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Aboriginal Voices final report recommendations highlight online opportunities

November 23, 2005 - 6:56am | by Anonymous
From the introductory letter ... "the Crossing Boundaries National Council presents The Aboriginal Voice Final Report: From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity. This report is the culmination of a two-year national dialogue on how information and communications technology (ICT) can assist Canada’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples in fully participating in the knowledge economy and information society.
As a result of this engagement process we have come away with a deeper understanding of how ICT can help Aboriginal governments and communities meet critical social, economic and cultural needs. We were also witness to inspiring examples of Aboriginal communities, organizations, and, in particular, youth using this new technology in culturally expressive and creative ways to make a positive difference to their futures and to the national fabric of our country. We hope this report captures, even in a modest way, the spirit and enthusiasm of these path-breakers and the success stories that are emerging on a national scale."
The two references to Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet program are under Recommendations 2 and 3 ...
 
It is interesting to note that the third recommendation highlights the Regional Management Organization and K-Net as a viable building model with the following statement ... "Once capacity is in place ICT platforms can be enriched and expanded through pooling of both technical resources and buying power to reduce costs and increase access to and the range of ICT services. The Regional Management Organizations associated with SchoolNet is a case in point. K-Net’s Community Aggregated Network has created a regional video conferencing network that serves as an affordable video conferencing platform for Aboriginal communities and organizations on a national scale. These and initiatives like them require ongoing support. They show that it is possible to create dynamic and powerful Aboriginal ICT networks with capacity to support highly advanced ICT applications that can improve services, connect people and communities, increase productivity and reduce the high costs of travel that confront many Aboriginal governments and organizations. In other words, the business case for investing in sustainable ICT capacity is a good one."

Recommendation 5 is all about e-learning celebrating the successes of the Keewaytinook Internet High School.

The following text contains the summary of all the recommendations from the report ...

Building Sustainable Capacity

Recommendation 1: Aboriginal eGovernment should be a priority on a national agenda of transformation.
Recommendation 2: A national commitment by all governments in Canada is required to bridge the digital divide for Aboriginal communities and institutions within the next fi ve years, and for all Aboriginal peoples within the decade. Achieving these goals entails highspeed broadband Internet access that is affordable to users, coupled with governments investing to create sustainable capacity within Aboriginal communities and organizations to maintain and support ICT systems and applications development.
Recommendation 3: Aboriginal governments and their structures must be the central building blocks for an Aboriginal eGovernment agenda.
Recommendation 4: A Community- and Citizen-centred approach, driven by Aboriginal governments, should be adopted as the primary underpinning of Aboriginal eGovernment.

Aboriginal eLearning
Recommendation 5: Governments should make Aboriginal eLearning a national priority and facilitate and resource the building of a national online Aboriginal eLearning portal that would serve as a focal point for a national eLearning networks tailored to the different needs of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. First Nations, Métis and Inuit educational and training organizations, need to be resourced to fully participate in this national initiative. Characteristics of a national eLearning portal and networks would include:
 An open source resource web/network;
 National collaboration, with regard to more advanced communities and users acting as role models and mentors to those who need to build capacity; and,
 Open source information and resources that would be accessible to all Aboriginal learning organizations, while maintaining the ability to allow communities to cater the information and applications to their learning needs.
Recommendation 6: Federal, provincial and territorial governments should commit to providing long term funding and support in order to sustain current Aboriginal eLearning infrastructure and initiatives.
Recommendation 7: Aboriginal organizations, governments, and post-secondary institutions should collaborate on an assessment and action plan on how ICT can be used to increase Aboriginal post-secondary participation and achievement.
Recommendation 8: Working in collaboration with Aboriginal leaders and organizations, federal, provincial and territorial governments should promote and invest in First Nations, Métis and Inuit Centres of Excellence for eLearning with a mandate to advance and share information and knowledge about best practices and facilitate their diffusion into education and training systems and into the community.
Recommendation 9: National and regional research granting agencies should invest dedicated resources to support the advancement and innovation in Aboriginal eLearning.

