewer. There are few corners of society that Covid-19 has not touched. From healthcare to the economy, education to professional sport, the pandemic has changed the way we interact with each other and the … Read more
Covid-19 taught businesses that one workplace doesn’t fit all employees. Ben Fahy learned about what flexibility really means in a modern office. Vaughan Fergusson, the founder and director of retail software company Vend, lifts up his laptop and gives me a glimpse of Vend HQ a few days after the second lockdown was eased in … Read more
Ehara i te mea kua whakaturehia te kawenga kia aro ki Te Tiriti o Waitangi i te rāngai tūmataiti pēnei tonu i te rāngai tūmatanui. Heoi anō rā, e rongo ana te ao pakihi i ngā kura mātauranga ka hua ake i te tika o te mahi ngātahi ki te Māori. Read the English language … Read more
Engaging with Te Tiriti o Waitangi isn’t mandated in the private sector like it is in the public sector. But businesses are discovering the wealth of knowledge to be found through meaningful engagement with Māori. Read the Māori language version of this story here. Embracing te ao Māori represents an opportunity for New Zealand businesses … Read more
When Covid-19 forced New Zealanders to live most of their lives online it exacerbated the effects of digital exclusion. Jean Teng spoke to the organisations that kept vulnerable communities connected during the pandemic. From job hunting and banking to watching TV and scrolling through the news, there is hardly a corner of modern life untouched … Read more
In the 90s, the so-called information superhighway was more of a dirt road. Now it’s a multi-lane motorway. Vodafone NZ’s Sharina Nisha explains the technology that makes it all possible. They used to call it the information superhighway. Back in the heady days of the 1990s, the term was used to describe the burgeoning potential … Read more
Over lockdown, people who worked live gigs had their careers shut down. Thanks to technology, the connection between music makers and audiences grew and now, they’re more in sync than ever. In the final days of level two, Auckland venue The Tuning Fork tested the waters of post-Covid connection. Soul singer Hollie Smith was performing … Read more
On March 23 prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that in 48 hours the country would go into lockdown. New Zealanders had a primal reaction: they called their loved ones. The moment New Zealand was faced with lockdown, adversity did what it always does: acted as a catalyst on some base element of the human psyche, … Read more
With little warning, Covid-19 has meant many New Zealand businesses can no longer operate in the way they previously knew. Charles Anderson spoke to some of these businesses about rapidly adapting to a new normal. Recently on a Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stood in a room full of socially distanced journalists and name-dropped … Read more
Its arrival has been said to herald the next generation of innovation, but in a world where we’re already conditioned to expect near-instantaneous speed from our mobile internet, what kind of change can we actually expect to see from 5G? It’s easy to forget that much of what we take for granted – browsing Facebook, … Read more
Richard MacManus finds out how 5G will help Auckland smarten up by building better relationships with its citizens. In its latest Smart Cities Index, Swedish company EasyPark ranked Auckland 58th out of 100 worldwide cities. Decidedly average. But it gets worse, I’m afraid. In the same list, Auckland was ranked 85th out of 100 cities … Read more
At Vodafone HQ on the North Shore, a multinational team is working to build a network which will change New Zealand. Duncan Greive watches the birth of 5G. The fridge is basically the same as those at workplaces across New Zealand, groaning with beer and little else. It looks like any other modern double door, … Read more