Land Information New Zealand or Toitū Te Whenua, popularly known as LINZ, is the government agency responsible for making regulations that govern our land.

LINZ is also the organisation that has pioneered the push for open data in New Zealand, which they are currently at the forefront of.

So who am I?

Well, dear reader, I’m Vaishnavi - a software developer who along with my other developer friends - Marcus, Pete and Gabby, have joined a pilot program called Code For Aotearoa. We strongly believe that the keyboard is mightier than the sword and that we are here to change the world.

What is this Code for Aotearoa now?

Code for Aotearoa is a pilot to open new ways through which we cam make meaningful contributions to government.

8th September 2016… the day my world collided with these two other dimensions - Code for Aotearoa and LINZ…

The first week at LINZ went by really quick… I had the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing people who have a wealth of knowledge. Just meeting so many interesting people would have been a task in itself, let alone being able to get an insight into their work.

Like any organisation of people, there’s… a wide range of personalities. Some welcoming and others… could do with a bit of work but perhaps they’ll warm up to us in time. Each meeting has been a learning experience, that’s for sure!

So many meetings and a boatload of new information,

Both me and Marcus have the daunting task of assimilating the information and then start the second phase of interviews…

As for LINZ, I can say that they have done a great job of releasing heaps of data, which has made it challenging for us to add value to their current offerings.

That said, competition is what drives innovation and since that doesn’t apply to LINZ, we hope to instill a bit of friendly competition with the people we meet.

As for solutions, identifying the pain points of their immediate customers would definitely be a good start.

Until next week this has been Vai signing off…