B L O G (Hori 3.0 aka Digital Maori: The Blog)

I was born in the days of Defender, raised in the warm glow of real-time TV, kept connected by the addictive and predictive power of txt and when speaking in front of many of our Elders, am mis-understood, looked upon like some whacked out alien.

Kia ora, my name is Potaua and I am a Digital Native from the Realm of the 21st Century.  Nice to meet you…

In the Pre-Digital Age, our families shared a telephone connected by the Party Line, often dialing the phone.  When looking to go somewhere, they’d reach for a map.  Regular mail took 3-5 days (fastpost took 1-3 days) and the first digital things to appear were considered toys.  The only useful digital items were the Calculator, the Casio Watch and the Video Player.  Everything else was analogue.  Nothing else mattered because nothing else was available.

But now, today looks, feels different.  It’s where we come in actually.  A Digital Native is someone born upon the digital landscape, who is a digital local, a person who is comfortable with personal computers, cellphones, video games, satellite tv and the internet.  It is an environment that is always on, has immense processing power and brings with it new sets of technological fluencies.  We are multi-task solution and ask HOW?  We find it is best to collaborate together, to create and complete a range of digital projects.  Google Maori is one such amazing set of mahi completed recently, 2 Degrees Mobile is another…

Words like Bebo, HD Flat, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, PXT and Google are said today like they’ve always existed in our language.  Where once digital was dirty, it is now driving policy within Government, Business, Educational Institutes.  The Digital Evolution started a radical revolution in how we communicate, how we connect and keep connected.

Though I do have a Maori accent, I am a native speaker of the Digital Language… a Digital Maori.

In saying Digital Maori, much of what constitutes digital is natural – for instance, the frequencies and spectrum many of us utilise to connect.  Maori Spectrum is a child of the Sky Father and the Earth Mother, found in-between both yet indepdendent all unto itself.  Regardless of what many so-called New Zealand politicians claim, since the spectrum is a uniquely natural feature to Aoteatoa, it is a taonga here.

In tradition, frequencies were utilised to communicate over long distances, to reach beyond the hills, amplified by devices to coordinate, to organise, to confuse.  Spiritual leaders could use karakia to placate, invoke and control these elements by certain ritual words.  Spectrum is not inanimate and has its origins in nature, under the protection of celestial and ground-based tupuna.  Though digital is a new field, our digital potential has always been here, based on evolving platforms of identity, development and innovation.  Our present and our future are being built upon that past.

So we start to plan 20/10 in earnest, starting at the very bottom and working our way up, much like Tawhaki.

The spectrum, this digital world, the online multiverse,  is our world too and it is up to us to make sure that we remain involved, represented, reflected.  We can be active in this new APP ECONOMY, and start positioning so that when Web 3.0 does go up, we are ready.  It will be about bringing together talented and skilled specialists to create awesome teams and to raise our flag at the crossroads of various specialisations; to learn and thrive at the Art of Digital Innovation.  Right now though, many do notice the rapid rate of process and can see that many forces certain do not want Maori to be included.

So in these next few blogs, we plan to take that beachhead, to break what rules have been set and to secure new territory.  Kind of have to.

No one said this would be easy.

“Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible”.

Korero more soon.
Potaua>