The NZ Web's greatest hits (and misses)
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As we hurtle into the interweb future, perhaps it's time to take stock. What are the most important and influential sites in the brief history of the web in New Zealand? Trade Me? http://www.govt.nz ? Scoop? And how about the stinkers? Flying Pig? Xtra version 1? And which newer sites will be regarded fondly in five years' time? Elaborate, unload and argue for your choices ...
95 Responses
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Definitely Scoop - its irreplacable now as a way of getting direct, unmediated news. I also have a soft spot for Aardvark, though I no longer follow it.
I think the new parliament.govt.nz site is something we'll appreciate more over time. OK, so its audience is really limited to total political junkies, but its about as good as it can be for what it is - and in Te Reo too.
Idiot/Savant
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Best of the early days (you can't have latter days without early days):
Wammo - the first local site with truly great design aesthetics, supported by incisive writing, good analysis and fresh daily servings
Aardvark/ 7AM and its news ticker
A curmudgeon is born! Long before the blogs were griping, Bruce Simpson was watching the headlines, breaking the news and poking a good sharp stick at anyone who asked for it.Secret Passage
Robyn is old school, yo.NewsRoom
Press releases on line, unfiltered content, news as it happened, long before the Dom or the Herald got moving. Headwater of the daily torrent that is today's Scoop.Stinkers:
Worst of the DotCom Bubble 1.0
EVentures - what was their loan site's name? Wastn't there a snail or something in the vastly expensive marketing campaign?Not a website, but all deserving a mention:
-Incis
-The 6 hours it would take to download each new 6-meg version of Netscape
-Starts with T, ends with m
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With all due respect to Scoop (and acknowledging their contribution to this anyway) Newsroom.co.nz was a real earth mover for me. About 8 or 9 years ago they revolutionised the way "news" could be communicated from the directly creators to the audience without any filtering by the MSM. Given journalists' propesity to take a press release, bastardise it and then print the crapped up version this was a real breath of fresh air (well, it would have been were it not for all the cigarette smoke).
I first met Pete Fowler in his grubby flat/office on The Terrace and when he explained his reticulation model to me I was totally blown away. So clean, so simple and such a good use of the web. Where Newsroom lead others now follow.
Scoop has followed a more editorial model and certainly lead in trying to apply technology innovatively (audio, video etc).
Glad to see that both organisations are still with us.
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i can't agree actually, i think that newsroom was a great site till it went behind the paywall.
and as far as i know it's still the place to get up to the minute news on politics. sorry Kevin...
otherwise? Stuff.co.nz. simple, easy to navigate, but with an annoying habit of not publishing the most fun stories in the DomPost.
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If I had to pick one NZ website I'd be really glad to see still around in five year's time it would probably be No Right Turn (not trying to suck up to the previous commenter!).
Idiot Savant covers that important democratic stuff that seems to elude the media (and indeed most political websites).
Oh, and Public Address is quite nice too ;-)
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blimmin heck, waste 5 minutes writing a post and the Don and Monsigneur Slack have already pipped me to the same point...
pesky damn global net and its instant communicability...
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PS, so far this new system works in Mozilla 1.7.13 on a Debian distro and Firefox 1.5.07 on Ubuntu 6.0.6 (Dapper).
Although nothing happens if one forgets the final '/' after system in the URL. Small config change required :-)
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Che, Newsroom have a associate site "newswire.co.nz" which is free.
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and for those who did not see me pissed at the last Netguide awards, I am a huge fan of Stuff.co.nz ...
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Kiwiblog and PA have true political influence, in that both those covering politics from the Gallery and those practising politics (MPs and their servants) read them diligently. It's scary how regularly the arguments made by Brown and Farrar make their way into National and Labour talking points, or into new angles pursued by the traditional media.
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Huh? But there is no New Zealand web, is there? The whole point is that it's a world web. It's kind of like asking "what do you think of New Zealands moon?"
But if you want my call, the New Zealand web sites I visit most are probably public address and wherever that may lead me and then probably CricInfo.
I do have a soft spot for the Royal Society of NZ website which tries very hard to include the info you might want http://www.rsnz.govt.nz/ of course I can't get on right now because of a bandwidth problem :).cheers
Bart -
Don, ta. checked it out and it's not a patch on Scoop. too bland. although, that big banner with the raboplus girl always gets my attention.
