NORTH Network team travels to Balmertown for meetings

Six members of the NORTH Network team traveled to Balmertown on Tuesday, November 4 for two days of meetings with Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff members. Discussions addressed the issues around the partnership and work that has taken place over the past three years in the development of telehealth and related services. As well, time was spent examining how the new regional telehealth development project that will include all the First Nations in the Sioux Lookout Health Zone can best be supported by our partnership.

Click here to view the pictures.

SchoolNet Regional Management team meets via video conference

On November 5, representatives from across the country met to discuss current issues involving the First Nations SchoolNet program. The monthly meeting is facilitated by the Ottawa office and uses the bridging resources available at K-Net. We reached the maximum capacity of the bridge with the number of video conferencing and audio sites involved in this meeting.

Digitizing traditional territories, history and activities; more about SchoolNet in Wawatay

The October 30 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

Kuh-ke-nah page in Wawatay News include the following articles:
  • Fort Severn knowledge videotaped and mapped
  • : Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff (Robert Hunter and Cal Kenny) traveled with Fort Severn elders and community members to collect video and other digital material that can be used to create and post archive data about their traditional territories and history.
  • First Nations SchoolNet conference nets new RMO ideas
  • : Darlene Rae, Jesse Fiddler and Dan Pellerin traveled to the SchoolNet meeting in Cape Breton while the rest of the team participated in this national Industry Canada program meeting via video conference.
  • K-Net Showcase
  • - contains photos from the K-Net photo gallery at
http://photos.knet.ca with images of the some of the partners involved in working with K-Net to make the network Industry Canada’s Aboriginal Smart Communities Demonstration project.

Rick Garrick is researching additional stories for future articles. If you have a story that you want to share about this project and the work that is happening in your community to get connected, please send us an e-mail.

Various newspaper articles are being scanned and stored for reference purposes

in this photo gallery.

Pikangikum Youth Challenge - Hockey and Broomball Tournaments

AFTER A TWO YEAR HIATUS, THE COMMUNITY OF PIKANGIKUM IS PLEASED TO BRING BACK THE PIKANGIKUM YOUTH CHALLENGE. IT WILL BE HELD DURING THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.

THIS YEAR'S TOURNAMENT WILL CONSIST OF TWO EVENTS: HOCKEY AND BROOMBALL

THE PARTICIPATING AGES FOR THIS TOURNAMENT ARE AS FOLLOWS:

HOCKEY (MALE YOUTH BETWEEN THE AGES OF 13 AND 25)

BROOMBALL (FEMALE YOUTH BETWEEN THE AGES OF 13 AND 25)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION YOU CAN CONTACT SAMSON KEEPER OR ENOS KING

(807) 773 5561
(807)773 5241
(807) 773 1138

DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION WILL BE DECEMBER 6TH AT 4:00 PM

ALL MEALS AND ACCOMODATIONS WILL BE PROVIDED

Learning Communities Policy think tank held in Cranbrook BC

On November 2-4, 2003, HRDC's Learning Policy Directorate hosted a small gathering of invited guests to discuss their "lifelong learning policy framework". Participants were provided with a number of documents before the sessions and asked to discuss a set of questions at the session. These questions included:

  • What do we mean by Learning Communities?
  • What are the emerging Learning Community models and do any hold particular relevance for the Canadian context?
  • What are the critical enabling factors for learning at the community level?
  • What happens when you introduce learning as an organizing principle in the community?
  • How does learning need to be positioned to ensure sustainable economic and social development?
  • What are the elements of a national framework to enable the development of learning communities?

The event was held in Cranbrook BC and participants stayed at the Delta St Eugene Mission School, a completely renovated and modern hotel complex owned by the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Tribal Council. From Chief Sophie Pierre we learned that this former residential school was opened 9 months ago by the people from Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Tribal Council. Nestled in the Rocky Mountain Valley surrounded by the mountains this very special site hosts a world famous golf course, a casino, meeting rooms and the interpretative centre. Click here to visit the interpretative centre web site and meet Isaac Birdstone for a tour of the old mission school and learn about the heritage of the people from this region.

Click here to check out the pictures from this trip.

