Workshop, questionnaire to help build case for UFB

August 6th, 2015
[by David Armstrong]

Work to build and support Motueka's bid for government money for an ultrafast broadband (UFB) rollout is gathering pace. (See our earlier stories.)

A new online survey is now available for residents and business owners to help prove to the Government that people in our district would make great use of better internet both at work and at home if UFB was available.

Many hundreds of Tasman residents filled out a similar survey a couple of months ago as part of the first stage of the application, and this second survey aims for more detail and local flavour. You can do the survey here. It closes on August 28th.

You can also click here find out more about the work Tasman District Council is doing to facilitate the process through its application on behalf of Motueka and other Tasman settlements.

And this morning our small steering group met to discuss how Motueka will be involved in the second phase of the application process. Local online guru Johny O'Donnell has volunteered to facilitate that group.

"We elected to hold a public meeting, despite the short timeframe to contribute, to involve everyone and gather ideas and projects for how Motueka would utilise and benefit from Ultra-Fast Broadband," he says in a Facebook post.

"We need as many people as possible to come along on Monday evening from 7pm to 9pm for a workshop style meeting to discover the 'blueprint of projects' to help Motueka get better connected and create opportunities for participation in the digital economy.

"I personally believe this is a hugely important process for our town to pursue and I cannot drive home enough that we only have a very small window of opportunity to pull together these ideas and illustrate high community engagement and strategic thinking behind our application.

"Will you commit to be a parting of our quest for UFB and participating in our workshop on Monday night? The message is clear - use it or lose it."

The meeting will be held at the Top 10 Holiday Park conference centre.

TDC's Online Communications Officer Richard Liddicoat says, "The final decision about who will get more services is in the hands of the government, but whether or not we get a share of the new services, we're still very keen to get everyone involved in planning as new technology is becoming an integral part of all our lives so we need to be ready".

"We need information and ideas from our residents for our plan, so if you can spare a few minutes to fill in our second survey - it will help us put together a great case for the Tasman District."

Four members of the steering group discussing strategies: Eva Lawrence,
Johny O'Donnell, Karen Lee (project co-ordinator for TDC) and Dave Moloney

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