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So I went away for a week’s holiday and while I was gone the Brits took a day off for a royal wedding that must have been a boon to hat makers; a tornado in the Auckland, New Zealand suburb of Albany killed a man; tornados in the US killed hundreds of people; Osama bin Laden was killed, and the New York Times stopped the presses:

It’s an overused phrase that is rarely used to mean exactly what it’s supposed to mean, but last night it literally happened: Someone gave the order to stop the presses. Eileen Murphy, Vice President of Corporate Communications at The New York Times, tells FishbowlNY that today’s papers were already being processed when the news of Bin Laden being killed broke.

“The news broke really late, and by that time we were already in the middle of the printing run,” she explains. “There was some discussion and because of the magnitude of the news, the order was given to stop the presses.”

She says that because the Times’ printing plant is highly efficient, they were able to act quickly. First, the front pages of the papers that were being printed were destroyed, and then, at approximately 12:45 am, the presses began to churn out the updated version. A total of 165,000 additional copies were printed to address the anticipated increased consumer demand.

Storify went into public beta “meaning anyone can go to http://storify.com and create an account to tell stories with social media”;  Yahoo! said YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen had acquired Delicious and would migrate accounts to AVOS, and Flattr wrote to say  they’ve changed the rules so you can use Flattr without having to sign up to a minimum contribution each month. Good move.

During my week away I came across a bat cave and learned that bat caves smell really bad…

…that I find bats kind of hard to photograph…

…and that crabs like bat droppings.

I learned that I can’t much tell the difference between regular coffee and coffee made from beans that have passed through the intestinal tract of a civet.

But mostly I lay around and read and looked out to sea. And I learned that that was very good indeed.

More please.

Update June 26, 2011

Christchurch buildings have been categorised according to damage level and suitability for repair. To check which zone your property is in and what that means for you, go to: landcheck.org.nz. You can enter your street address to get the details for your property and information on what to do next.

The categories are:

RED – There is significant and extensive area wide land damage; The success of engineering solutions may be uncertain in terms of design, it’s success and possible commencement, given the ongoing seismic activity; and Any repair would be disruptive and protracted for landowners.

ORANGE – engineers need to undertake further investigation

GREEN – homes are suitable for repair and rebuild

WHITE – These areas are still being mapped or are not residential; In the Port Hills, an extensive geotechnical investigation is underway; Land issues – rockfalls – are of a different nature than to those on the plains; No timeframes have been set for these areas.

Update  June 18 2011

This post is still coming up in search results for people looking for information on what’s open in Christchurch at the moment – after a recent swarm of after-shocks in June 2011.

There is financial and other assistance and support and counselling available via the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

This widget pulls in all #eqnz tweets over the past 24 hours:

This website, which I haven’t had a chance to explore properly, may be of some use in the weeks ahead.

Original post
I’ve started to notice people landing on this Christchurch earthquake post having searched for ‘whats open in Christchurch’.

That search term isn’t significant enough to register on Google Insights, although the search term Christchurch has beaten out Facebook (just) this week:

But it makes sense that people are starting to focus on what’s open rather than what’s closed now that 10 days have gone by since the quake.

While a great many people in Christchurch are still without power, water and plumbing, others have at least one of those fundamentals and are getting back online and trying to get back to business. At the same time, people who have left Christchurch since the quake want to know when it will make sense to return.

In the past few days I’ve spoken to a few members of allaboutthestory.com who live in Christchurch. One said his house was ruined and he has had to relocate to a family bach miles away for the foreseeable future. He has patchy internet access, no landline and is resigned to facing some big mobile phone bills.

Another said her house had been a mess inside but was structurally sound. They’ve had power for a week and her computer is working despite having thumped to the ground during the quake. They still don’t have running water but do have portaloos.

Attention turned to East Christchurch earlier this week after resident Peter Hyde highlighted in a powerful blog post how difficult it was for many people there without power, water or enough access to portaloos. He said many were also without transport, running out of batteries for their radios, running out of gas for their gas cookers (if indeed they had one), traipsing to friends’ houses for showers, sick of the dust rising off the liquefaction and generally having to camp in their own homes.

