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Pregnancy Counselling Services
Monica and Leah worked to develop a better website for PCS, get the name out there with Google pay-per-click ads, Facebook Flyers and through an APN Digital sponsored animated banner appearing throughout the nzherald.co.nz website. They also uploaded the PCS commercials to YouTube. Another huge part of their project was to help the organisation get online for their own internal management benefits. They now use Basecamp to manage projects and events accross NZ, Google Documents to collaborate with the other offices nation-wide and are signed up on Skype so that they can eventually take internet calls from their clients.

StarJam
Ben and James set out to build a small, simple and functional site with the purpose of giving people an overview of what StarJam is about and getting them to sign a petition - all in under 3 minutes (the overview and signing process, not the building of the site!) The site features a 2 minute video introducing StarJam. Users can then complete the form which adds them to the petition. The idea is that people can make a difference with their comment. They aren't trying to drive people to make donations at all - rather to comment, feel a connection with the cause, and then they can choose to donate or not. (Effective? Julie tells us that they have had mini sites before and not a single donation. Within 24 hours of this site going live, they already had a $100 donation.)

SmoothStream
Adi and Andra decided to bring another person on board to help them with their project. Over the 2 weeks, Adi, Andra and Akai worked to better understand SmoothStream's clients by attended the charity's regular Sunday 'Jam' sessions. This understanding came through in the design of their solution - SmoothStream's clients are migrants, most haven't been in NZ long, and most don't speak very good English. So they built a website with the aim of it becoming a central 'hub' for all relevent information to these people (Advice, information, galleries).

SIDS
Prior to the commencement of this project, SIDS's digital presence consisted of a single page website, donated by a "SIDS Parent". Anthea and Hayden have spent their two weeks creating a fully functional website incorporating PHP through a commercial content management system (making it easy for SIDS to keep content relevant!) SIDS has taken to using Basecamp like a fish would take to water...(sorry) - in the words of Margaret Free (SIDS):

"[Before the Challenge] we had all our information in piles in different places. What's happened now is that everything that was in every one of those piles and boxes is on the website!"

Te Waipuna Puawai Mercy Oasis
In the words of Bon and Joseph: They've been helping hundreds of families here in New Zealand, yet barely anyone has heard of their name. In fact, they are virtually unknown in cyberspace. If more people know about them and help, more families in New Zealand will have a better chance at life through this organisation.

After shedding some blood, sweat and tears in making the most relevant and sustainable digital portal for a not-for-profit organisation, a new website that will surely enchant do gooders has been born to the World Wide Web.

Te Waipuna Puawai Mercy Oasis is finally online through its new website www.twp.org.nz

Advocating the restoration of women, children and the enviroment, this website will prove to the world how easy it is to help women and children here in New Zealand while maintaining the environment's natural beauty.

Monday, October 29th 2007

UBER:Savvy goes off :)

More video to come!

Sunday, October 28th 2007

an awesome day

you know how people say, "I had a great day" or "that party was amazing" or "yeah, it's been a good year." I always wonder, surely it hasn't ALL been THAT great. I mean, even if you have a great day, was the whole thing really that outstanding? No, it's certain key moments that differentiate an average day from a good one. At a party, there are certain collisions of coincedences that make it an awesome experience. At a conference, there are certain flashes of insight and innovation that make it a great one.

for UberSavvy, it was when our volunteers arrived and turned out to be the loveliest and most helpful of helpers. it was when mike made the room laugh; and when the community group leaders scribbled down Jon's action plan suggestions. It happened when Janet decided to give an off-the-top-of-my-head presentation and ended up connecting with the audience's hopes and frustrations. It was when i discovered that each gift bag came with cadbury chocolate. it occurred when nigel showed us the crazy digital things that microsoft is researching, like having the entire text of Oliver Twist condensed down to a single document you could zoom in and out of...and 3-D mapping from a collection of digital photos.

here's that quote from George Carlin in our opening presentation:

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less."

UberSavvy was an awesome day. It was awesome because of the moments when the not-for-profit organisations sat down with the students, and we looked around the room at the chatting and animated faces, and realised that George Carlin may have been over-reacting when he painted that bleak view of the world. UberSavvy was about a new kind of media, and most of all, about how the new digital generation is about new forms of connection.

Thursday, October 4th 2007

Hearing it from the 'pros'

adele, jade and i attended microsoft's 'global designer' conference today, titled 'expression around the clock'.

wow. the keynote speaker - August De Los Reyes (yes he was born in august) - is the creative director of microsoft. yes, microsoft apparently DO have a 'creative' department. and this conference really made me start to LOVE microsoft. like actually.

august's presentation was fantastic - i'm hoping (slash assuming) that it will be available in some digital format sometime soon...

following august's presentation was a panel of industry professionals (including Che Tamahori and Natasha Hall from our judging panel) discussing design/technology/culture/business.

i just want to pull out a few key ideas that emerged..

there was a lot of discussion about the holistic nature of design. about rejecting dualisms. about understanding and creating spaces of co-existence.

it was mentioned that students have been so focused and excited about using 'tools' (ie. flash, dreamweaver, photoshop etc) that they forget (or aren't taught) about the real theory and intent behind design. i know that might sound really boring to any student who has just discovered that they can airbrush photos in photoshop and ACTUALLY make themselves look like they could be on the cover of CLEO. or just played around with flash and found out how easy it is to make something move.

but really - we heard it from their own mouths - these industry directors/leaders are looking for students who can understand not only how to use these tools, but how to effectively use these tools. as in, they need students to be able to understand the bigger picture, the theory behind the action, the reason that design exists. software can be taught. and if you've learnt one tool, you're likely to pick up another one up much easier. but the conceptual processes and true understanding of design actually encompasses many more elements of communication and collaboration.. and is something that might take a little longer to learn.

what the conference made us realise is that even though we're using all these crazy new tools, and expanding the limits of what humans can create, essentially it is just HUMAN creation. one of the things that make us human is the ability to communicate on a very sophisticated level. and it's that desire to internally connect that drives the progress of these complex technological tools.

Wednesday, October 3rd 2007

The finalists have been chosen!

Check out the 36 organisations that registered. Only 6 were chosen...

YouthLaw
Te Waipuna Puawai Mercy Oasis
SmoothStream
SIDS
Pregnancy Counselling Inc.
StarJam

Check out the successful student teams on the right.

Our message to the students:
This project is going to be what you make it. We're behind you all the way and we're always here to discuss what's on your mind. Start the ideas rolling and the inspiration flowing, and pat yourselves on the back for an excellent application... "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do." (Mark Twain)

don't forget about the microsoft expression around the clock global designer conference TOMORROW... register for it here.

Tuesday, October 2nd 2007

The Saatchi & Saatchi Placement Award
"Saatchi & Saatchi believe in the importance of strong, integrated advertising campaigns and are very pleased to work with yMedia to expand the opportunities for NPO and tertiary students in the field of digital marketing. To this end, we are also offering the winning team a highly prized placement with our world leading digital creative team at Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand. With this placement, they will have the opportunity to work on New Zealand's best known and best loved brands, right alongside the country's best digital creative teams."