February is shaping up as an inspiring month on the start-up, technology and innovation event calendar throughout New Zealand, illustrating that our tech scene is alive and well and continuing to grow. Here's a quick summary of what's on the menu.

The busy month kicks off with the Game Developers Meetup in Auckland organised by Playmaker the proactive community for independent games developers. Main topic of conversation will involve finding out about all the cool games built during Global Game Jam. Rails Camp weekend is underway from 10th February with Ruby on Rails fans heading up to Mt. Cheeseman in Canterbury for their annual bush bash. The week of 13-17th Feb is reserved for Webstock so the iWantMyName crew will definitely be wandering over to the Wellington Town Hall to see who's rocking the world of web design and usability.

The following week the tables will be turned and it will be us in the limelight. We're shouting a few beers at Unlimited Potential's Tech Founder Blast Talks and our CTO will also be speaking. Blast Talks looks like a big night out with some of Wellington's leading developers and tech company founders on hand. We are also getting right behind Christchurch Startup Weekend, which launches on the weekend of 24th February. One or two of us will be on hand to provide some free domain names and offer coaching to help project teams get off to a good start. It's a small contribution we can make towards encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit to rise once again in the city.

If you want to keep in touch with these events and many others, subscribe to the New Zealand edition of Startup Digest.

Webstock is a world class web usability and design conference being held right here in our own back yard. This year Kiwi web companies attending the event are getting a leg up through an initiative called Startup Alley which is generously offering return flights to San Francisco and a short residency at Kiwi Landing Pad.

Last week's announcement of the six tech company finalists underlined what we already suspected. Pretty much all the coolest emerging tech companies around are switching on to iWantMyName for easy and secure domain and DNS management services. That's a testament to our own commitment to supporting the web start-up community in New Zealand and an acknowledgement that we are delivering a refreshing service offering.

Congratulations to the finalists, best of luck for the Startup Alley pitching session at Webstock and we look forward to seeing you there!

Vancouver based ex-pat New Zealander Tim Johnson wanted to do something to help out his quake damaged hometown of Christchurch, so he set up a company called Dot Kiwi to create and administer a new domain name. Appropriately, a portion of the profit from sales of the proposed .kiwi domain will be earmarked for the Christchurch recovery.

The .kiwi domain proposal has been made possible by last year's policy changes within Internet governance body ICANN that cleared the way for the development of more Internet real estate in the form of new generic top level domains (gTLDs). Dot Kiwi is well positioned to address the technical and legal challenges involved, having KEA World Class New Zealander and immediate past Chairman of ICANN, Peter Dengate-Thrush on board as a director.

Mr Johnson, who has a background in software development and technology business management, was at the forefront of efforts to rally Canada-based New Zealanders in the wake of the Christchurch quake disaster. In his role as CEO of Dot Kiwi, Johnson sees a bright future for the new domain, which he expects to complete initial regulatory hurdles around early 2013. With over a million Kiwi ex-pats abroad the .kiwi domain obviously lends itself to individuals or businesses who want to create a unique online profile for themselves. "We also think .kiwi will redefine the domain name market in New Zealand and lead to a wave of innovation in new services and applications", he says.

Want to be notified just as soon as .kiwi becomes available? Leave your contact email here with us and we will keep you informed of developments.

For example, as Kiwis were sitting down for Christmas dinner a wave of consumer activism was spreading around the world in response to the proposed SOPA bill in the United States which proposes far reaching reforms in an effort to counter intellectual property piracy. The much criticised bill seeks to protect digital rights for artists, but ironically imposes a burden on all Internet companies that enable the creation, sharing and hosting of online content. That's a situation which New Zealanders already have some familiarity with when we think about the impact of the so-called "Three Strikes" legislation enacted here this year.

The global Internet community was stunned to learn the names of some of the large technology corporations that were backing the bill, including the world's largest domain registrar, and a rallying cry went out to support a consumer boycott. For many it was the last straw as dissatisfaction with that company had been growing for some time. Consequently we've set up a service to make domain transfers easy over the holiday season.

Despite some commentators questioning whether or not a protest would be meaningful, the boycott appears to have made some major tech businesses sit up and take notice. With Sony, EA and Nintendo reportedly back-peddling on supporting SOPA in its current form it seems like the business world has been forced to think more seriously about the wider implications in terms of how the bill affects Internet freedom.

Of course there were far more dramatic cases of Internet activism in 2011, with corrupt regimes dropping like dead flies as social media fueled protest drew thousands of disaffected citizens onto the streets. 2012 will no doubt continue to illustrate why we need a free and open Internet unfettered by governments and corporations.

 

Well it's that time of year once again when both credit card limits and shoppers' good humour are stretched to breaking point. Are you dreading your next excursion to the overcrowded shopping mall? No fear.

The growing trend towards online shopping helps avoid long checkout queues and gives you better control over budgets, from the comfort of your lounge settee. In fact this year we've even recommended some cool Kiwi online games companies to our United States customers in search of unique gifts for their kids. Have you thought about giving a domain name as a pressie? We recently had a customer build and domain customise a Weebly website to give away as a clever Christmas gift.

But let's not forget what the true spirit of Christmas is all about. After a very busy and eventful 2011 we should all take time to reflect on our blessings and spare a thought for others who are less fortunate. The Wellington City Mission is an iconic and much loved institution that assists many people in need, especially at this time of year. From food banks to mission for elderly programmes, the City Mission does a power of good across society working with lonely, hungry or displaced people that need a helping hand. It's very easy to get caught up in the commercial hoop-la associated with Christmastime. But for a meaningful gift, why not donate to the City Mission or another caring charity in your area?