Peter’s post has now become a repository of local information about where you can find water, portaloos, where buses are running and so on with a good number of people contributing information. (Click on the resources link at the top of the blog or scroll to the bottom to find the links).

He is also linking to some other terrific volunteer-run services trying to help people in Christchurch find out what’s open in their area. Here are a couple of them.

Find (and contribute to) information on what’s open in Christchurch

The Christchurch Recovery Map (eq.org.nz) | A crowdsourced website that pulls together reports from Christchurch residents AND carries official information streams.

Webcentre.co.nz | Peter Hyde’s blogpost about what residents in East Christchurch are missing and a repository of resources and residents’ reports on what’s happening/not happening in their area.

Reserve Bank’s list of available ATMs and banks in Christchurch.

Information on Courts

Business.eq.org.nz | Pulling together requests for help and offers of help for IT businesses and businesses who need IT services in Christchurch.

Official information for residents

canterburyearthquake.org.nz | civil defence.govt.nz | up to date official information for residents including essential contact numbers on printable pdfs in English, Chinese, Maori and several other languages and an FAQ.

News website help pages

TVNZ | Information, donations and advice

nzherald.co.nz | News and links (look down righthand side of page for links).

stuff.co.nz | News and ‘What you need to know’.

tv3.co.nz | News and links.

There are many many more useful sites, links and numbers but these will get you started.

The Christchurch Recovery Map, eq.org.nz, is a great crowd-sourcing site helping people affected by the earthquake in Christchurch find out what’s open, what’s not, and get help with clean-up and getting businesses back up and running.

It’s interesting because it:

• lets citizens help other citizens
• is working with other services including Civil Defence, Google’s People Finder, TradeMe’s busy support page.
• lets people connect with it by text 5627, email eqnzfeb@gmail.com, Twitter hashtag #eqnz and through the site itself
• was only set up on Tuesday afternoon and is growing in reach and capability by the hour
• is run entirely by volunteers from seven countries
• is run on the Ushahidi platform
• aggregates official news and media streams alongside reports from residents on the ground

It’s truly amazing how quickly all of these online resources have been set up since the earthquake hit on Tuesday Feb 22 and even more amazing how well they are working together – thanks to a bunch of hard-working individuals and a whole lot of emails.

More about that later. In the meantime, lots of people still don’t have phones or the internet in Christchurch so call your local radio station and tell your networks about eq.org.nz.

Here are some quick facts and a press release.

QUICK FACTS

How can I report to eq.org.nz?

• Text to 5627. (It’s free on every network) (include your address if you’re asking for help)
• Email to eqnzfeb@gmail.com
• Post it on the site: http://eq.org.nz
• Tweet using the #eqnz hashtag
• Include #svajob hashtag if you are reporting a job for the Student Volunteer Army

What kind of help can I get/offer?

• Requests for work to be done. Please provide a street address, contact details and general description of the job that needs doing (eg clean up liquefaction)
• Updates on services and availability in your community (eg ‘John Smith: Hot food available at Frigate in Lyttleton Harbour).

What things should I report to eq.org.nz?

Things you have seen first-hand (not just heard about on the radio or Twitter) like:

• roads/tunnels/bridges/highways open/closed/blocked/damaged
• places people can access phones, internet, food, coffee, shelter, water, supplies, aid, medics
• shops/ATMs/supermarkets/pharmacies that are open
• the state of welfare/triage centres & hospitals
• areas of flooding/burst pipes
• details on what is happening with flights/transport in or out of Christchurch
• photos, media
• accommodation

PRESS RELEASE

Issued by Julie Starr for Christchurch Recovery Map – eq.org.nz

Thursday Friday 25, 2011

Christchurch Recovery Map helps people find medicine, food and get help clearing debris

Christchurch residents are using the Christchurch Recovery Map website, eq.org.nz, to find out where to buy food and get building supplies, medical help and petrol as a clean-up gets under way in the suburbs.

