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Our Story
Equity in Connectivity came about in late 2020 when two very passionate guys started talking about notable global trends taking over the world; 1. COVID-19 pandemic and 2. Exponential growth in the technological and digital space.
What quickly became apparent was that despite the growth of technology and the digital space, the gap was getting more prominent between the "haves" and "have not". COVID-19 proved that a digital gap did exist. Many in our communities suffered immensely from physical isolation and lost connection with their communities when the only way was through the internet.
Equipping school kids with free devices is a great idea, but for those that find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide connecting that device became a real problem as school teachers quickly found out that there was a "homework gap".
Peter Elbourne from Pasifika in IT and Elia Chan, CEO of MYRIVR, began this crazy idea of recycling data, specifically unused internet data and repurposing it to those who needed access to the internet.
When we think of donations, we think of tangible things food, money, blankets, clothes, shoes and devices, and the intangibles purely consist of time and intellectual property (IP). However, we quickly found out that there were many people already working on solving the digital divide. There were programmes donating devices, STEAM career development programmes, even Tech experts contributing their time and IP to the fight of closing the digital divide.
Our idea was to create a platform that bridges the gap.
A platform that connects the "haves" and the "have not".
A platform that looks to bring together communities to solve a social problem.
Pasifika in IT signed off on the concept to get behind it, and work began with the Ministry of Education(MOE) and its cohort group from Tech 21 Summit. MOE facilitated and promoted the idea with participating schools from South Auckland.
Working with our community, our tamariki from the Tech21 Summit and MoE, we progressed the proof of concept into a minimal viable product where EQUITY in CONNECTIVITY was born.
Our good friends at Zeald help build our platform, and we are proud to say that internet service providers like Vodafone, Spark, 2Degrees are looking at ways to help.
What quickly became apparent was that despite the growth of technology and the digital space, the gap was getting more prominent between the "haves" and "have not". COVID-19 proved that a digital gap did exist. Many in our communities suffered immensely from physical isolation and lost connection with their communities when the only way was through the internet.
Equipping school kids with free devices is a great idea, but for those that find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide connecting that device became a real problem as school teachers quickly found out that there was a "homework gap".
"It's like fitting a fancy tap into your bathroom, but your house isn't connected to the water mains."
Peter Elbourne from Pasifika in IT and Elia Chan, CEO of MYRIVR, began this crazy idea of recycling data, specifically unused internet data and repurposing it to those who needed access to the internet.
When we think of donations, we think of tangible things food, money, blankets, clothes, shoes and devices, and the intangibles purely consist of time and intellectual property (IP). However, we quickly found out that there were many people already working on solving the digital divide. There were programmes donating devices, STEAM career development programmes, even Tech experts contributing their time and IP to the fight of closing the digital divide.
Our idea was to create a platform that bridges the gap.
A platform that connects the "haves" and the "have not".
A platform that looks to bring together communities to solve a social problem.
Pasifika in IT signed off on the concept to get behind it, and work began with the Ministry of Education(MOE) and its cohort group from Tech 21 Summit. MOE facilitated and promoted the idea with participating schools from South Auckland.
Working with our community, our tamariki from the Tech21 Summit and MoE, we progressed the proof of concept into a minimal viable product where EQUITY in CONNECTIVITY was born.
" It really was a passion project, a solution built by the community by the community."
Our good friends at Zeald help build our platform, and we are proud to say that internet service providers like Vodafone, Spark, 2Degrees are looking at ways to help.