Wellington Community Net (WCN) is a free website hosting service for community groups and organisations based in the Wellington region.

History

In 1996 the Wellington City Council (WCC) and the National 2020 Communications Trust identified the need for all citizens in the Wellington region to have access to education, information and communication resources to help make the region a better place to live, learn, grow and prosper.

It was decided this would be achieved by "... providing an independent communications network for the Wellington region, providing people (with) worldwide access to education, information and communication resources, promoting participation in civic life and enhancing the community socially, culturally and economically. This network was to include a community website hosting system, to be known as the Wellington Community Net (WCN)".

WCN was formally launched in December 2000 by Wellington Mayor Mark Blumsky.

The responsibility for managing and operating WCN was transferred to the Wellington Region 2020 Communications Trust (Wellington ICT) when the Trust was established in 2002.

Wellington City Council decided to cease funding for WCN in 2009 so at that point WCN's future was in serious doubt. Due to this decision, Wellington ICT decided they could not carry on with WCN and therefore it would be closed down in June 2010.

A number of WCN members, including the former WCN Coordinator, thought that WCN was too valuable to close down and so they came up with a proposal to take over the running of WCN. Initial approaches to WCC/Wellington ICT were received well as this would be a win for everyone. However, and quite rightly, WCC/Wellington ICT were not going to hand WCN over to a loose group of individuals so a transition plan was prepared and agreed to and a new trust was formed - Wellington Community Net Trust (WCNT).

WCC and Wellington ICT agreed to release all the assets and intellectual property to the new Trust and on July 1st 2010, all responsibility for managing and operating WCN was handed over to WCNT

However, WCNT could not have done this without the sponsorship of New Zealand School of Business and Government who very graciously offered us free hosting for the WCN server. We are particularly grateful to Grant Hodgson and Michael James of SBG for their support in this matter.

We are also grateful to two WCC Councillors, Celia Wade-Brown and Ngaire Best, who helped and encouraged us take over the running of WCN.