Media.Knet.Ca

Philipp Budka, a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna, recently posted his report about the results of the MyKNet.org survey that he conducted this past fall. The report is available at Philipp’s research web site. Over 1200 people were involved with starting to complete this survey, with over 1000 people indicating they completed the survey during the four month period it was available online.

Click here to see a PDF copy of the report.

MyKNet continues to be a very popular online social meeting place for First Nation residents living in remote and rural communities across Northern Ontario and now Manitoba. At present there are over 30,000 personal homepages on MyKnet. Last month there were over 70 MILLION hits on that server with a DAILY average of over 20,000 VISITS. This number is down from its high of over 110 MILLION hits a month back in mid 2005. To learn more about MyKNet and the people who are using it, visit the site at http://myknet.org  

The discussion forum about this report is producing some interesting comments ...

Dr. Susan O’Donnell, from Fredericton writes:

This is a very valuable study and like the others I would encourage you to start publishing about it soon. That way other researchers like me can reference it and hopefully integrate some of your findings in our own research.
 
I was really struck by the links between myknet.org and community building and connection. So much around myknet.org happens at home and involves families and friends. Most people know more than 100 other people in their community that have a myknet.org page! Considering that many communities have only a few hundred people, that is quite amazing. When I was in Keewaywin and Muskrat Dam in January I saw very few people walking around, aside from kids and parents going to school. (Of course it was cold out.) On the surface, as a visitor, it’s easy to think of communities as a collection of separate houses with not much communicating going on among them. Your report is making me realize how much communicating may actually be going on virtually among the houses within the communities, all the time. It’s actually quite exciting when I think of it that way. I wonder if there is more activity on myknet.org in the winter months when fewer people are outside.

Adam Fiser, from Toronto writes:

Thanks Philipp.. there are a lot of interesting stories here. I'm struck by question 3.2.6 on page 9. Only 4.1 percent of 1028 respondents maintain their pages from public access points (e-centres, etc.). Is this an indication that the e-centre model does not serve the personal computing needs of the respondents? Thoughts??

Producing the following comment from Brian Walmark at KORI in Thunder Bay:

I agree with Philipp... I think its part of the migration process... In Fort Severn, I discussed this issue with the e-centre manager... she talked about how her role has changed over the years... during SMART, she told me that the e-centre was the hub of all IT activity in the community... there were workshops, meetings and many people accessing email and surfing the web much of the time... as connectivity migrated throughout the community people began to do more and more work at home... People began to call with questions or if they had serious issues they would come by the e-centre and work out the problem there with the staff... She told me she was still as busy as ever because many people would want her to stop by their homes and "fix" their computers or network connections... Another factor that contributes to the changing role of the e-centre in Fort Severn is finding sustainable funding to ensure that the doors remain open at times when people want and need to use it... Funding is also contributing to people in Fort Severn thinking about different roles for the e-centre such as contributing to the development of a community library or resource centre...

Please feel free to join the discussions by joining the K-Net Meeting Place at http://meeting.knet.ca  

Philipp is continuing his research while visiting northwestern Ontario this month. Last week he was in Sandy Lake First Nation and this week he travels to Fort Severn First Nation before returning to Austria where he hopes to complete his thesis work by December of this year. To learn more about Philipp and his studies visit his personal web site at http://philbu.net