Over the next two months we'll be featuring the finalists from each category in the 2021 New Zealand Open Source Awards, preceding the February 2022 gala dinner and award announcements. Congratulations to all the finalists, and we look forward to celebrating all your valuable work at the gala dinner!
Open Source Software Project
Kaupapa Pūmanawa Herekore
Mahara Project
The Mahara ePortfolio project celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2021. The project has grown from humble beginnings to an open source project in use around the world by institutions of learning and increasingly other organisations who support the project with new features.
The Mahara project is an example of an open source platform created and still largely maintained in Aotearoa New Zealand that has travelled the world and can be found on all continents (except Antarctica).
In Aotearoa, Mahara is used in the tertiary sector in at least four major universities (Massey University, University of Waikato, AUT, University of Auckland), several polytechnics, e.g. Open Polytechnic, Weltec Whitireia, Wintec, Otago Polytechnic, and numerous district health boards across the country. Internationally, the Mahara project has been in use for many years in secondary and tertiary institutions in Europe, Canada and the U.S.A., Japan, Australia, South Africa, and many other countries.
Silverstripe CMS for the Silverstripe CMS
Silverstripe CMS continues to be the pillar for many digital channels across the private and public sector in New Zealand. Its open source and free to use software means it can be used to create a website in a matter of hours for a small or not-for-profit organisation; while it's also trusted by enterprise-sized companies like a number of NZ banks.
Since 2013 it continues to be the first choice for the public sector in NZ – now making up over 200 websites, serving the needs of NZ citizens. This software is responsible for a lot across the New Zealand government’s Common Web Platform, including over half a million published pages, 850,000 form submissions, supporting the shift to digital channels throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and allowing over 13,900 authors to publish to the web.
Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand Basemap Service
Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand is the public service department of New Zealand charged with geographical information and surveying functions as well as handling land titles, and managing Crown land and property.
LINZ is developing a free, open source, high quality basemap service providing an authoritative source of up-to-date New Zealand aerial imagery, as well as soon-to-be-integrated NZ Topo50/250 maps.
The code is released under an MIT licence, and all of the content is released under Creative Commons. The code is being developed 'in the open' using modern code management tools to mitigate vulnerabilities and security issues.