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A million years ago - well, 1994 - we were living in central Victoria (Australia). We could only get interwebby access by telnet to the CERN site on the work computers and it was text-only.
Sad expat Kiwi's that we were, we used to sneak back at night to read Brain Harmer's WYSIWYG news. A lifeline from home it was. -
and also from a Nokia 770...
che newswire and scoop are very different beasts really.
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Well, I'd have to include Public Address.Net. Russ is a major mover and shaker and whenever I'm stuck for a Gaynz.Com story idea, there he is.
Otherwise...No Right Turn.
Craig Young
Wellington
(displaced mainlander) -
Although nothing happens if one forgets the final '/' after system in the URL. Small config change required :-)
Thanks Don - I'd noticed the same thing. I thought I'd let the lads go for lunch, but I'll get them to fix that soon. (Gravatars aren't working because the Gravatar dude is trying to rebuild his site ...)
I must say, I still recall the Newsroom-Scoop split quite vividly. I think Peter and Alastair just had different visions - and they're very different people. Newsroom going subscriber took it into a different space, while Scoop became the national noticeboard of public life.
Allow me also to chuck in IDGNet - http://www.idg.co.nz/ - which gave me a job as (I think) the first dedicated online reporter/news editor in the country in 1996. That was a good time to be on the internet beat, what with the ISP wars and all. On slow days I'd just call up one of the Wood brothers, wait for them to say something outrageous and write the story ...
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Hmmm... I reckon some of the most influential NZ sites for me are the ones providing day-to-day convenience... online banking, the ird website for filing taxes so I don't have to find a stamp, local library catalogues,... the sorts of sites which remove the need for me to get my arse off the sofa :-D
These sorts of sites are ubiquitous now, whereas just 10 years ago we were all keenly anticipating them.
And of course PA - not just another blog site, but a place to explore what it is to be a NZer. Priceless.
Cheers,
Judi
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On slow days I'd just call up one of the Wood brothers, wait for them to say something outrageous and write the story ...
That casts The Dominion of the 1970s in a new light for me. I'm guessing they did much the same thing with Bob Jones.
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...what do you think of New Zealands moon?
I'm rather partial to it, much like our little sliver of Antartica!
NZ Websites huh? NZoom kept me going while I was overseas.
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I genuinely believe the whole e-govt initiative has been a fantastic success. Both from the technology trenches (we build govt websites with alarming regularity), and as a user. It's amazing that I can check my student loan balance online, and grab a non-resident withholding tax exemption form in 3 seconds. Imagine doing that 10 years ago.
Stinker - busy tones in the early days with iHug, and the current equivalent of congested backhaul. Flying Pig definitely deserves a big fat rasberry - why didn't Whitcoulls just take their brand online rather than dot-bomb it with a stupid name?
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Gosh, I'd forgotten Newsroom ever existed...
But OK - Scoop & the Hard News emails used to inform me, Flying Pig got me books that Amazon did not stock.
Public Address & Onebefore.org got me blogging.
Got to agree that internet banking has changed my life...
On the international front - google, gmail & bloglines have changed things for the better too.
One site/service to watch perhaps - whoiswhere.co.nz
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Well, what a bunch of politics/news junkies!
For me it's just gotta be Trademe. I'm addicted. I admit it. The other great site for buying stuff is www.pricespy.co.nz - great for finding the lowest prices for computers & electronics things.
Benjamin -
As far as opinion sites and blogs go, I agree that norightturn sets a pretty high bar in terms of quality research and independence of thought. PA for its writing and understanding of how real journalists should right (sadly lacking here in NZ).
Kiwiblog is just an online version of talkback radio to me, nothing new, maybe popular but rancid. I prefer being interested, challenged, motivated and inspired by what I read as opposed to simply made angy.
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For 'news' - stuff.co.nz/. Even with all its holes, I don't bother picking up a paper most days of the week now.
For comment - certainly publicaddress.net.
But for most impact, certainly trademe.co.nz. I just need to log onto my online banking to see just how bad it has been for me! -
I miss Newsroom hugely since leaving my Parliamentary subscribed version. always on time, well organised, less intrusive ads than Scoop.
big ups to RNZ also- they have come along way in a short time.
the "more work is needed" winners are political parties. none of the sites are worth getting too excited about.
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