An Internet for All and an Internet for Good: Become a member of InternetNZ
AndrewC •
We’ve recently stepped out our new strategic framework for InternetNZ, and it’s centered around two core challenges and opportunities; how we build an Internet for All, and an Internet for Good.
These are not small asks, and it will take a substantial effort from everyone to achieve these goals. But they are achievable - and that’s the most important thing. Setting real goals that can be reached gives us all extra incentive to get there, and there have already been some fantastic efforts made to start us off just in the last year alone.
They aren’t enough, though. We need to do more but to make sure we’re all working towards the same thing, it’s good to start from the same page.
What do we mean by these phrases?
An Internet for All means that InternetNZ wants to see all New Zealanders able to fully participate online. We’re aiming for full digital inclusion - that means closing not just gaps in infrastructure, but also addressing associated challenges in security, trust, motivation, skills and affordability. There are a lot of ways that many New Zealanders are currently denied the ability to use the Internet to its full potential, and we want to see all of them addressed so that every Kiwi can be online.
An Internet for Good is about us acknowledging that the Internet can be, and must be, better. Better for all of us as individuals, for our communities, our nations, our ideas and our identities. It means learning from the hard lessons of the horrible events in Christchurch last year, and how we help the Internet evolve to have the public interest at its core. This Internet will boost the good things that today’s Internet offers while tackling the harm it allows.
These are big commitments. They’re bigger than what InternetNZ can do on our own, and we don’t have many places that we can look overseas to see how others have done it. What we are sure about is that these are the two challenges that will enable New Zealand to harness the power of the Internet to its greatest extent. But, we aren’t sure about how we get there, how we do it, and who can help us get there.
Becoming a member of InternetNZ
And that’s where you come in, dear reader. InternetNZ is proudly a membership organisation. Membership is a way that you can say “yes, I care about an Internet for All and an Internet for Good, too.” Membership is your way of saying “I want to help,” and “I have ideas” as well as “I believe in this Internet, and want to build it for New Zealand.” Together, we have some work to do, and I believe we can make a real difference.
We’ve recently built a team of people that will be working with our members as part of the Internet community. They’ll be working with you and thinking about new ways of getting you involved and engaged in the work we do as well as exploring new tools to enable that, and new experiences that are only available to you, our members.
If you’d like to become a member of InternetNZ, you can sign up here. Join us because we need your help, and we would love to work with you to realise this potential for New Zealand.