I’ve been complaining about the RNZ website for quite some time now, and although they’re finally streaming online (thanks to the new-look RIANZ), the site is still a million miles from what it should be.

There are no archives to speak of, scant and sometimes outdated or incomplete information about programmes and schedules, no syndication feeds, no opportunity for time-shifting, no host profiles, no supplementary material, almost no interactivity, no inclusion of easily-missed broadcast information such as weather, traffic, or even RNZ News, poor navigability, proprietary streaming formats with compatibility issues… the list goes on.

It’s entirely unacceptable – and I’m sick of this.

So let’s build it for them.

I love RNZ to bits – but I don’t think the New Zealand public is being served by Radio New Zealand’s website, and rather than continue to throw stones from the sidelines – I want to do something about it.

Rather than put up with the existing RNZ website, I think we should build them one that does what it’s supposed to. Wanna help?

I’m not a webdesigner, and I’m not a software coder – but I do spend a lot of my time analysing radio and music industry online services, and I think I have a few ideas about how a public broadcaster’s site should be structured – as well as some of the core principles and central features it should have.

Nor do I have a lot of time on my hands. You’re probably the same yourself. But I think I could chip in a little bit of work from time to time in the interests of fixing RNZ.

So – I hereby propose a voluntary community effort from anyone who’s interested in improving the online identity of our public broadcaster. A kind of ongoing working bee to make a decent RNZ website in an open source / creative commons fashion.

I got part of the way toward this idea when I first wrote about the possibility of a second-tier public broadcasting system back in March.

This takes the idea further, and has the potential to incorporate the ideals of the civic journalism and grass-roots radio platform I proposed (and I quote):

It should encourage participation.
It should encourage innovation.
It should seek to further the public interest.
It should enable new programme-makers.
It should form part of a Digital Creative Archive.
It should be free from commercial or political pressure.
It should be free from restrictions of scheduling and duration.
It should be free from the concerns of populism.
It should be free to be popular.
It should work to increase accessibility for all New Zealanders.
It should generate, enhance and promote New Zealand culture.

But instead of making a whole new public broadcasting system, why not instead contribute to the existing one? It is ours, after all…

If you’re so inclined – and you have some sort of skill or professional talent that may be able to help out – drop me a line and let me know. Email me at fixrnz@gmail.com and maybe we can start a conversation that will lead to some action.

We’re going to need graphic artists, web developers, writers, anyone with audio editing skills, academics, broadcasters, IT people, anyone with spare bandwidth or server space, digital culture columnists, Creative Commons advocates, funders, members of the Open Source software community – you name it, we’re going to need it.

I want to make something that RNZ will want to get involved with and put their name to. I want them to adopt an open source, public service mindset. I want for them to donate their content. Whatever they have the rights to. New or old. Whatever format they’ve got it in.

They’ve spent too long fretting about bandwidth costs, storage space, and the costs and work-hours involved in archival digitisation – but that’s only because they’ve been expecting to do it all themselves. On the internet, we can spread the load. Online, distribution trumps scarcity.

I want the site to be simple, easily updated, comprehensive, current, maintained, distributed, well-stocked and ever-expanding. An effective promoter and distributor of Radio New Zealand programming, an effective replicator and promoter of New Zealand culture and (of course) entirely non-commercial.

It will grow organically, and be informed by new input on issues of accessibility, compatibility, function and design. It will naturally adopt technologies such as RSS feeds and podcasting – and demystify them to the everyday listener. It will complement, enhance and effectively promote all of the radio output of the organisation.

It will be informed by the principles laid out in the organisation’s charter, and seek to further the organisation’s goals.

It will be a mammoth effort, but I’ve seen amazing things happen this way. Just look at Wikipedia.

And apart from anything else, if even remotely successful, this would be a first. A national public broadcaster’s web presence built in collaboration with that nation’s public.

The BBC’s Backstage project has a similar principle behind it – and we could draw a good deal from it – but this is something entirely new: a wiki-built website, if you like.

FIX RNZ: Let’s call it a movement. You could print t-shirts, if you want… but mostly, I just want your like-minded enthusiasm, any thoughts you might have and skills you could offer – however infrequently.

And if you know somebody that might be interested in helping out, send them a copy of this, direct them to the blog, or just tell them to email fixrnz@gmail.com.

Thanks.