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Making broadband connections work in Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation

July 16, 2005 - 6:20am | by Anonymous

Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation is developing their  community broadband telecommunications network. The community obtained FedNor funding in 2004 to begin planning and building their local community network. The Mishkeegagamang project also helped provide some support funding for the development of the Pickle Lake broadband cable system which began operating in the summer of 2004 (Click on the KNews story - Pickle Lake gets assistance for high speed internet services - Aug 2004).

A K-Net T1 connection was installed by Bell Canada in the local nursing station in the fall of 2004 as the first step. The nursing station was networked (Health Canada and KO Telehealth) so all the computers and the new telemedicine suite could be on-line. In January of this year, the telehealth facilities were staffed and operational (click here for pictures of the Mish telehealth opening).

The Mishkeegogamang Broadband Community Network is using a wireless design to connect the various locations across this dispersed community. Access to the Bell tower and getting the proper radio equipment that can manage video, audio and high speed data traffic with Quality of Service (QOS) did result in some delays in completing this project. In the end, Superior Wireless' team and the K-Net team (Dan and Adi) were able to put together an operational network in time for the 100 year commemoration ceremonies of the signing of treaty nine that occurred this past week.

On Tuesday, the First Nations SchoolNet team were in Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation for these celebrations. Several activities were able to be supported using this community broadband network including:

  • Video taping of the entire event at the old post site (click here for pictures);
  • Taped interviews with elders from across Nishnawbe Aski Nation about the treaty and its historical significance to the Nishnawbe Aski (working in partnership with Wawatay Native Communications Society, Shibogama First Nations Council and Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre staff);
  • Information display booth about the ICT applications being supported by Keewaytinook Okimakanak;
  • Establishing a wireless broadband connection at the site of the afternoon ceremonies that included the IP video conferencing unit (for the webcast), IP telephones for connecting to others, and computers for high speed data connections;
  • Webcasting and archiving of the entire afternoon session (click here to watch the archive - NOTE: the first 2 hours and 30 minutes is mainly set up so SCROLL forward to 2:36 to get to the start of this 3 hour event);
  • Using the archived sessions to web stream the various guest speakers (click on the name to watch their presentation), including:

One event that happened that day that highlights the importance of broadband communication networks was when an INAC communications officer was trying to get pictures from the event to the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal to include with their press release. Because he was not able to contact his INAC co-workers at the ceremonies, he called K-Net to see if there was a way to get pictures to the editor.

While speaking on the IP phone with Jamie Ray and Jeannie Carpenter who were setting up the network at the ceremony site, the editor of the newspaper called the K-Net Sioux Lookout office. He was able to speak directly with Jamie and Jeannie by teleconferencing the two together using the IP phone network. While they were trying to figure out how to get some pictures for the newspaper article, David Paul Achneepineskum, NAN's Executive Director walked into the tent site and was seen on the live internet webcast that was being broadcast over the network. The team was then able to ask David Paul about who would have pictures to share and he suggested Jenna Young, NAN's Communication Officer. Jeannie took on the task of getting the pictures from Jenna, zipping them together into an e-mail to the editor and sending them over to the newspaper and to the K-Net office where they were posted.

This is a great example of broadband in action by being able to see David Paul to get his help (video), to speak with people at the site (audio) and to send the information required (data). All this was done in less than an hour. Click here to see the pictures that were sent.

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