Tim McNamara

A few of my friends have recently asked, “So, I’m in Auckland for the weekend, what should I do?

Saturday

AM, experience some nature

Skip breakfast at the hotel. Take a short drive to Kokako, where the food is much more interesting and the coffee much better.

Your Saturday will be a day outside. Most people would probably recommend a beach like Piha – and for good reason, it’s amazing – but I would choose Bethells Beach/Te Henga. It’s less developed and more down to earth. Take a relaxing walk to the cave. Bring cash and you’ll be able to experience the amazing pizza from the food truck for a late-morning brunch.

Once the food’s settled in, there are a number of really interesting bush walks/hikes in the area. One of the nicest, and also somewhat historic, is the Upper Nihotupu Dam walk. The drive from Bethells will weave you through some of New Zealand’s finest native bush.

PM, back to the city

Queen St is pretty drab, but there are some really nice places in Auckland’s central city if you care to look.

Park the car back at where you’re staying, have a shower then head down to Imperial Lane to hang out for a while. It’s spacious, yet intimate.

For dinner, you’ll find plenty of places to eat around there on Fort Street. My pick would be Velvet Burger. Once you’re done, head down to Britomart and ask for directions to Milse. It’s a tiny little dessert bar that you’ll love.

If you feel like a few drinks, Vultures’ Lane or Cassette would be great places to start. After a drink or two, hike up Queens St and have the nicest gelato you’ve tasted at Giapo (recently rated as 10th in the world). Then get a taxi to Ponsonby. Enjoy.

Sunday

We did nature yesterday, so it’s culture today.

For breakfast, you should start the day easy with guaranteed good food. Get yourself to the the Fed.

Your next stop is the Auckland Art Gallery. As well as having lovely architecture, it’s a great size. It has an excellent collection, without being so large that it demands 4 hours or more of your time. Do have a drink on the balcony. It’s really lovely out there, as you are practically in the tree canopy.

If you’re into art, there are a number of independent galleries in the area, including the Gow Langsford. Oh and perhaps pop down to High Street and hunt down Unity Books.

A 10-15 minute drive south is the suburb of Mt Eden. I recommend having lunch at Circus Circus, but anywhere around there will do. Once you’ve eaten, drive up the summit and enjoy the view. If you’re in a Kiwi mood, perhaps skip café food, and order fish & chips then take it up to the summit.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum is a very nice place to visit. Well, unless it’s really sunny. In which case, I would recommend driving further and relaxing at Mission Bay. Perhaps or rent a bike or a kayak at Fergs.

Spend a little bit of time in the Mission Bay area. Perhaps grab a drink. For dinner, pop into the car around and head around a few more bays until you reach St Heiliers Bay Café and Bistro.

One element of New Zealand’s Science in Society (née Science and Society) project that has impressed me is creating a framework for large citizen science projects.

One idea that’s been suggested in a few meetings I’ve attended has been gathering to collect temperature and humidity data from everyone’s home. Neat idea, but…

…in my view using ‘citizen scientists’ as data sources only, either as sensors or worker bees only (e.g. Galaxy Zoo), reinforces a divide between the participant and the scientist. The citizen scientists are not able to participate as peers through the scientific process. They’re just inputs. The science comes later.

Some suggestions to ensure that everyone is genuinely involved:

• Ensure that the datasets produced are openly licenced (CC-0) and freely accessible. Everything else flows from this.
• Get students working directly with the raw data. We want students to learn the issues that come from a) poor data provenance and b) needing to release your data openly
• Create open hardware sensors. Students from around the country will iterate to create the best. Exposes students to a) variability of sensor readings, e.g. margins of error, b) electronics, c) software
• Explore developing open format(s) for these sensors. This gets students: a) learning the difficulty in representing information, b) usability/efficiency trade offs - managing limited bandwidth, c) persuasion in distributed teams - navigating management by committee to create the standard
• Get students to create the repository. Don’t hand them a website/analytics portal. Student will learn a) requirements gathering, b) building tech for a wide audience, c) benefits of open source and collaboration
• Create a hashtag for project write-ups etc (in previous centuries, this would have been read 'establish a journal’)

If you’re worried about the students that just want to engage in part of the process - that’s totally fine, they’re not disadvantaged. The trick is making sure that there is no ceiling for opportunities that could arise from this data.

Sidenote: We already have these sensors in many people’s home. All we need to do is convince HRV and others to open up their API to their devices.