There's been a lot of buzz around this week about the new Flipboard offering.The technology editor at UK's Daily Telegraph calls it "one of the essential iPad Apps". So with the iPhone version now launched, its quite likely to gather a huge following. But does Flipboard have universal appeal?

Flipboard is a "social magazine" iOS app that aggregates leading website and social media content. There's no denying that Flipboard has a gorgeous look and feel on the iPad. But personally I find Flipboard's magazine style layout a little random, making it less interesting for me. Maybe it's just how my brain works, but I tend to follow specific verticals rather than put my faith in variety. If I was on a long flight, I'd read Wired and Nat. Geo. from cover to cover, because that's what interests me. If I'm playing online, I want to thoroughly check out my Twitter feed and the latest Read Write Web articles directly without the temptation to well...flip.

There's no question that content based apps are now leading the charge in the media wars and hosted apps for business continue to gain traction globally as well. That's why more and more media organisations are pushing their own apps out into the wild. It's also why we launched our domain registrar iPhone App very early on. Do we need a single point of reference for all this content? Clearly, some think so, but I guess it's no coincidence that many of the news organisations that have been raving about Flipboard are also signed up as content partners. Flipboard was not the first magazine app of course, there have been others. But Flipboard has certainly had the most success in building out its partner relationships.

I think Flipboard will probably grow on me over time the more I experiment with it. Have you downloaded the Flipboard iPhone App yet? What has your experience been like?

With Ruby going from strength to strength as a web development environment, it's encouraging to see plans for Rails Camp 2012 are already in full swing. The camp is an "unconference" style event that convenes Ruby On Rails hackers for a weekend of talking, coding and drinking.

The 2011 event held in the bush just up the road near Kaitoke was reportedly lots of fun. But next year the New Zealand meetup is heading down south to scenic Mt Cheeseman in the Craigieburn Range, Canterbury. The lodge there normally caters for skiiers, but being February, we doubt that snow will be too much of an issue. Rails Camps are deliberately held in remote locations away from earthly distractions such as TV, phone and Internet. It probably ensures only pure code is created (is there any other kind?) and temporarily eliminates annoyances such as ex-partners, kids and talkback hosts.

Wonderful to see Heroku getting involved and local heroes Trineo also backing the event. We think these are both exciting companies worth watching. Heroku provides everything you need to securely deploy and scale applications and it has been pretty cool to see a steady stream of Rails developers domain customising Heroku set-ups with us. For those coming from far afield, Rails Camp also dovetails nicely with Webstock, the primo web design and development event for all the gifted and beautiful people, hosted right here in Wellington each year. Enjoy!

Image courtesy of Carla Appel at the South Pole. Check out her amazing blog.

It's Election 2011 weekend in New Zealand and almost anything could happen. Until the "tea-pot tapes" debacle, many pundits were resoundingly predicting no change of government. But as they say, "a week is a long time in politics". Last minute resurgences by the minor parties have thrown the cat amongst the pigeons, with political blogs running hot with commentary.

Kiwis have been using a mixed member proportional voting system (MMP) since 1996, but the current government agreed to deliver a referendum this year to allow voters an opportunity to express their satisfaction (or otherwise) with the current system. MMP is very similar to the way our friends in the domain of Germany vote and, whilst not without its faults, has provided relatively stable coalition style governments that build consensus with input from a diversity of political viewpoints. Even if there is a vote for change, it will be 2017 before a different voting system would be implemented.

Saturday evening should be entertaining as the results are announced. In particular we will be hoping to see good returns for those parties that prioritise environmental issues and are promoting more investment in research, science and technology as an economic growth platform. But whatever your political hue, as a community-minded company, we think the most important thing is to get out there and exercise your democratic right on the day. Remember there are many less fortunate societies that do not provide such an option to their people.

The "appitization" of the Internet continues unabated as new and ever better hosted services continue to disrupt traditional business software models. Ensuring your business brand is secure within this new context remains a challenge within a jungle of service offerings. So we went on a mission to pick the ripest apps for you!

iWantMyName is positioning as a next generation global domain registrar through featuring over 80 of the best personal and business apps within its App Marketplace. We also make these services easily domain customizable using a one-click set-up routine within a streamlined, candy cane coloured user dashboard. DNS management has never been so delicious!

Want to get your web commerce shop front up and running fast? Activate Shopify or SupaDupa on your domain and watch the online sales start rolling in. Need a funky zone to host and share code? Choose from a swag of different developer services. Like to aggregate all your social feeds on a single business site? Make Central.ly your new watercooler on the web.

iWantMyName helps businesses find and implement the sweetest apps on the web.

We had a huge amount of fun during Wellington Startup Weekend and were greatly pleased that we were able to contribute time and resources towards making it such a successful community event.

It was especially gratifying to have been able to supply a cute domain hack for the uSnap.Us team who eventually won the event. uSnap.Us offers a clever photo aggregation service allowing wedding guests to upload digital images to a predetermined online location. The initial "focus" will be wedding parties, but the company has plans to offer the service for other kinds of events as well.

The uSnap.Us team included a number of identities from the Wellington developer community including Owen Evans (chief architect at Xero) and Jacob Creech (co-founder IntuitionHQ). The Startup Weekend judging panel featured an impressive lineup including founding editor of tech blog Read Write Web, Richard MacManus.