10 Jun 2015

Maori urged to take advantage of ICT

8:37 pm on 10 June 2015

Māori are being urged to take advantage of communications technologies to help accelerate economic development in their communities.

This year's NetHui, which takes place next month, has a day-long Māori meetup to showcase leading research, and provide opportunities for Māori to share their work.

An organiser, Karaitiana Taiuru, said the meetup was focused on enhancing Māori digital entrepreneurship.

"ICT is a key factor in economic development, it's a key factor in social and commercial areas ...this is the only time we can get together as a unique community and share those ideas."

Mr Taiuru said the internet and application development were proving crucial to language revitalisation efforts.

"A lot of people, when they think ICT or think Internet, they just think technology. There are some key players in the Māori Internet sector.

"The Internet is used for Māori language revitalisation, cultural enhancement and protection, we've got Maori on the international scene with Internet technology."

He said he would like to see as many Māori as possible turn up and participate at the Māori meetup, and apply new technologies and skills to their education and businesses.

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