What happened in 2007?
- 6 community groups and 12 students participated in the yMedia Challenge.
- Top quality websites were produced.
- Community groups were guided further into the digital space.
- Free and low-cost tools were explored in depth (including Facebook, Skype, Basecamp, Gmail, Google Docs, Ning, YouTube, Blogging, Bebo and Wikis).
- Community groups were equipped with the knowledge and resources to continue learning and exploring this digital world.
- Strong relationships were developed between tertiary students and community groups.
Demonstrated Outcomes of the yMedia Challenge 2007
Strong relationships were developed between the students and community organisations. As a result of the Challenge, Nathan Champion is doing his Unitec Internship at YouthLaw (as well as the internship at Saatchi & Saatchi!). He meets every Wednesday with YouthLaw.
Each of the other students and organisations maintained regular contact for at least 2 months upon completion of the Challenge and now email each other occasionally to ensure things are still running smoothly!
At the completion of the 2007 Challenge, teams were interviewed on their processes and outcomes. The interviews were videoed and the footage was edited and reduced down to 5 minute clips for each team. This footage was then uploaded onto YouTube and links sent to the judges. These videos can be viewed below or on the yMedia YouTube Channel.
YouthLaw
Nathan and Red spent their two weeks in the YouthLaw offices teaching them everything they knew about reaching young people (their target market) and how to make best use of technology to help the organisation internally. They experimented with a wide range of tools and technologies - the ones listed below are just some of the successful ones.
Bebo Group
Facebook Group
YouTube Channel
Youthlaw Website Changes:
Addition of Bebo and Facebook links
yMedia Info
Addition of YouTube videos to the "Who are we" pages
Pregnancy Counselling Services
Monica and Leah worked to develop a better website for PCS, get the name out there with Google pay-per-click ads, Facebook Flyers and through an APN Digital sponsored animated banner appearing throughout the nzherald.co.nz website. They also uploaded the PCS commercials to YouTube. Another huge part of their project was to help the organisation get online for their own internal management benefits. They now use Basecamp to manage projects and events accross NZ, Google Documents to collaborate with the other offices nation-wide and are signed up on Skype so that they can eventually take internet calls from their clients.
StarJam
Ben and James set out to build a small, simple and functional site with the purpose of giving people an overview of what StarJam is about and getting them to sign a petition - all in under 3 minutes (the overview and signing process, not the building of the site!) The site features a 2 minute video introducing StarJam. Users can then complete the form which adds them to the petition. The idea is that people can make a difference with their comment. They aren't trying to drive people to make donations at all - rather to comment, feel a connection with the cause, and then they can choose to donate or not. (Effective? Julie tells us that they have had mini sites before and not a single donation. Within 24 hours of this site going live, they already had a $100 donation.)
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Prior to the commencement of this project, SIDS's digital presence consisted of a single page website, donated by a "SIDS Parent". Anthea and Hayden have spent their two weeks creating a fully functional website incorporating PHP through a commercial content management system (making it easy for SIDS to keep content relevant!) SIDS has taken to using Basecamp like a fish would take to water...(sorry) - in the words of Margaret Free (SIDS):
"[Before the Challenge] we had all our information in piles in different places. What's happened now is that everything that was in every one of those piles and boxes is on the website!"
SmoothStream
Adi and Andra decided to bring another person on board to help them with their project. Over the 2 weeks, Adi, Andra and Akai worked to better understand SmoothStream's clients by attended the charity's regular Sunday 'Jam' sessions. This understanding came through in the design of their solution - SmoothStream's clients are migrants, most haven't been in NZ long, and most don't speak very good English. So they built a website with the aim of it becoming a central 'hub' for all relevent information to these people (Advice, information, galleries).
