The March 18 Smart Fair in Aylmer, Ontario was hosted by Elgin Connects included an on-line presentation about the Kuhkenah Network (K-Net) using a dial up connection and the K-Net's new Breeze presentation platform.

Indigenous people from around the world gathered together on-line to share their stories and experiences with each other. The conference started with a video conferenced opening ceremony which was webcast over the net and included participants from across Canada and a team from New Zealand. The on-line meetings and presentations included guests and presenters from around the world.

Tomorrow's agenda (click here to view) promises to be just as exciting beginning with guests from Africia and the United States. Be sure to call into the different sessions by clicking here to get your telephone number and meeting passcode so you can listen and ask questions.

All the sessions and presentations from today's gathering are now archived and available for everyone's viewing (see below for links to these sessions).

• Opening An interactive videoconference opening the conference involving Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff and our partners in ICT development. This event will also be webcast and accessible via the Gathering Home Page.
  Windows Media - Broadband Video - 300Kps
• Keynote Address
  Managing ICT Development from the ground up
  North Spirit Lake e-Centre Manager Darlene Rae offers a personal overview of her work in ICT development in remote communities in Northern Ontario since 1995. View Archived Presentation
• Community e-Centre Managers Forum
  What the SMART Project has meant in our community
  This forum features e-Centre Managers Oscar Meekis , Madeleine Stoney , Raymond Mason , Darlene Rae , and Susan Owen who high light in video and slides the rollout and impact of the SMART project in each of their communities. View Archived Presentation
• Computers in Homes
  Kasmira Warbrooke and Melody Hare, Tuhoe Education Authority, Aotearoa, New Zealand View Archived Presentation
• Using ICTs to strengthen the training of bilingual Mayan teachers: Lessons learned from Enlace Quiché.
  Domingo Camaja Santay and Andrew Lieberman. Enlace Quiche, Santa Cruz del Quiche, Guatemala (Bilingüe en español y en ingles) View Archived Presentation
• Cultural Repurposing and its Issues
  Peter Radoll, PhD Candidate, Information Technology Department, Australian National University, staff - Information Systems School  View Archived Presentation
• Telecentro TIC Calamarca
  Armando Lara Godoy, Operations Manager, AES Communications, SA, Bolivia and Gunter Zetesche, foundatino Eco Pueblo (Bilingüe en español y en ingles) View Archive

On Tuesday morning, the Lunenburg Queens IT Smart Fair 2004 in Nova Scotia included an IP based video conference with the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Sioux Lookout office. An interactive discussion about the use of ICTs in community development took place with an audience of over 100 community members.

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Sioux Lookout, Ontario

102 people from all over the world have registered for Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s (KO) International SMART Communities Gathering Wednesday and Thursday this week (March 17 and 18). The conference, which explores Indigenous communities’ use of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) in development, will take place entirely online.

Participants will log onto the conference website (http://smart.knet.ca/international) to view, listen to, and respond to the presenters. Everyone, including those who have registered along with visitors to website, can participate through the Internet using K-Net’s on-line meeting platform The conference opening and closing sessions will be live video conferences that will be webcast so everyone can watch and contribute via live chat sessions. All sessions will be archived for people to view at their convenience.

"This conference gathers together the best of KO’s SMART project and uses the best technology available to bring Indigenous communities from around the world together," said Brian Beaton, K-Net Services Coordinator.

Keewaytinook Okimakanak ("Northern Chiefs") Executive Director Geordi Kakepetum leads the work of the six First Nation Chiefs Council. From his office in Balmertown he sums up his organization’s work in ICT development: "In the early 90's, when I was the chief in Keewaywin First Nation, we were busy building our community. We had no telephones. Telephone service in Keewaywin was finally installed to the organizations and homes at the end of 2000. Some of the homes in Keewaywin were connected to the Internet before they had telephones. We are now able to host and deliver an international conference from our own communities. I understand that we have people registered for this conference from six continents from around world. This is truly an exciting opportunity for our organization and the communities we serve."

Conference Keynotes are

• Darlene Rae, e-Centre Manager for North Spirit Lake: Managing ICT Development from the Ground Up
• Heather Hudson, Professor of Communications, University of San Francisco: Bridging the Broadband Divide: Strategies for Rural and Developing Regions

There will also be five presenters from indigenous communities on three continents, including:

• Kasmira Warbrooke and Melody Hare from Tuhoe, New Zealand, on that community’s Computers in Homes project
• Domingo Camaja Santay and Andrew Lieberman from el Quiché, Guatemala, on Using ICTs to Strengthen the Training of Mayan Teachers: Lessons Learned from Enlace Quiché
• Lekoko Ole Sululu from Arusha, Tanzania, on Linking Transitional Maasai Villages to the Global Community.

The e-Centre managers from the five KO communities – Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake, and Poplar Hill – will speak in an online forum describing the way they have used ICTs to improve secondary education, health service delivery, and community development in their communities. K-Net staff will discuss specific aspects of the SMART project.

The Gathering is the culminating event for KO’s SMART First Nations Demonstration project. The SMART project is a three-year initiative led by the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Council in partnership with the government of Canada that blends community leadership with technological innovation. Together – with everyone – the Kuh-ke-nah First Nations are defining a new network of community development, opportunity and wellness.

For more information, contact:

Brian Beaton, K-Net Services Coordinator (807) 737-1135 ext. 51251
Geordi Kakepetum, Keewaytinook Okimakanak Executive Director (807) 735-1381

Conference website: www.smart.knet.ca/international

Keewaytinook Okimakanak website: www.knet.ca

Journalists who would like to participate in the conference should contact John Rowlandson (jrowlandson@telus.net) to receive Presentation access codes.

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Minogaaboweta

"Journey to Wellness"

Residential Schools Spring Gathering

Kenora, Ontario

Best Western Lakeside Inn

March 31, April 1, 2, 2004

The number of e-mail messages that contain infected attachments is increasing at an alarming rate. These messages are flooding everyone's inbox and creating problems for the K-Net mail server to handle all these messages.

The only way to prevent these viruses from spreading further is to make sure everyone's computer has an up-to-date virus protection program. Please run an anti-virus protection program (for example, Norton or McAfee) to make sure your computer is not infected with these viruses. Then keep these programs updated to make sure you are protected against any incoming viruses.

Luke Sainnawap from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug shares his experience ...

"The program I find that helps me a lot is Trend - scan online [found at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/] - it is a free on-line virus scanner.

The netsky virus causes so much damage to one computer that I had to totally reformat it and reinstall XP. The music filing sharing is the killer - kaaza is a deadly program for computers. ... I am out an average of 3 times a week just doing  computer maintenance for people."

A number of messages are being sent concerning the amount of spam that is also filling everyone's mail inbox. Everyone can try to use the different filters that are available from the mail program but please understand that these filters can also remove wanted messages because of their content. It does take some trial and error to find out what works best for everyone. For myself, I manually delete all the spam messages based on the sender and subject line without even opening the message, in most cases.

I encourage everyone to share how they are coping with this latest attack on everyone's e-mail accounts.

"T-Shirts for simply telling the truth ..." is how one writer describes her K-Net experience. K-Net is awarding a specially designed tee-shirt for your K-Net story. Check out the stories posted so far ...

A collection of stories written by various K-Net users are being posted on the International On-line Conference web site under KO Smart Stories. We want to thank everyone who took the time to share their story with us. We invite everyone to continue submitting their stories to Florence Woolner (conference facilitator) for review.

Thanks for you support and kind words!!

We invite everyone to join us on-line on March 17 and 18 for this international event. Check out the agenda for the line up of exciting presenters.

Jesse Fiddler, K-Net's Multi-media Coordinator, spent part of the afternoon in his office meeting with two people located in the library in Rainy River First Nation. He was providing a training session in the use of open source Post Nuke content management software for the development of their community web site.

Using their new IP video conferencing equipment and broadband connection enabled everyone to see and hear each other. But now Jesse is able to use K-Net's new virtual training and meeting platform (Macromedia's Breeze software) to watch what the meeting participants are doing on their computers and provide directions and suggestions for creating their community web site.

Jesse has created an "On-line Helpdesk" link from the First Nations SchoolNet web site that takes users directly to this new resource. Using either the IP phone connection or the video conferencing connection enables users to get the training support required from their desktops.

This new on-line meeting place will be used to host the upcoming virtual International Conference that is happening next week on March 17 and 18. Be sure to join us for this exciting international event.

Brian Walmark, KO's First Nations SchoolNet Special Projects Coordinator is in Six Nations near Brantford at the JC Hill Elementary school for the next two days. He is conducting a web site production workshop in the use of the Post Nuke document management software for the development and maintenance of school web sites.

Click here to check out the pictures from the workshop.

Holy Ghost Meetings

with

Evangelist Bruce Shisheesh - Thunder Bay, On

Three Powerful Days - March 19, 20, 21, 2004

Friday and Saturday @ 7:30 pm and Sunday @ 11:00 am & 7:00 p.m

CANADIAN LEGION HALL - 86 Front street - Sioux Lookout, On

Praise & Worship By:

Mark Berkan - Thunder Bay, On

Lloyd & Nellie Redsky - Kenora, On

For Info: Rose Prince  (Home) 1-807-737-7678 or (Work) 1-807-582-3309

Everyone Welcome