Local software developers will be building paper-saving tools for three Queenstown community organisations in a recently-launched initiative.

Run by Startup Queenstown Lakes and funded through the council’s economic diversification fund, Community Tech Lab is a win-win for community organisations and developers.

Programme chair Giovanni Stephens, a local software engineer, says “there are probably 1000-odd charities running in this district and often they’re running on the smell of an oily rag — volunteers pushing paper and working on spreadsheets”.

“On the other hand, we’ve got all these software developers that have some interest in getting involved in the community — the district has good people early in their careers who almost never get paid local work with real users.

“And I thought, ‘why not join them up?’.”

Sixty community groups have applied to have software tools built at no cost to them — they’ll be whittled down to three by September 24.

Then, over five weeks, three teams of two — a senior developer paired with a junior developer — will build tools for these lucky organisations.

The programme manager for these teams will be Queenstown Resort College tech ambassador, Pradeesh Parameswaran.

“The goal, if possible, is to come up with three solutions that would serve more than just three groups, like, 10 groups,” Stephens says.

“If it goes well, I think there’s a lot of potential to keep doing it on a yearly basis.”