Redesigned CommunityNet Aotearoa website launched

The website CommunityNet Aotearoa has been relaunched by Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Jo Goodhew with a new look and "customer driven" focus.

CommunityNet Aotearoa is an online hub providing access to a variety of resources designed to support and strengthen community organisations. The website was redeveloped in 2013 in response to negative consumer feedback on navigation, finding resources and out of date information. The new website seeks to improve user experience and interaction, and includes features allowing users to create a customised toolkit of the resources they use regularly, share their own resources, including video, audio and pictures, 'like' resources, and 'follow' contributors they find useful.

The website provides five types of resources; "How to Guides", "Information and Advice", "Tools and Templates", "Stories and Case Studies" and "Shared Links" under nine categories of information:

• Direction
• Governance
• Leadership
• People
• Administration
• Finances
• Communication
• Evaluation and
• Relationships.

Information from the Community Resource Kit, a well used resource from the old site, has been transferred onto the new site. 

CommunityNet Aotearoa welcomes contributions from New Zealand-based individuals and organisations creating resources for community organisation learning and development. A contributor has direct access to the content management system, so resources can be published without a moderation process. While contributions are published as they are received, and not edited by the moderator, clear content guidelines and a contributor application process act to ensure the site continues to fulfil the site's purpose. 

Minister Goodhew said "About a third of all New Zealanders get involved in their communities through volunteering for an organisation, providing millions of volunteer hours a year and making a significant economic contribution ... These people are the backbone of our sports and social groups, and the arts and cultural sector. It is important that they have access to the support and resources they need to do this essential work."

The new CommunityNet website is managed by the Department of Internal Affairs and uses Government Web Standards.

Media:

Revamped website to support community groups, Beehive, 28.04.2014

Image: Internet1 by Rock1997. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported