Media.Knet.Ca

On Thursday, Nov 20, Kevin Pashuk (NOMS IT Director), Bob Angell (Lakehead U. IT Director) and Bill Sandblom (Laurentian U. IT Director) drove with Tom Hibbs (Corporate Accounts, Enterprise Solutions, Nortel Networks) to Sioux Lookout to meet with K-Net staff and learn about the Kuh-ke-nah Network. The team is touring Northern Ontario to meet with different community-based networks to learn about the existing infrastructure and resources available across this vast region. Check out the pictures of this crew

The role of partnerships and the sharing of resources and opportunities is one of the most important outcomes from all the work with these communication tools. This meeting provided another opportunity to see how institutions, corporations and organizations can work together to support the development of infrastructure and the access to resources so everyone benefits.

The cliche "Putting some meaning into the C that is in the middle of ICT" is the challenge that everyone faces with these new tools. It is COMMUNICATION that provides the important link between Information and Technology; it is the "glue" that makes this work worthwhile for the people and the communities. If we do not have meaningful and effective communication that helps build practical, efficient and respectful relationships then we just have a bunch of machines being used to toss a lot of information at each other and being "managed" by IT Directors and technicians located in far away places.

One important outcome of this meeting was the agreement to work together to identify strategies and access the necessary resources to support the development of adequate distance learning facilities in all the communities across Northern Ontario. This effort will require the partnership of every community and government agency to ensure equitable and affordable solutions are created. Being able to accommodate students from NOMS or Lakehead or any institution is a major challenge that will create employment in both the development of these facilities and then in the ongoing maintenance and operation of these distance learning spaces including the residential component.

The innovative communication tools and infrastructure required to provide an environment where students and community members can share and create new opportunities for everyone will position Northern Ontario as the place to be doing business. We will be able to boast full employment and healthy communities across the region by levering and sharing these resources with everyone. The Northern Ontario Medical School and our two post-secondary institutions provide a great opportunity for every community in Northern Ontario to be creating a healthy socio-economic environment for all residents!

Dan Brabrand traveled from Richmond, Virginia to Sioux Lookout on Sunday, Nov 23 to work with the K-Net team in setting up an IP telephone system that will serve Keewaytinook Okimakanak and our partner communities and organizations. Dan works with Kevin Gerber out of their Virginia office. Kevin has worked with K-Net for a number of years starting when he was in Toronto working with the Education Network of Ontario.

The team spent time setting up the Call Manager so it can route the calls from the IP phones to their proper locations across the network and to their proper gateways. Some time was also spent setting up the conferencing system so conference calls can also be facilitated over this network. Check out the pictures of the training and the equipment.

IP phones are now located in the K-Net office in Sioux Lookout with single phones located in each of the other Keewaytinook Okimakanak offices across the network. This includes KO offices in Balmertown and Thunder Bay and each of the KO First Nation e-Centres in Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake and Poplar Hill. The roll out plan to expand the number of operational IP phones will be implemented over the next couple of months as everyone becomes comfortable with supporting these new services and opportunities.

K-Net staff meet with Fort Severn staff and resource people in Sioux Lookout to further develop the digital information collected during their trip to their traditional territories. Robert Hunter is putting all the data onto the digital maps for that region so it can shared on-line. Cal Kenny is putting together the video material so it to can be shared on-line. The coordination and support for this work is coming from George Kakekaspan, Fort Severn’s Special Projects Coordinator and Tom Terry of Voyageurs North who are involved in documenting and translating the stories. George is working with Barney Turtle to get the material posted on the Fort Severn web site.

Funding applications are being developed to further this work in partnership with FedNor (Carl Seibel) as well as with Natural Resources, Canada’s Sustainable Communities Initiative.

The November 13 issue of Wawatay News contains three more news stories about the work being completed within the Kuh-ke-nah Network of Smart First Nations demonstration project.

This week's issue of the

• Teleradiology will allow patients to stay at home
: New digital radiology machines are now installed in Deer Lake and Fort Severn Nursing Stations. Images are now being transferred directly from the Nursing Stations and being read in Sioux Lookout or Thunder Bay or anywhere on the network where a radiologist / doctor is available to interpret the image and make appropriate recommendations to the nurse in the Nursing Station.
• Partnerships bring benefits to First Nation communities
: The K-Net – Bell Canada partnership has contributed to improved connectivity and services for all the communities across Northern Ontario. The investments being made by Bell and FedNor in the construction of broadband infrastructure is supporting the development of new broadband applications enabling socio-economic initiatives in all the First Nations across the region.
• K-Net Showcase
- contains photos from the K-Net photo gallery at

Various newspaper articles are being scanned and stored for reference purposes

Lac Seul First Nation is working with K-Net to bring a broadband connection to all the different organizations across their territory. Pierre Parsons is coordinating the roll out of these broadband services for the three communities. Pierre has been purchasing, installing and networking the hardware in all the different offices in each of the three communities over the past few months patiently waiting for Expertech and Bell Canada to complete the construction of the fibre optic cable build over to Hudson. From Hudson, a T1 connection is to be installed to the Band office in Frenchman’s Head as part of this project.

On Nov 12, Pierre met with Dan Pellerin at the K-Net offices to discuss various connectivity solutions for reaching Whitefish Bay and Kejick Bay from their new T1 connection located in Frenchman’s Head. Everyone in Lac Seul is preparing for their new broadband connection so new services and applications can be introduced and developed across the First Nation territory.