This is the administrator account for the Te Ara Paerangi Community site.
I configured the messenger feature today. This allows direct and group messages. It works as you might expect. You can react with emojis, write as you like, and attach a video or files to any message. Below is a brief tutorial video.
Upgrades and Usage Stats
The cover image is our usage stats for the calendar year. We did the major software upgrade in July. At the same time we shifted focus to research, advocacy, and capability. We added a new logo and did a redesign of the site layout. Regular posting of news and events related to the public research sector started at that time. These things led to an increase in unique visitors. My estimate is that ~400 is the baseline of bots (search engine scrapers and the like). Taking that into account, we had ~500 unique visitors in July and September and ~600 in August. The bandwidth usage also went up substantially after the upgrade reflecting an increase in traffic. Today, we did a minor upgrade from 13.0.0 to 13.1.0-B2 that solves some issues that have been niggling.
Site Improvement, Maintenance, and Financial Support Request
The site has been free for anyone to use since the beginning in 2021 (no advertisements or selling your data either). This has been possible due to a few donations, all volunteer labour, and the kind developers at UNA.io providing pro-tier access to the software for free. We want to ensure that there is the financial certainty in place to keep it going into the future and improve the service. We believe the most stable way to do that is for members / visitors like you to give a relatively small monthly recurring donation.
We have added a Donation Page with recurring and one time donation options. Your donation will help cover expenses such as the iFramely (embedding tool) fee, domain name registration, and server costs. If we can get enough regular donations, we will be able to pay for customising the app (iOS and Android) for this site.
We are well aware that times are tough for those in our public research sector. Your donation of any amount is a huge help. If a one off donation suits your situation better, please do that.
Thank you for using Te Ara Paerangi Community Hub and for your help to keep it growing.
Site News and Support Request
We started this site in November of 2021 to provide a place for the public to collaborate on ways to improve the research, science, and innovation sector and engage with MBIE's Te Ara Paerangi / Future Pathways review process. It has been (and will continue to be) free for people to use. We shared submission snippets, made it easy to get copies of all of the public submissions, and watched to see what MBIE would do with them.
Last month, we did a soft-relaunch with a site upgrade, new site design, and new focus. There have been regular posts with links to relevant news stories and events around the country. This has resulted in a steady increase of visitors to the site and more engagement. It is really gratifying to see so many people finding value here. We are excited to see where we go from here.
We have covered the expenses with contributions from a small group of people and orgs. The site upgrade added support for embedded videos and web site links using a free (but limited) Iframely account. We are looking for some financial support to upgrade the Iframely account to cover the increased usage. That cost is USD $29 (~NZD 50) per month. If you or your organisation can make a donation, please let me know and we can sort out the details.
I was a bit surprised to see how many Iframely hits we have had this month. This is a screen shot from this morning. I expect it to run out soon - either today or tomorrow. When that happens, all the embedded content will stop working until the 6th of September. A few small donations ($25 - $50) would get it going again. A larger donation ($300 -$600) or two would sustain this functionality for quite a while - leaving us with more time to focus on the site itself.
Thank you for being part of Te Ara Paerangi Community and for considering our request for financial assistance. The comments are open and available for your thoughts.
A brief tutorial on getting images from Pexel.
A brief tutorial on getting images from Pexel.
This is the space where we will organise the re-launch. Please join if you would like to participate.
The European Commission has recently released the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. You can read the news release and / or watch a brief video about it below. This consensus document represents a huge effort by many people. We would do well to incorporate their work into our discussions about Te Ara Paerangi.
MBIE has announced the release of their summaries of the submissions today (30th June 2022). We provide quick links for you to:
Part I - a general report summarising al submissions and engagements
Part II - a report summarising Māori submissions and engagements
On the same page this is under the heading "Next Steps"
We are reviewing the information in submissions and considering this alongside undertaking further policy work. As the policy design process becomes more detailed and options are narrowed down, there will be further opportunities for engagement, and further consultation. We will provide updates as the work continues to evolve.
The Te Ara Paerangi Community has been noticed by MBIE. We look forward to working towards a future research, science, and innovation system that works for all Kiwis. To get there we will need to reach a broader group of people who use or want to use public research. In this way, there will be a truer representation of the needs of society, rather then primarily voices of those who have resources or are very senior in the current system.
Te Ara Paerangi - Future Pathways process is intended to build a new research system for Aotearoa New Zealand. We have gathered a group of people here (mostly researchers so far) and put out some great ideas to get things started. Our plan is to reach out broadly across Aotearoa to more researchers, and crucially to those who are users of research. Examples of users include: whānau, hapū and iwi, local and regional councils, community groups, businesses, non-governmental organisations, and charities. By listening to one another, sharing our talents and our challenges we can design a future research system that works for everyone. Such a research system will provide the foundation for a future Aotearoa that is prosperous for all of our people. With that in mind, we offer a talk by Sir Paul Callaghan from 2011. After the upcoming holidays, we start the next steps in expanding this community and working our plan.
Kia ora koutou,
Your community host has been full on with this for the last month. I want to thank you all for turning up and doing great things at this really early stage of the community. We are off to a great start.
While doing the bits behind and in front of the scenes, I have put off a bunch of other tasks that now need doing. Until Monday, I'll be doing the minimum here to keep things rolling. You can carry on by introducing yourself here: https://te-ara-paerangi.community/page/view-discussion?id=6 Then I will be back for the next steps.
"What are the next steps?" Well, I am so glad that you asked! We have a bunch of great ideas that have been contributed to the submission snippets. Please add more if you would like. Let's take those, sort through them, and start having discussions here and online hui. Let's invite our mates who might have interest. People who bring a spectrum of ideas. Then let's be the RSI community of the future.
See you next week!
Ngā mihi nui,
Your Community Host
The Te Ara Paerangi Community has created a collection of submission snippets for anyone to use. We understand the importance of this a once in a generation review of the system to all Kiwis. We also know that many of you have precious little time left to write your own from scratch. We made this for you. You do not have to be a member of the community to use the snippets. We welcome you to join if you want to participate in the next steps.
Here is how to make your own submission from the submission snippets created by the community.
- Go to the Te Ara Paeranti Community site (https://te-ara-paerangi.community).
- Look for the big buttons near the top of the page for shareable submission snippets and information about using them.
- Find the submission snippets that resonate with you.
- Copy and paste them into a word processor to create your submission.
- Mail your submission to: [email protected] by end of day 16th March 2022.
To learn more about Te Ara Paerangi - Future Pathways and MBIE's submission process see this page: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/have-your-say/future-pathways/
Ngā mihi nui to all of the contributors and all of you who use the shared posts. Please help spread the word by clicking on the social media share buttons on this post!
-- Te Ara Paerangi Community Host
