Category: Stepping UP

Jump customers being offered library cards

I learnt about a great initiative by Te Takere’s digital inclusion librarian, Leala Faleseuga, earlier this week. She explained that whenever she signs up a customer for Jump she asks them if they have a library card, and if not she is quick to sign them up. And then she can introduce them to the free eLibrary resources offered by Horowhenua Libraries, including Libby, Hoopla and Cloud Library.

I know that most, if not all library partners, are providing eLibrary services for their communities, but what impressed me about Leala’s approach is how she and her team at Te Takere are making the connection between digital connectivity and content.

I have mentioned this to a few other library partners during the week and they were quick to respond with “what a good idea!”

Our (DIAA) vision for Jump was that this would provide a pathway for communities to increase their digital skills and engagement with the digital world.

Having access to a digital device and an affordable internet device is just the beginning. Thank you to all our partners who are continuing to help their communities enjoy the benefits of the digital world.

I met with a senior government official during the week and she was so excited about being introduced to Libby by a librarian at Newtown Library in Wellington. She has now reached book number 200, thanks to Libby!

Modem de-linking: spotted by a resourceful librarian

In my enthusiasm to blog on matters relating to Jump, I have been caught out by a resourceful Auckland librarian. He was using his research skills to brush up on the modem delinking process and discovered one of my blog posts from 2020 explaining this. However, when he went to our Stepping UP website he discovered a totally different explanation.

The problem is that things change. Yet old blog posts, like many other online things, tend to hang around well beyond their useful date.   In fact if they hang around too long, I guess they will be picked up by OpenAI systems like ChatGPT or Bard and then get shared as mis-information. So what is the truth? A question I suspect we will be asking a lot more in the future.

While some of the advice in my 2020 post is still relevant, the detailed procedures were replaced by the flow chart on our website around the middle of 2022.  There was a blog post about this change too, but anyone searching on ‘de-linking Jump modems’ wouldn’t find this because it doesn’t use the keyword ‘de-link’. Instead it celebrates the launch of new procedures for handling faulty Jump modems.

Just in case anyone is unsure about current Jump modem fault handling procedures, here it is in a nutshell.

The default procedure is for customers to contact the Skinny Care Team in the first instance if they are having trouble with their modems.  Our back-end processes then take care of themselves with the modem either being fixed remotely or a replacement and recovery courier bag being sent directly to the customer.  The other path involving Jump Delivery Partners is for when customers don’t follow this procedure and turn up with a faulty modem at a delivery partner.  In this case we ask partners to complete the Modem Returns form and await email advice from the Skinny team that the modem has been reset and is available for re-issue, or if it is faulty a courier bag will be sent to the partner for recovery.  It can take up to 24 hours for the old modem to be delinked from the customer’s account and this must happen before the customer can use their same email to set up a new modem.

So as much as I hate to say it, my 2020 blog post is of historical interest only and should be ignored by present day partners.  The new procedures completely replace the need for partners to call the Skinny Care team or send emails to the Skinny support team.

But this is also a challenge for information specialists. In a digital world how do we ‘retire’ old and obsolete information. Does anyone really have the time to keep reviewing the past and correcting these things?

But the really good news is that people, like the Auckland librarian who raised this issue, are still around, and what do they do when they find conflicting information – they seek out the truth.

My Vaccine Pass – Libraries and other community organisations to the rescue!

We have had numerous reports this week from our Stepping UP partners about how they have sprung into action to help their communities download their vaccine passes. Some are providing a printing service, creating a laminated copy of the Pass. Others are helping customers with smartphones navigate the maze of apps to ensure the Pass can be swiftly recovered when it is needed to verify their vaccination status to gain access to a hairdresser or restaurant.

We (mainly Sue Kini) have also swung into action and produced a new Stepping UP Digital Step – DS41: My Health & My Vaccine Pass. This provides a step by step guide for partners to guide your customers in creating a My Health account and downloading their Vaccine Passes.

As shout out to Irene Wilson at Dunedin Public Library, who has produced an amazing set of video tutorials for getting a Vaccine Pass. Irene has created six videos in total and is happy for this resource to be shared with anyone who needs it.

  • How to create your My Health Account
    • With an email address
    • With a RealMe login
  • How to request your vaccine certificate
  • How to access the certificate with an android device
  • How to access the certificate with an Apple device
  • How to zoom in on the QR code

Jump Modems – Delivery Options

I am getting frequent questions about whether the home delivery self-service option is still available for Skinny Jump.  The short answer is “yes”, but please read on so that I can explain the ‘but‘.