“We’re asking people to tell us where they are and what they see – if roads are blocked, which dairy is open, which Mitre 10 is open, which medical centre, where there are phones working and internet access,” said one of the website’s founders, Tim McNamara of Wellington.

The site has  processed more than 140,000 tweets posted on Twitter relating to the quake and many more texts, email and web submissions since it launched on Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve had a diabetic thank us for helping her find a supply of insulin, and parents finding out where they can buy food,” McNamara said.

It’s easy to file a report by texting shortcode 5627 (free on all networks), emailing eqnzfeb@gmail.com, tweeting with the #eqnz hashtag or submitting a simple form on the website. Sign up for an alert for information relating to your neighbourhood.

Those who need help clearing debris or getting errands run can contact the Student Volunteer Army (SVA) through the website at eq.org.nz/volunteer-army.

“We’re handling two types of information,” said Sam Rye of the SVA.

Requests for work to be done. Please provide a street address, contact details and general description of the job that needs doing (eg clean up liquefaction)

1. Updates on services and availability in your community (eg ‘John Smith: Hot food available at Frigate in Lyttleton Harbour).

“But please do not send requests for hazardous jobs or for emergencies. If a situation is life-threatening call 111,” said Rye.

More volunteers are welcome and can find out more about the SVA on its Facebook page.

There is also support for businesses on the site and links to accommodation services, TradeMe’s help page, Google’s People Finder and the site is working alongside Civil Defence efforts.

The website, which can now be accessed via the NZ Herald and Stuff websites as well as at eq.org.nz, is being run entirely by volunteers from seven countries with support from a team who ran a similar service after the Haiti earthquake and floods in Queensland, Australia.

Organiser Tim McNamara says the site couldn’t have got so far so quickly without help from sponsors.

“The site has been helped out by so many organisations. Some of the biggest, in no particular order, are Telecom, Vodafone and 2 Degrees for phone support, Catalyst IT for staff, Kestrel Group for expert advice, the google.org crisis response team, Victoria University of Wellington for somewhere to work from and CrisisCommons.org for the software and support.”

The website has been built using software developed by Ushahidi, a group who helped Kenyans report on post-election violence in 2008 and now offer software designed to help large populations collect, visualise, map and share information.

CONTACT DETAILS

To set up an interview with people behind the Christchurch Recovery Map, call Julie Starr on 021 828 568 or email Julie@allaboutthestory.com.

For direct comment, email Nat Torkington at nathan@torkington.com or call him on 021 428 052. Or call Josh Forde on 022 690 8829.

Last updated: 4pm Sunday Feb 27 2011

• Up to date information on what’s happening and what to do: http://canterburyearthquake.org.nz/ including printable pdfs of contact numbers in English, Chinese, Korean,
• NZ Civil Defence updates: http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/
• Find out what’s open: http://eq.org.nz/

Essential numbers from Civil Defence

• Earthquake Government Helpline: 0800 779 997
  A service for people requiring information on income support, housing options, health issues, community assistance, Civil Defence or any other government service.
• Healthline (24 hours): 0800 611 116
  The service is staffed by registered nurses who will assess your health needs, and give information and advice to help you decide on the best level of care.
• Earthquake Commission (EQC): 0800 DAMAGE (0800 326 243)
  For information on EQC’s insurance cover, cleaning up and making a claim.
• Christchurch City Council customer services: 03 941 8999
  For assessment of major structural damage to your home or business premises or for help with essential council services such as water supply or sewage disposal.
• Federated Farmers helpline: 0800 FARMING (0800 327 646)
  For information, advice and contacts for Canterbury farmers (weekdays 8.30am – 5pm).
• Business helpline: 0800 42 49 46
  Information for business owners.
• Christchurch International Airport: 0800 568 369

Raw news sources

• Ministry of Education updates on schools and whether/when they’re open:http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/Schools/SchoolOperations/CanterburyEarthquake/AnnouncementsAndUpdates.aspx
• Highways and road closures: http://nzta.govt.nz/traffic/current-conditions/highway-info/road/8373/south-island.html
• Traffic and road updates via the AA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/AA_traffic
• NZ Police news updates: http://www.police.govt.nz/news
• GeoNet earthquake details: http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3468630g.html
• Red Cross NZ: http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php

