Good things I have discovered with the Internet recently - part 1

I have been using computers and the internet since the early days. People used to point at me in awe because I had a 20mb hard drive on my brand new XT PC (sadly could not afford hard drive and a colour screen).

My first modem was dial up 28k/hr and real slow, but it at least allowed me to see the early days and some of the wonderful advances in web stuff.

I work part time for the disaster reduction program of a regional organisation called SOPAC which is part of the Secretariat for Pacific Communities. Computer and internet allow me to work between trips, mainly by email with disaster managers and fire and emergency service chiefs all over the Pacific helping to build capacity and capability.

We have been working on building a new alliance of disaster managers, fire and emergency services and police chiefs in the Pacific called PIEMA (Pacific Islands Emergency Management Alliance) and of course we needed a logo.

To be anything fair dinkum in the Pacific you must have a good logo, big banners, t-shirts and a great morning tea for people to start taking you seriously

I was tasked with organising the logo. I used a mob called DesignCrowd which I think is Australian inspired and based. It is a focal point for designers from all over the world and for people, like me, who have NFI (no idea) about design to meet graphic designers and solve each others problems (money = design).

Apart from being a terrific and highly successful idea it worked a treat and before long I had over 20 designers from all over the world submitting designs of various quality for selection and competing for my miserly $200 (+ listing, management fees).

What I really liked about it was that the winning designer Zanu Zawa (ZZ to his/her mates) is a young person who lives on a small island in outback Indonesia who was more than happy to work for my money and I was really happy for him/her to have it. I am sure AUD$200 will be of greater value at his/her place than my place.

btw - here is the winning design:

Now for the morning tea.....