All Jump inquiries are directed to a delivery partner organisation and our preference (from both a support and financial perspective) is for people to front up to a local partner.  There are now 196 publicly listed locations where people can go to get a Skinny Jump modem and new locations are being added every week.

The advantages are manifold:

(1) Partners are able more easily to assess the eligibility of the applicants;

(2) Partners are able to assist applicants set up their Skinny accounts, making sure they have a working email (and one they can remember the password for!);

(3) Partners are able to explain what customers can do with 30GB data and how they are limited to five plan renewals (total of 150GB) a month;

(4) Partners are able to explain the top up/ plan renewal process, so that customers feel confident about doing this when their first month’s internet expires;

(5) Partners are welcome to engage interpreters for customers who have English as a second language, and claim back costs from DIAA;

(6) Partners are able to offer opportunities for new internet users to participate in scheduled Stepping UP or Better Digital Futures digital literacy classes;

(7) Partners are able to develop a relationship with the customer, so that they are encouraged to return for other library services.

BUT, if for any reason the customer finds it difficult to get to a Jump partner, e.g. they could live a long way away or may have physical disabilities that prevent them from travelling, partners are welcome to use the online application form.  Note that the Application Form has been amended to require the name of the person making the referral and their organisation.  Applicants must also give a reason why they can’t visit a Jump partner.

Good news stories

We are on the lookout for good news stories.  We publish these in our Annual Report and they provide incredibly important feedback to our funders.  So, we are seeking your help in identifying some good news stories – anything from the last 12 months, for any of our programmes – Stepping UP, DORA and Digital Banking, Digital Wellbeing and of course, Jump.  Our particular focus is to profile some individuals who have participated in one of our digital inclusion programmes and who is willing to share their story (and a photograph).

With the extension of the Jump criteria on 25 March 2020 to include more groups of digitally excluded people, we are particularly interested in a diversity of stories from different digitally excluded groups:

  • Māori
  • Pacific Peoples
  • People in social housing
  • families with low incomes
  • People in rural communities
  • Unemployed people
  • People with low literacy skills
  • People with disabilities
  • Migrants and refugees
  • Offenders and ex-offenders
  • Seniors

We have a journalist who is helping us and she is happy to interview people directly, but we need your help with introductions please.  Please email me,  laurence@diaa.nz ,with any suggestions.

What happened to the Jump Participant GDoc Registers?

Things changed on 25 March (not just the Covid-19 lockdown!) with the expansion of the criteria for Jump.  When we introduced the home-delivery option (that has now reached nearly 4000 people), we abandoned the Kawa of Care form that we used to update the Jump registers in GDocs and replaced this with a Stepping UP Profile form which is to be used by partners when issuing Jump modems.  We also plan to progressively use this for other DIAA digital inclusion programmes, to create a more comprehensive picture of the people who are participating.

For the home-delivery Jump option, we created a new form (Skinny Jump Application Form), based on the Stepping UP profile form, but with some additional contact information, such as a physical address so that we can check Skinny Jump coverage and courier modems to applicants.

For modems issued by partners, we are continuing to update the individual partner Jump register GDocs, using information captured in the Stepping UP profile form, but we are only including name and date information (linked to IMEI and BB numbers).  The remaining data is consolidated in a national database where we can analyse the profile of people participating.  The advice we received from privacy lawyers was that we were exposing ourselves and our partners to possible privacy breaches by recording participant details in a GDoc that could be easily shared and copied.

Our main reason for maintaining the individual partner GDocs is for stock control purposes, so that we can re-issue modems as required. Partners are welcome to continue to have access to this if they find it helpful.

Libraries invited to participate in digital inclusion survey

A new library research initiative by the Equity Through Education Research Centre at Massey University is underway and library managers and staff throughout New Zealand are invited to participate.  The research seeks to investigate the role of public libraries in promoting digital inclusion and overcoming the digital divide.

We encourage all DIAA library partners delivering Stepping UP or JUMP programmes to participate in these surveys:

Library staff survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LXJGTY7

Library Managers’ Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HRKDVMK

The research is being conducted by Dr Maggie Hartnett, Associate Professor Mandia Mentis, Associate Professor Alison Kearney, Dr Lucila Carvalho, and Dr Philippa Butler. Any questions about the research or about this survey should be referred to Maggie Hartnett, at m.hartnett@massey.ac.nz.

Stepping UP Activity Reports

In the transition to DIAA, we have dropped the ball with respect to the Partner Stepping UP Activity Reports.  The reports for Term 2 should have been distributed during the July school holidays.  We are remedying this situation and expect to have Term 2 reports to you shortly with Term 3 reports scheduled for the next school holidays (first two weeks of October).