Here is the report from Grey District regarding the Aotearoa People;s Network:
Aotearoa People’s NetworkPenny Carnaby and John Truesdale visited the West Coast for the launch of Aotearoa People’s Network in early March. Penny’s presence signalled to the politicians of this area the importance of APN. The public love APN and are continually surprised that it is free. In the past people waited at the door in the morning to read the newspapers, now they wait to use APN. Observation indicates people use APN for various reasons including email, social networking, Trademe, Skype, listening to music, watching video clips, preparing documents, banking, downloading travel documentation and tickets, applying for Visas and dealing with photos. It is a wonderful tool to have in a low socio-economic area. The library has six APN computers and frequently all six are in use. Occupancy rate (taken from our booking sheet) for computers has varied from 48% to 60.5% per week. One difficulty in this area is the financial impact on local internet providing small businesses of the library providing free internet access. Because of this and the fact that locals would have trouble getting on a computer during the 4-5 month tourist season if we allowed free access to all, the library has made a decision not to allow overseas tourists (except those with work permits) to use APN for free internet use. Instead tourists, about 15- 20 per day in the height of the season, are offered paid internet access through the library network or the alternative of going to other providers. Tourists with work permits use APN extensively – up to 6 hours per day per person. Limiting tourist access probably goes against the ethos of APN, but it is a significant issue for this area. We appreciate John Truesdale and his team for their management and backup of APN. Things just run smoothly in the background and we rarely have to worry.