Preserving, Promoting & Protecting Aboriginal Cultures
Recommendation 10: The Federal Government, in collaboration with national First Nations, Métis, and Inuit organizations, should develop and implement a national policy commitment to promote the preservation and protection of Aboriginal cultures and languages and ensure Aboriginal children, wherever they live, have opportunities to learn their culture and language. A critical component of this commitment is to fully employ, with appropriate safeguards, the potential of ICT to preserve, store, transmit and enable active cultural learning. Having provincial and territorial governments and education institutions and agencies as partners in this national project will be critical to its success.
Recommendation 11: Working with the appropriate Aboriginal authorities, national and provincial archives and museums should accelerate the digitization of Aboriginal historical records and artefacts and make this information available online.
Recommendation 12: Financial and other resources should be made available for Aboriginal communities to collect and digitally preserve their histories and cultural knowledge for the benefi t of the community.
Recommendation 13: Aboriginal governments, organizations and communities should develop protocols to govern the online collection, dissemination and use of cultural information based on customary laws.
Recommendation 14: Aboriginal peoples should develop models for intellectual property protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and folklore. These models should be recognized by governments and protected in law.

Creating Opportunities in the New Economy
Recommendation 15: Aboriginal governments should be supported and encouraged to develop and integrate ICT initiatives into their long term strategic planning in order to:
 Facilitate community economic and business development and entrepreneurship;
 Stimulate and sustain the development of an Aboriginal owned and controlled ICT business sector; and,
 Foster community/private sector partnerships that provide access to necessary expertise and resources to assist and help promote technologbased economic development and growth.
Recommendation 16: Governments should provide assistance and create incentives for the Aboriginal business sector:
 To adopt ICT into their production, business and service processes; and,
 To increase business intelligence gathering and product and service marketing capacity to better identify business opportunities and reach out to regional, national and international markets.
Recommendation 17: Aboriginal governments, organizations, and business associations should plan a facilitative role in developing business capacities by providing information, better aligning programs and resources, and helping entrepreneurs build networks and partnerships. This would include developing online information and services to support business and local capacity development.
Recommendation 18: Aboriginal organizations, governments, community colleges and the private sector should collaborate on a long term strategy to actively support and promote Aboriginal participation in the knowledge economy.
Recommendation 19: Aboriginal training and business organizations, in collaboration with the relevant agencies of government, should undertake an assessment and stocktaking of the potential role of eTraining in developing the Aboriginal workforce and business sector.
Recommendation 20: Aboriginal governments should create an enabling environment that favours innovation and technology-based economic and business development.

Improving Service Delivery
Recommendation 21: Federal, provincial and territorial governments should commit funding and resources to enable First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governments and organizations to substantially improve their service delivery systems and infrastructure over the next five years with particular priority in the areas of health care, social and children’s services and education. These strategies will need to be developed on a partnership basis so that they are appropriately tailored and respond to diverse needs and circumstances.
Recommendation 22: Governments should invest resources to promote, support and facilitate the development of Aboriginal networks, including professional networks and communities of interest.

Treating Information as a Public Resource
Recommendation 23: Federal, provincial and territorial governments should reach agreements on a framework for information governance negotiated directly with each respective national Aboriginal organization that can serve broadly as guidelines for the collection, dissemination and sharing of information and data.
Recommendation 24: Federal, provincial, territorial governments and Aboriginal political leadership should support the creation of information capacity that will allow Aboriginal governments and organizations to be more accountable to both their citizens (constituents) and to have a shared accountability relationship with their government partners. Aboriginal governments and organizations should commit to using ICT to provide information that strengthens accountability and participation of their members and citizens in governance and decision-making.

Citizen Engagement
Recommendation 25: Governments and Aboriginal leadership need to build the organizational capacity, authority and resources necessary to engage and consult with Aboriginal citizens on policies, programs and services. These consultation resources should include the technological capacity to engage Aboriginal citizens, including recognizing their distinctive cultural and language needs. Governments should encourage pilot projects to assess the best way to engage Aboriginal citizens using online tools and methodologies.

Partnerships & Collaborations
Recommendation 26: Consideration should be given to establishing an Aboriginal-led national multistakeholder vehicle, that includes government and other key stakeholder representatives, with a mandate to champion, sustain and facilitate the implementation of Aboriginal eGovernment.
Recommendation 27: Governments should support a national conference of Aboriginal and government leaders to develop and chart out an action plan to support and achieve the goals of digital equality and opportunity.

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