Ending the year.
Welcome to our final newsletter for the year and decade. It’s amazing to reflect on the evolution of Hitnet and technology more generally, throughout the 2010’s. From our humble beginnings as an action research project within the University of Queensland to a small ‘tech for good’ company now working in the Pacific, while staying connected to our origins in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.
A big thank you to our team, partners, clients and supporters. We hope you have a restful break with family and friends and we look forward to reconnecting in 2020.
Julie, Sam, Jimmy, Jeet, Brendan, Delilah and Tom.
Pacific update
We’re now half way through our ‘Technology for Development Innovation Challenge’ in the Solomon Islands. Our recent trip was a significant one, as we successfully set up Hitnet’s first ever solar powered digital hub at the Honiara campus of the National University’s Distance and Flexible Learning Unit (SINU DFLU).
The students were quick to start interacting with the information available via the touchscreen, and connect to the free WiFi hotspot to access local services and information. This is a trial site for the next few months, before we return to install the two hubs at the Visitors Centre of the Barana Community and Heritage Nature Park on Guadalcanal, and the Auki campus of the SINU DFLU at Auki Community High School, on Malaita Island. Read Julie’s article for more details here.
Last week in Melbourne with Common Code (another Challenge winner), we hosted a ‘Technology for Development’ forum with organisations and individuals currently working in the Pacific. Here we showcased the two pilot projects and explored how these new platforms can support their work in the Solomon Islands, and the wider Pacific region, especially with a new era in digital connectivity imminent. There were some challenging and incisive questions and we plan to reconvene again in six months, near the completion of our projects. If you or your organisation is interested in learning more or being involved, please contact us. You can download Hitnet’s presentation from here, and learn more about Common Code’s ‘Every Building is a Classroom’ from here.
Digital health literacy – a vital 21st century skill
How often do we all turn to Dr Google to check on our symptoms and try to self diagnose? This is definitely a higher level digital literacy skill where you need to have effective online search skills and be able to critically analyse if what you’re reading is from a trusted source. We were recently selected by the Good Things Foundation to take part in their first ever Digital Health Literacy Pilot Project, to help test and refine resources with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audience.
To help us with this challenge we have Delilah MacGillivray, a Kalkadoon and South Sea Islander woman, on our team. Delilah was the program manager of Indigenous Digital Excellence (IDX) at the NCIE in Redfern, and has a passion for digital inclusion for her mob. So far Delilah has tested resources with our Hitnet Hub site, the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service (GRAMS) in WA. She is recommending some of the well tested methods the IDX has employed in their work around the country, and to repurpose the resources to make them more culturally appropriate. Further refining and testing will be done over the coming months with a view to a national rollout.
We’re proud to partner with the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet.
Did you know that we have information for health workers on our Hitnet Hubs? We formalised our partnership with HealthInfonet a year or so ago and have since been uploading their short educational videos into their own channel, as they’re created. We’re proud of this work and look forward to continuing to refresh their channel, contributing to the development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce.
ICTV - Content Partner Profile
Our content partner’s ICTV have been doing more in-house production in recent year. So we’ve been pleased to be able to share their ‘Our Bedtime Stories’ for the past 12 months via their own channel (select kids or teens). Each beautiful story is told in language, using traditional storytelling techniques together with animation, music and film. Usage on the Hitnet platform for the year, has seen nearly 900 purposeful uses with good coverage right across Australia, particularly in Kununurra, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Tamworth, Tennant Creek and Saibai Island. ICTV are now producing a coastal version of the stories from Northern Queensland – we look forward to distributing these valuable, cultural resources.
Get in touch if you're interested in becoming a content partner!
‘Best for the World’ – B Corp as our foundation
Our B Corp journey began in 2013 when we became a founding Australian member, and the tenth to certify. Since that time 270+ companies in Australia and New Zealand have also jumped on board to challenge their businesses with the rigorous certification process and to publicly announce their results to the world. We are so pleased to share that once again we have been awarded ‘best for the world’ in the customer category, that is serving our communities.
We look forward to participating in our triennial accreditation in 2020.
Downloads Available
Click on the links to download or interact with the following information about us:
Latest information on Mobile Max
Solomon Islands Project Summary
Mobile Max Pilot Project Report
Hitnet Annual Highlights Report 2018
Hitnet Strategic Plan 2017 - 2021