Māori Data Sovereignty is the right of Māori to govern the collection, ownership, storage and use of Māori data, as guaranteed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The Waitangi Tribunal’s WAI 2522 findings recognise Māori data as a taonga. These articles apply that standard to real decisions, from health records, genomics and digital identity to data centres, cloud services and generative AI. Rangatiratanga over data sits with whānau, hapū and iwi, so the posts look at tikanga and jurisdiction at those levels. They also explain why data residency in Aotearoa is not the same as data sovereignty. For the principles in full, start with the Compendium of Māori Data Sovereignty or the Māori Data Sovereignty overview..
It is not uncommon for web sites to be bi or multilingual considering our international relationships and use of native languages on the Internet. But often there is little or no consideration for Search Engine Optimisation in the non English languages as they are not viewable upon reading the site. By following the above practice … Read more
Recently and with minimal media attention in New Zealand and the Pacific, the ability to write non English characters into Web addresses became a reality for many of the worlds popular extensions such as .com, .org, .net, .tv and so on. Thus giving Māori the ability to correctly spell macron Māori words in web addresses, … Read more
Many Māori and Pacific Peoples use alternative names to their birth names, often adopting an English name to be known by outside of the family. This is also a common practice with many non English speaking cultures in Asia. FaceBook.com in their quest to recognise the multilingual world we live in, today announced a new … Read more
FaceBook to offer vanity URL’s the Saturday. The consequences of not getting the right name for your organisation are significant.
Page squatting or Cyber Squatting also with sellable ads for sale are becoming popular in FaceBook and Twitter.
I am investigating how to create macrons the iPhone. I must admit to feeling like i have gone back 13 and more years in my career to the days when i worked on macron technology for web sites and the PC. Thankfully a task that is now simple and requires little cognition. Like the old days ASCII … Read more
I have had the fortunate experience of not knowing anyone with a heavy online presence that has passed away. But I have seen a few social media profiles with farewell messages to the person who has since deceased. This made me curious as to what the average Internet user who has multiple accounts and passwords … Read more
During the recent Denial of Service (DoS) attack on a large international registrar effecting over 7.5 million web sites in 48 hours. I have learnt of an effective Internet vulnerability. I am only writing about it as once you read it, it is common knowledge and is only dangerous if you were inclined to try … Read more
I finally succumbed to perpetual requests from family and close friends to create a Bebo.com account. We know that Hi5.com is preferred by Thai’s and Orkut by South Americans, FaceBook.com and MySpace.com by a good international mixture. An observation that most intrigues me is that Bebo.com is, as is documented fact more for the younger generations (Gen M etc). … Read more
I have just heard Ernie Newman CEO of TUANZ speak at a Māori ICT conference (of which ironically we had no wireless Internet connection and cell phones were banned). Ernie expressed his vision for Māori and how Māori are creative and should participate more in ICT. Ernie was asked what TUANZ had done for Māori … Read more
Google have released their own web browser. It is called Google Chrome. I am writing this blog using Google chrome as my browser. For the last few days the international media have been busy discussing Google Chrome and reviewing it. So i will just make a quick observation that i find it visually appealing with … Read more
The United Arab Emirates went live with their new Top Level Domain-TLD (Internet Name suffix such as .nz) .ae on August 03 2008. This refreshed my memory of the many opportunities Māori have to be creative when obtaining a web site address. We do not have to stick within the .nz space, not do we … Read more
After almost a decade after being interviewed by Ariana Tikao on my 10 year vision of Māori and ICT, I have written a new one and welcome any feedback and critiques. 1. Localisation partnerships As a result of many non English speaking countries beginning to demand that they be able to use their own language … Read more
Google recently announced that they indexed 1 trillion urls. In 1998 when Google first indexed the web there were 26 million url’s. For any individual or group who claims the Internet is not a viable communications vehicle need to re evaluate as does any indigenous/minority culture who see the Internet as threat to their culture. … Read more
The ICANN board has agreed to charge a full fee for newly registered com, .net, .org, .info, .name, .pro, and .biz domains, ending the 5 day grace period that domain tasters utilised. I see this will dramatically decrease domain tasting but not cease the practice all together. We will just see smarter domain registration tools … Read more
As i write, I am aware of name suppression and not identifying the arrested. When the so called Māori terrorists were arrested, a popular Māori web site was shut down by the NZ Police. The site had hundreds of members and regular visitors whom visited to catch up with family, seek IT advice or even … Read more
I had the pleasure of having coffee with the chair of the Vanuatu Internet Society and executive member of the Pacific Islands Internet Society in Christchurch yesterday, at a cafe over looking Sumner beach and the estuary. During our hour long coffee, and hearing what Vanuatu and other Pacific Islands are doing to increase their … Read more
We live in a country with two official spoken languages. Our country is known by both its English and Māori names. Aotearoa/New Zealand. Our national mountains are known by their bilingual names. “Aoraki/Mt Cook”, Taranaki/Mt Egmont” and the list goes on. NZ has bilingual sign posts, government departments, schools, early childhood facilities and much more … Read more