Describe your experience
in engaging the community in initiatives of similar size, scope
and nature.
KNET is a horizontally
integrated clearinghouse for addressing Indigenous telecommunications
issues, infrastructures and applications in the Nishnawbe-Aski
Nation - an overview of community projects is available at: http://www.knet.on.ca.
As the telecom arm of Keewaytinook Okimakanak, KNET assumes a
leadership position facilitating technology projects, distributing
electronic services, and developing new media content.
The KNET Services
team has coordinated broadly-based projects aimed at improving
the quality and level of telecommunications services available
in First Nations - see 3.4 ORGANIZATION. KNET has been instrumental
in demonstrating the practical value of communications applications
in First Nations. KNET's success is based on its proximity to
emerging community needs, its commitment to pragmatic system-based
solutions, and by its capacity to support early adopters in their
use of new technologies and applications. KNET provides HelpDesk
Services to 60 First Nations SchoolNet sites, manages annual Science
and Technology Camps for Aboriginal youth, and hosts computer-mediated
conferences with groups such as the Ontario First Nation Principals.
In addition, KNET has developed on-line learner resources such
as the DirecPC Manual and the Webpage Development Guide.
In 1994, KNET introduced
a text-based BBS service and provided intensive training for its
community members. The service grew from a gated training application
in to a regional messaging system. The BBS forums are still an
active and accessible resource. In 1996, KNET launched a web-based
e-mail service to animate adoption of improved internet access.
The KNET mail server hosts 3,328 clients in remote communities
- clients include adults and children, administrators, leaders,
teachers and health professionals.
In 1998, KNET responded
to First Nations interest in telehealth by brokering a partnership
among the Communications Research Centre, Health Canada, the Ottawa
Heart Institute, Computing Devices Canada, and the Margaret Cochenour
Memorial Hospital in Red Lake. The application was positively
evaluated and is now part of the hospital's cardiological protocol.
This summer KNET initiated
a telepsychiatry pilot partnership with Health Canada, Nodin Counselling,
the London Psychiatric Hospital and Virtual Professionals Incorporated
(VPI). Counsellors, health professionals, and clients in Sioux
Lookout and Red Lake are now using the VPI interface for therapeutic
and professional development purposes. Both projects are demonstrating
how Canadian information technologies and applications can effectively
deliver knowledge-intensive expertise in remote First Nations
settings.
