Online and On To It on Maori Television

PUBLICITY RELEASE
FOR RELEASE WEEK MON MAY 30 TO SUN JUNE 5

Online and On To It on Maori Television

An award-winning young Maori web designer, online banking, the workings of the Huntly Power Station, Big Game hunting and technology for trainee surgeons are thrown into a mixed bag of technological wonders featured on CYBERWORLD, this Monday May 30 at 6.00 PM.

Hosted by Mana Epiha and Oriini Kaipara, CYBERWORLD is a 13-part series that showcases all the latest technology, invention, ingenuity and internet news on both the Maori and English languages every Monday at 6.00 PM on Maori Television.

This week, the duo kicks off by seeking out ingenuity at its finest through an interview with Auckland Medical School doctor and lecturer Phil Blyth. Dr Blyth gives a run down on the X-Box / Playstation-type ‘game’ or simulation training that has been designed to help trainee surgeons with routine surgical procedures. The software enables students to read x-rays and simulate an operation by choosing the points at which they will drill, the angle at which it would be inserted, as well as cut and dress the skin.

“The operation I’ve simulated is to help trainee surgeons with one of the operations they perform each week. In their early training, they haven’t had to read off two x-rays with a 3D approach. Simulation is a form of training that is going to increase and we’re starting to enter the era when computers and simulators are going to provide essential training. It’s going to be used for any orthopaedic operation that’s going to require the x-ray machine to guide your screw placement. So, some types of back surgery, broken wrists and broken thigh bones are all applicable.”

From the operation table to an operating genius, CYBERWORLD then visits with Che Tamahori (Ngati Porou), who is the creative director for internet design company Shift. With offices located in Auckland and Wellington, Shift is the creative force behind a range of superb websites, including Tourism New Zealand, Housing New Zealand Corporation, Wellington’s Victoria University, Montieths and more internet leaders.

Che obtained a Bachelor of Computer Graphic Design from Wanganui Polytechnic and went on to win several awards for his design work, including first prize in the 1996 TUANZ Internet Cook-Off and the 1997 Australian ATOM awards in three sections. Further more, in 1998 he received a silver medal in I.D. magazine's New Media Review.

With sound advice for burgeoning graduates, Che says the first pit stop is passion. “I love working on lush looking sites. My first love is design – creating something that looks beautiful. But, my other passion is to create things that are useful for people to use. The HYPERLINK "http://www.purenz.com" www.purenz.com site that we work on has 10,000 pages in six languages, so you need to be organised.”

He adds that his current projects capturing his imagination includes a nine-year project to create a new online encyclopaedia about New Zealand’s geography and people and a separate project about the significance and history of the haka.

CYBERWORLD also checks out the power behind the Huntly Power Station, introduces new Maori technological words and reviews Cabela’s new high-end game, Big Game Hunter. And, the series’ regular ‘cyber angel’ Te Aroma More leads viewers through the convenient and cost-effective world of internet banking.

CYBERWORLD screens this Monday May 30 at 6.00 PM.

Ends

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