• Up to date information on what’s happening and what to do: http://canterburyearthquake.org.nz/
• NZ Civil Defence updates: http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/
• This outlines the National Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan 2006 http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/For-the-CDEM-Sector-Publications-The-Guide?OpenDocument

Find People

• Red Cross missing persons service: Call 0800 733 276 (0800 RED CROSS).
• People enquiring from outside New Zealand can call the RED CROSS on  +64 7 850 2199.
• Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade emergency hotline for those with family and friends in NZ 1300 555 135
• Google’s People Finder for Christchurch #eqnz: http://eq.org.nz/finder
• There is an #eqnzContact hashtag. Here is #eqnzContact search on Google. This is #eqnzContact search on Twitter.
• @safeinchch has been handling tweets about people who have come through #eqnz okay

Find Accommodation

• Emergency housing help from Ministry of Housing: http://www.housinghelp.govt.nz/
• Quakebeds.org.nz has a list of services matching accommodation requests with offers of help:  http://www.quakebeds.org.nz/
• TradeMe support page: http://www.trademe.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake-support

Find help if you’ve left Christchurch

Help available for ethnic communities from Ministry of Ethnic Affairs: http://www.ethnicaffairs.govt.nz/oeawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Whats-Happening-Message-Board-Regional-help-for-ethnic-people-affected-by-the-earthquake?OpenDocument

Medical & Health

• Ministry of Health: http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/christchurch-earthquake
• Healthline (24 hours): 0800 611 116

‘What’s open in Christchurch’

• Find out what’s working and what’s not in your neighbourhood on:  http://eq.org.nz/main. Get alerts for your neighbourhood and report on what you can see that’s broken or damaged, if roads are blocked or drains open, what shops are open, which gas stations have petrol and so on. Text 5627, email eqnzfeb@gmail.com or post on the site http://eq.org.nz

• TradeMe’s help page covering help offered, accommodation, fundraising and more: http://www.trademe.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake-support

• @stuffnz‘s What You Need to Know: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/what-you-need-to-know/4692248/What-you-need-to-know
• @nzherald‘s What You Need to Know: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502981&objectid=10708023

CrowdSourcing  & Aggregations

• Neighbourhood damage and what shops etc are open are being reported on CrowdMap: http://eq.org.nz/main
• Law Society resources for Christchurch:   http://www.lawsociety.org.nz/home/earthquake_assistance
• CrisisCamp NZ wiki collating links and information: http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/CrisisCampNZ
• TradeMe support page: http://www.trademe.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake-support
• Tracking quake and aftershocks: http://quake.crowe.co.nz/
• TrendsMap – tweets, maps etc: http://trendsmap.com/local/new+zealand

Radio

• Radio New Zealand news page: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/canterbury-earthquake/69180/deaths-confirmed-as-huge-quake-hits-christchurch
• Radio New Zealand National news feed: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/live/national/adaptive.asx

News sites

• Stuff.co.nz. Stuff’s running report:http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4709882/Christchurch-quake-latest-updates
• NZHerald.co.nz Herald’s latest updates:http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10709068
• TV3 latest updates:http://www.3news.co.nz/National/ChristchurchEarthquake/tabid/1438/Default.aspx
• NBR latest updates: http://nbr.co.nz/article/big-earthquake-hits-south-island-mn-86648
• TVNZ latest updates: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/live-updates-christchurch-earthquake-sunday-4040854
• NewstalkZB latest updates: http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=191359
• Scoop.co.nz: http://www.scoop.co.nz/
• Whitireia journalism students’ latest updates on Newswire: http://www.newswire.co.nz/2011/02/christchurch-earthquake-day-three/
• ReadWriteWeb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/eqnz_the_web_mobilizes_for_new_zealand_earthquake.php

Useful Twitter Accounts

@ChristchurchCC

@telecomNZ

@CHC_Airport

@aa_traffic

@NZcivildefence

@CanterburyEM

@Police_NZ

@ECan

@geonet

@orcon

@vodafoneNZ

@flyairnz

@nzredcross

@PlunketNZ

Images

• Images posted on Twitter: http://hashalbum.com/eqnz

Video

• Try this YouTube search.

