The entire contents of a new book has been released online as a ‘Wiki’ at the same time it becomes available in its traditional paper
format. The online edition of Connecting the Clouds: The Internet in New Zealand is freely viewable and searchable, and comes with the ability to edit, contribute new material, and annotate the live online version.
The new book from Activity Press documents the rise of the Internet in New Zealand and looks to its future as it becomes an increasingly vital part of our economic and social infrastructure. Its author Keith Newman is a long-time journalist and commentator on the communications and IT industries. The book was commissioned by Internet New Zealand, the body responsible for administering the .nz domain space and was launched last week at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington by the Honorable Judith Tizard, Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage.
It backgrounds the evolution of electronic communications in New Zealand from the telegraph and telephone, through to advances in computer and Internet technology which continue to transform government, business, communities and our personal lives.
From promising beginnings—New Zealand was the first nation in Asia-Pacific to fully connect to the US-based Internet backbone—the book questions what went so wrong that a nation of early adopters of technology and the Internet plummeted to the bottom of the OECD scorecard for broadband, research development and technology reinvestment. It looks at just why New Zealand has had to re-regulate the telecommunications market and, looking ahead, examines what happens when telecommunications, broadcasting, entertainment and computing converge on a common platform.
Connecting the Clouds: The Internet in New Zealand, ISBN 9780958263443, Paperback 230 x 170mm, 720pp, NZ$49.99