Designed for Good: Community Well-Being Oriented Online Databases for Youth - Community-Built Databases: Research and Development - page 297

In spite of the numerous interactive and informative features of UNICEF's
website, there are still a few areas worth mentioning that require enhancement:
l Content focuses on global youth issues and not enough on local youth issues
l Insufficient localised country-specific information
l Insufficient features that allow youth to customise/personalise the page to
according to their preferences
l Insufficient governance controls in place
l Difficulty in combining data stored in underlying database with community-built
databases in other popular youth web spaces, e.g., it would be useful if the
comments they make on this web space were to be available for their peers to see
on their Facebook page.
12.4.2 Aotearoa Youth Voices
Aotearoa Youth Voices is a New Zealand-based initiative whose primary purpose is
stated as providing ways to get young people's voices heard. In keeping with this
aim, the web space provides many opportunities for youth to have their voices heard
in the local and national spheres of the government. As this web space is part of the
Ministry of Youth Development website, there is much rhetoric surrounding how
the ministry can be used as a vehicle for youth participation and thus empowerment.
There is an immense amount of information on how to participate on a local and
national level but the level of features providing this participation is not really
present. This web space encompasses only two types of web spaces for youth,
information provisional and community. There are elements of interactivity where
youth are able to send emails and message to their local councils and to the Minister
of Youth Affairs. It is information provisional in so far as it provides extensive
information on local and global laws and policies that affect youth. And lastly, it is
community oriented in so far as it provides a discussion forum for members only
where network members can come together and discuss what they have been doing
in terms of youth action projects, as well as gain feedback on other topics and issues
of interest. As mentioned previously, the content of this website is focused on
getting young people's voices heard through a variety of means.
In comparison with the UNICEF website, this website is seriously lacking in
terms of interactivity, quality and content.
l There is no information on youth-related issues as identified in the literature
review
l Despite there being plenty of information on how to take action in one's
community, the help provided is a bit confusing
l The format of how to use the community and participation tools is not very clear
l There are no collaborative tools enabling youth to come together to create an
artefact