A few pics from the taping of a  Media7 #Webstock special in Wellington last week. It’ll be airing soon – check for details here.

Doug Bowman, Marco Arment and Tom Coates

Doug Bowman and Tom Coates

Amanda Palmer gets wired for sound

Amanda Palmer warms up the ukelele

The set for the Media7 Webstock special

Amanda Palmer and a pleased-looking Russell Brown

The audience

Peter Sunde

A great post from Paul Ford at ftrain about ‘the fundamental question of the web’.

He considers media in terms of “questions answered”.

Here’s one question: “I’m bored, and I want to get out of the house and have an experience, possibly involving elves or bombs. Where do I go?”

The answer: You could go to a movie.

Here’s another: “How do I distract myself without leaving the house?”

You might turn on the TV.

Each medium has a niche – sitcoms work on TV, long-form investigative writing in newspapers, for example.

When it arrived the web seemed to fill all of those niches at once. The web was surprisingly good at emulating a TV, a newspaper, a book, or a radio… people in the newspaper industry saw the web as a newspaper. People in TV saw the web as TV, and people in book publishing saw it as a weird kind of potential book.

But the web is not just some kind of magic all-absorbing meta-medium. It’s its own thing. And like other media it has a question that it answers better than any other. That question is: Why wasn’t I consulted?

Later in the piece he talks about the web NOT being a publishing medium.

The web is a customer service medium. “Intense moderation” in a customer service medium is what “editing” was for publishing.

Create a service experience around what you publish and sell. Whatever “customer service” means when it comes to books and authors, figure it out and do it. Do it in partnership with your readers. Turn your readers into members. Not visitors, not subscribers; you want members. And then don’t just consult them, but give them tools to consult amongst themselves.

A recommended read.

One of the great things about attending a workshop is that you give yourself time to focus on one thing for a while.

And in the case of a Webstock workshop, there’s also the comfort that comes with realising that other people have spreadsheets of ideas kicking around on their laptops. Not little scraps of notes, or post-it notes on a whiteboard, but spreadsheets organised into columns and rows and sections with shading and emphasis. Phew. Not just me, then.

I was in a workshop today with David McCandless, the London-based data journalist behind Information is Beautiful, who’s here to speak at the Webstock conference in Wellington this week (Feb 14-18 2011).

Early on he showed us a spreadsheet he’d used while working up ideas for his book Information is Beautiful – a process that worked through eliminations, to defining simple questions to answer, and on to answering them and presenting the information visually in a way that informed rather than baffled.

He talked about the power of boredom, ignorance, bewilderment and frustration (perhaps with a news story) as spurs to find out more, make it interesting, make it relevant and compelling.

He talked about the need for:

We got into small groups to come up with 10 concepts we’d like to understand more about. What a relief to sit for an hour and hash out ideas  - and actually get past the fleeting-idea-while-doing-something-else stage. Was impressed by the kinds of concepts and breadth of them.  Got to love the way people think.

Later we sketched out ways for visualising the ideas – more challenging than it sounds. My biggest problem was narrowing down the focus of what I was trying to communicate. Nothing new under the sun, eh.

Taking away quite a bit to think about. So, thanks David.

I’m going to be taking a few notes this week  and will be posting them here (it’s a TiddlyWiki, which is still my preferred notepad for conferences since it allows me to update as I go and organise navigation as I go). They’re very rough notes, but you’re welcome to have a look if you’re interested.

A wrap of stories/posts looking at how recent unrest in Egypt has been covered by media and how technology old and new has been adapted to keep Egyptians connected with the rest of the world.

