Island Hopping in Raipaya
Stay in touch across communities
Difficult terrain
The South Pacific nation of Raipaya has eleven communities spread over nine islands - a nightmare for tribal administrator Matami Opu.
High tech answers
At least it was. Now that all Raipaya communities are hooked up to Skype (free internet phone service) and New Earth Village, things are different.
“We do 90% of our governance, planning and training activities through Skype and New Earth Village,” reports Opu.
How we do it
“We place the documents we want to talk about in our New Earth Village wiki, then meet by Skype conference call to discuss them and make group changes. It’s quick and costs us nothing.
The end result
My travel time is way down and our productivity is way up. Not only that, we have all these inspiring and helpful conversations with indigenous peoples all over the world. It’s amazing. I love it.”
The Point:
Technologies are now available to many indigenous communities that can reduce administrative costs and increase communication and coordinated effort among tribal communities.
