A helpful new website, techwise.nz, aimed at assisting people to connect with each other online, has been launched by three Kuranui College students. 

Created during Level 4 lockdown, website creators Joshua Wiegman, Charlie O'Connell and Ana Souto identified the immediate need to pivot to using online tools to stay connected with work, family and friends. The website explains how to keep in touch through the use of simple, easy to follow video tutorials.

The Year 11 students built the website from scratch and entirely on their own using their PHP coding skills and investing in the hosting and the database to ensure that the site is both safe and secure.

“The idea came up during lockdown when we noticed that a lot of elderly people needed support setting up computer programs like Zoom and Skype. We’re hoping to help the community out,” explained co-founder Wiegman. “We started two weeks into lockdown and are always improving it even though the site is now live.”

Lockdown presented a few challenges, but the trio managed the project by communicating through voice chat and texting. “We did this in a program called Discord, meant mostly for gamers. It did exactly what we wanted it to do, as well as communicate with each other,” Wiegman added.

“We have been working really hard on this project and want to share it with as many people as possible. The number of shares on Facebook and visits to the website is amazing, but we still need to get the message out to older people who may not be used to using social media.” 

Techwise.nz offers the video tutorials for free and the team will also offer an in-home service out of school hours, when it is safe to do so, at a premium rate. The premium rate is negotiable and goes to help pay for the hosting costs of the website. 

“We’re hoping that the community, or the whole of New Zealand for that matter, can use this website without having to pay for a very expensive tech consultant for those smaller things,” added Wiegman.

The techwise.nz team also build PCs and the PC builder service is integrated within the website, but the team are still working on a fail-proof payment system to make sure they don’t contravene any online or retail rules.

For more information go to: https://www.techwise.nz/.

Written by Catherine Rossiter-Stead. Article added: Monday 08 June 2020