Google enables speak-to-tweet service for Egypt

Google Blog | Jan 31

Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection. We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

How Journalists Are Using Social Media to Report on the Egyptian Demonstrations

Mashable | Vadim Lavrusik | Jan 31

Pundits have been weighing in on the role of social media in sparking the uprising, and whether it is a necessary ingredient in accelerating modern revolutions or simply an over-hyped notion. In some respects, the attempt to block communication has done little to stifle reports coming out of the country. Though much of the citizenry isn’t able to broadcast themselves, their stories are being told and amplified by reporters. What’s interesting is that the information flowing out is a hybrid of the “old school” reliance on reports from journalists on location and “new school” amplification through the social web.

Old technology finds role in Egyptian protest

BBC | Jan 31

Fax machines, ham radio and dial-up modems are helping to avoid the net block imposed on Egypt. On 27 January, Egypt fell off the internet as virtually all international connections were cut following an order from the government. But older technologies proved their worth as net activists and protesters used them to get round the block. Protesters are also circulating information about how to avoid communication controls inside Egypt.

China blocks ‘Egypt’ searches on micro-blogging sites

BBC World Service | Jan 31

The continuing anti-government protests in Egypt appear to have sparked some nervousness in China. The authorities have blocked searches for the Chinese word for Egypt on micro-blogging sites, similar to Twitter. (Radio interview)

MoJo’s Egypt explainer: future-of-context ideas in action

Nieman Journalism Lab | Megan Garber | Jan 28

This week’s unrest in Egypt brings new relevance to an old question: How do you cover an event about which most of your readers have little or no background knowledge? Mother Jones has found one good way to do that. Its national politics reporter, Nick Baumann, has produced a kind of on-the-fly topic page about this week’s uprising, featuring a running description of events fleshed out with background explanation, historical context, multimedia features, and analysis.

Egypt shuts down al-Jazeera operations

Guardian | Ian Black | Jan 30

Egypt shut down the operations of the Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera, blaming it for encouraging the country’s uprising – and demonstrating that the repressive powers of central government are still functioning. The state-run Mena news agency reported that the information ministry had ordered “suspension of operations of al-Jazeera, cancelling of its licences and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff, as of today”.

Al-Jazeera journalists arrested in Egypt

Guardian | Josh Halliday | Jan 31

Egyptian authorities today arrested six al-Jazeera journalists as the government continues its media crackdown after a week of political protest in the country. The journalists were arrested and had their cameras and other broadcasting equipment seized by the military in Cairo earlier today, according to the satellite TV channel’s United Arab Emirates correspondent in Egypt, Dan Nolan. Al-Jazeera later reported that Nolan and five other reporters were being detained by police. The six reporters were released around one hour after they were arrested, al-Jazeera later confirmed. However, their equipment remains in the possession of the police.

BBC protests at police assault on its Cairo correspondent

Guardian | Roy Greenslade | Jan 28

The BBC is to make an official protest to the Egyptian authorities after one of its journalists was assaulted by police in Cairo today. Assad Sawey, the BBC’s Cairo correspondent, was deliberately assaulted by police while reporting on a baton charge during the street protests. When surrounded by men who appeared to be plain clothes security men, he identified himself as a BBC journalist. He was repeatedly hit, taking blows to the head. He reported that they beat him with steel bars, “the ones used here for slaughtering animals.” His camera was confiscated and he was arrested. After being released without charge, he received medical attention for a head wound, and then continued reporting.

CNN | Jan 31

Ahead of "million man march" in #Egypt Tues, Information Ministry says it will shut down all mobile phone networks

February 1, 2011 11:56 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@wolfblitzercnn

Wolf Blitzer

NZ Herald | Hamish Fletcher | Feb 1

Vodafone New Zealand has taken on more than 100 extra workers after unrest in Egypt temporarily closed down its Cairo call centre. About 180 staff are employed in the centre, which provides customer service for Vodafone’s prepaid and on-account consumer customers. Vodafone New Zealand has three call centres in Auckland and one based in Cairo. Two Vodafone New Zealand staff and their families, who were based in Cairo, were evacuated over the weekend. Local Egyptian workers are being advised to stay at home.