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