When Lucire first broke news yesterday about Peter Jackson’s knighthood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours’ List—before any New Zealand media did—I was particularly delighted.
   Peter Jackson deserves a knighthood not just because he makes marvellous films. Peter Jackson deserves a knighthood because he continues to believe in New Zealand even after certain bodies and their bureaucrats gave him grief.
   Before he was a big name internationally, there was reported tension between Jackson and the New Zealand Film Commission in the 1990s.
   Because Jackson believed in this country so much, he got over it. A lesser man would have thought, ‘If the establishment won’t accept me, I’ll leave.’
   Many of the big Kiwi names in movies are based in California, because when they left there was no centre for movie production in New Zealand. And they wanted somewhere that could understand their vision for making movies.
   Instead, Jackson fought to make his Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand—setting up a world-class hub for film in Wellington.
   While some politicians would like to give credit to the Tourism New Zealand 100 Per Cent Pure campaign for lifting the national image, I’ve always argued it was the effort of one man—Jackson—for bringing the country to the world stage.
   Destination branding can be ignored, passed over as just another tourism ad in a travel magazine. Peter Jackson alone gave it that hook, and if any one man can take credit for the first decade’s economic boosts, it is him.
   Through Jackson not only did the films become nice earners for New Zealand, the tourist industry boomed because of the trilogy. And the Film Commission came right in the end.
   And in many respects, Peter Jackson kicked the tall poppy syndrome idea out of the country’s psyche where it could only be entertained by a few foreign companies who use it to keep Kiwis down. Peter Jackson changed our culture, and helped make Wellington great.
   This knighthood is long overdue, but I applaud this honour for Jackson. He is a patriot, a word that should not have politically incorrect shades. His level of pride is just what New Zealand needs. Sir Peter Jackson is an inspirational figure and one hopes many others will have faith in their own beliefs, in the way that he does.

arts · creative sector · creativity · culture · film · Peter Jackson · Wellington · Whanganui-a-Tara

In the second week of November, I attended two functions for Global Entrepreneurship Week. The first was Wellington to the World 2009, where numerous local businesses, who had made it big worldwide, got a chance to talk about how they leveraged the internet. Solutions such as social media, virtual working and licensing were among the topics raised.
   This year, Richard McManus of ReadWriteWeb was the keynote speaker. I had heard of ReadWriteWeb before but—and this is terrible for someone who went through the same thing with Lucire—thought it was foreign. Admittedly, I tune in to ReadWriteWeb when there’s a news headline that intrigues me, and sometimes, those are from one of its overseas bureaux.
   It was a great wake-up call—that there are many world-class businesses right here in Wellington—and I enjoyed listening to Richard, who is going through many of the same phases as we had in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I remember the days when I had not met some of my team members in person, judging them by the quality of their work. It works quite well in the dot-com sphere. And for most of my 22 years in business, many people did not make the connection between our properties and New Zealand—including New Zealanders. (I still hear people think that my businesses have some foreign ownership or overseas partners, which is untrue.)
   We need to change the mindset of New Zealanders, myself included, toward thinking the best comes from this country. And if you look around the country, Wellington is the most creative city. We have as much capability of creating world-class businesses as anyone else. In fact, the Kiwi can-do mentality suggests we have a greater capability of doing this.
   This is one of the reasons behind the free wifi that I would like to see implemented if I am elected as mayor in October 2010. It is about job creation, and it is about civic pride. Weta, Sidhe and ReadWriteWeb have already shown that it is possible—and I would love to see more entrepreneurs get the right breaks to make Wellington even more vibrant.

Photographed by Jo Mangee, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mangee//CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Aotearoa · creative sector · creativity · entrepreneurship · free wifi · Global Entrepreneurship Week · growth · ICT · Jack Yan · Lucire · New Zealand · opinion · ReadWriteWeb · Richard McManus · tech sector · technology · Unlimited Potential · W2W · Wellington · Wellington to the World · Whanganui-a-Tara · wifi

While I oppose the installation of water meters—let’s not give technocrats a chance to charge us for something that we should get for free, living on an island—I believe in transparency. Wellington already does well in putting government valuations online, so why not more?
   As I discussed transparency with some of my colleagues at the Medinge Group, it was suggested, especially by Ton Zijlstra, that we could, in Wellington, make data on air quality and water usage (where already available) publicly accessible online. We could also put information on water quality in our rivers online, for instance. This could allow communities and enterprises themselves to come up with solutions to make improvements, giving power to the people.
   It doesn’t mean the city would stop taking responsibility for these issues. However, I believe that being transparent and open can result in innovations we haven’t come across yet. As always, your thoughts are welcome.

air · creativity · information · innovation · internet · public utilities · transparency · water · Wellington · Whanganui-a-Tara

In 1989, I signed up to Kosmos, the Wellington City Council’s email service. WCC, as far as I can remember, wanted to lead the way in becoming a wired capital, and offered free email to those who signed up. It was my first email account.
   It strikes me that we have lagged behind somewhat, although Wellingtonians, by nature, are very creative. In fact, that’s one thing that sets this city apart: our innovation and our spirit of independent, individualistic thinking. Sure we are the political capital, which implies only incremental thinking; perhaps as a counter to this, the rest of us seem to like thinking outside the square.
   We need a stronger IT strategy again, and that means we need to start looking at how we can get free wifi, with some data caps, in public spaces. That means Civic Square, the City Library, the Art Gallery and those areas should have free wifi for ratepayers. Our tourists should benefit, too, since they’re most likely going to blog or upload things favourable to Wellington.
   This is the creative capital, and programmes to support that should be at the forefront of our strategy.

Aotearoa · computing · creativity · independence · innovation · IT · New Zealand · public spaces · technology · Wellington · Whanganui-a-Tara · wifi