K-Net servers receive more than 20 million hits in October

Personal web pages at MyKnet.org continue to be the most popular on-line space for the Nishnawbe Aski to browse. In October there were over 13 millions hits on this K-Net server (an additional 2 million hits from the previous month)!

All together there were over 20 MILLION hits occurring on the six most popular monitored K-Net servers throughout October. Specifically, on these six servers with traffic graphs, there were a total of 20,619,828 hits made to these on-line services provided by Keewaytinook Okimakanak. The six servers include myknet.org, knet.ca, webmail.knet.ca, hosting.knet.ca, highschool.knet.ca and photos.knet.ca.

Most of the K-Net servers that are being monitored for hits, visits and usage statistics using the webalizer program again showed an increase during the month. But http://myknet.org rose by another 2 million hits to demonstrate the rapid take up of these communication tools among users across the north.

Please note:

KiHS publishes Fall 2003 newsletter

Everyone is invited to read Keewaytinook Internet High School's Fall 2003 newsletter.

Click here to view the newsletter (900k PDF document).

Kasabonika FN technicians visit K-Net

Robert Semple and Terra Anderson from Kasabonika First Nation are working together to support the development of broadband applications in their community. On Friday, Oct 24, they met with K-Net staff to discuss ongoing K-Net support for our partner First Nations utilizing the public benefit C-Band resource for broadband connectivity.

Discussions included:

  • challenges and issues concerning the present level of service;
  • overview of the existing network and the various components;
  • introduction of available support services, staff and resources;
  • tour of facilities, systems and components;
  • review of network costs and pricing formula;
  • introduction of the on-line video conferencing booking and network management systems;
  • future developments including the construction of the big dish, additional bandwidth resources, scheduling system and partnerships;
  • demonstrations of network applications.

Sounds too good to be true... Dealing with e-mail spam

Enclosed is an email similar to the ones I've been receiving lately...these sound too good to be true.


Dear sir,

I am a legal practitioner and an import-export
consultant African  refugee  foundation in Nigeria West Africa region


One of my client Mr  Johnny  Kante from Liberia seeking  assylum
in  Nigeria here is interested in investing
Millions of Dollars in your country and he is
interested in investing with your company .

kindly forward all your companys  activities  to me
for immediate discussion on the investment programme

Total amount to be invested=
$35,000,000,00.usd...................Cash investment
4Metric tons of AU in dust....Treasure investment
Precious stones, quantity not
decleared..............Treasure investment

CONTACT ME ON  MY EMAIL ;
albert_obi@1stcounsel.com


Immediately I receive your details, I will inform him
and feed you back with his arrangements.

Anticipating your immediate reply.

Best regards

BARR   ALBERT   OBI


____________________________________________________________
Charle con sus amigos online usando CHAT 123
http://www.123.com/sp/chat/section.php?id_section=329


There are places where you can report these types of emails. One place to report emails like these is: http://www.elsop.com/wrc/complain.htm

There are many places to report SPAM or internet marketing schemes. Take the time to report emails such as the one above.

KO Staff invited to attend World Summit on the Information Summit

Jesse Fiddler, K-Net Multi-Media Manager, has accepted an invitation from the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) to attend the World Summit on the Information Society gathering in Geneva the week of December 8.

From their web site, "the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) emerged from the 2001 Summit of the Americas. It is the forum for hemispheric innovation in the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to strengthen democracy, create prosperity, and realize human potential.... The ICA is currently being incubated at Industry Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa and Montevideo."

K-Net staff are working with our network partners to determine if we can connect into the WSIS gathering over the Kuh-ke-nah Network. The Chiefs of Keewaytinook Okimakanak are meeting in Winnipeg the week of December 8 and are inviting other First Nation leaders to a "Smart Fair" on December 10 where we are planning to schedule a video connection with the Canadian Pavilion in Geneva to showcase First Nation innovation in the use of ICTs to the world.

In the words of UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in 2003, the World Summit on the Information Society offers

  • a unique opportunity to shape the future of the information society’ so that all people can enjoy its benefits ; and
  • a platform for developing a shared vision of ways to create a truly inclusive information society that serves and empowers all people.

For more information about WSIS check out these web sites: