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Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations Project

Final Evaluation Report

November 2004

Prepared by the TeleCommons Development Group (www.telecommons.com)

Entire document is available at http://smart.knet.ca/evaluation

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Project Evaluation Report 2001 - 2004

Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations Demonstration Project

Who is this evaluation for?....................................................................................................5 Executive Summary ..........................................................................................................6 Best Practice Recommendations ....................................................................................12

Policy – Donor agency and regulatory environment........................................................... 13 Organizational – Project governance, management, role of community, partnerships.. 13 Operational - technical, capacity-building, reporting and communication....................... 14 Sustainability ........................................................................................................................... 15

1.0 About this evaluation ...................................................................................................16 1.1 Evaluation Approach ........................................................................................................ 16 1.2 Quantitative vs Qualitative Evaluation Measurements ................................................. 16 1.3 Integrated Project Evaluation Tools................................................................................ 16 1.4 The Stories ”Slipping Through the Net”......................................................................... 17 1.5 Video as an Evaluation Tool ............................................................................................ 17

2.0 Background and Description of Project ...........................................................................17 2.1 Project Goal and Objectives ............................................................................................ 18 2.2 Project Management Approach ....................................................................................... 19 2.3 Project Governance .......................................................................................................... 19 2.4 Project Reporting and Communication .......................................................................... 20

3.0 Evaluation methodology................................................................................................22 3.1 Measuring Smart Impacts – Short, Medium and Long-term......................................... 22 3.2 Evaluation Information Sources and Data-gathering Tools ......................................... 22

4.0 Proposed Project Deliverables: Broadband Applications and Support Services .................23 Keewaytinook On-line Secondary School (KiHS) ................................................................ 23 Community Information Technology Centres (e-Centres).................................................. 23 Kuh-ke-nah Portal ................................................................................................................... 23 Data Warehouse ...................................................................................................................... 23 Distributed Health Information Call Centre .......................................................................... 23 Caching/Router Project .......................................................................................................... 23 Broadband Network Deployment .......................................................................................... 24 Smart Management and Organization................................................................................... 24 4.1 Assessment of Outputs/Deliverables ............................................................................ 24 4.2 Sustainability of Output/Deliverables ............................................................................. 24

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5.0 Proposed Outcomes/Objectives.....................................................................................25 5.1 Identification of Objectives .............................................................................................. 26 5.2 Community Engagement Workshops ............................................................................. 26 5.3 Impact and Importance of Community Engagement Workshops................................ 27 5.4 From Broad-based to Sectoral Objectives ..................................................................... 28 5.5 Indicators from Community Engagement Workshops.................................................. 28 5.6 Community Surveys ......................................................................................................... 30 5.7 Case Studies: Education, Health, Economic Development, Network.......................... 31 5.8 Summary of Outcomes..................................................................................................... 31 OBJECTIVE: IMPROVED ACCESS TO EDUCATIONAL CHOICES ..................................... 31 Outcome: Improved Access to Educational Choices.......................................................... 31 OUTCOME: IMPROVED ACCESS TO HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND MEDICAL SPECIALISTS........................................................................................................................... 35 Results-based Management Matrix Outcomes – Health ..................................................... 35

Community Survey Results ....................................................................................... 39 OUTCOME: DISSEMINATION OF SMART RESULTS TO INDIVIDUALS AND SECTORS.. 39 Objective: Dissemination of SMART results to individuals and sectors .......................... 39 Community Member Statements: Dissemination of SMART results ................................. 40 OBJECTIVE: ACQUISITION OF ICT SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE ....................................... 41 OBJECTIVE: DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION OF ICT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN EVERYDAY LIFE...................................................................................................................... 43

Community Survey Results ....................................................................................... 44 OUTCOME – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT............................................................................ 50 5.9 Significant Unanticipated Outcomes .............................................................................. 51 5.9.1 Strengthening and Extending K-Net Services as a First Nations Broadband Network Operator .................................................................................................................... 51 5.9.2 Excellence in Partnership and Program Development to Meet Community Needs 53 5.9.3 Leveraging Services for Broader Applications........................................................... 53 5.9.5 Telehealth Project Expansion....................................................................................... 55 5.9.6 Community Cable Network ........................................................................................... 56 5.9.7 Introduction of New Technologies ............................................................................... 57 5.9.8 Development of New Operating Systems and Resources......................................... 57 5.9.10 Strengthening and Restructuring of Project Organization and Management ....... 58 5.9.12 Video Production for Telling Stories.......................................................................... 59 5.9.13 Promotion of Local Business and Tourism............................................................... 60 5.9.14 Research Facilities and Centres of Excellence......................................................... 60 5.9.15 Expanded Role of SchoolNet Helpdesk..................................................................... 61 5.9.16 Grade 8 Supplementary Programs............................................................................. 61 5.9.17 Expanded Role of e-Centres ....................................................................................... 62

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5.9.18 New Buildings and Infrastructure............................................................................... 63 5.9.20 International Activities................................................................................................. 63 6.0 Challenges ......................................................................................................................... 64 6.1 E-Centre Sustainability..................................................................................................... 64 6.2 Language and Culture ...................................................................................................... 64 6.3 Youth Culture..................................................................................................................... 65

7.0 Assessment of Impact – Long-term................................................................................65 7.1 Sustainability ..................................................................................................................... 66 7.2 Understanding Long-term Impact ................................................................................... 66

Appendices ................................................................................................................67

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Before the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project began, one outdoor public pay phone was the only telephone line in the entire community of North Spirit Lake.

“The term ‘evaluation’, although imperative and well-intentioned, strikes terror into the little guys at the bottom. Whether intended or not, ‘evaluation’ is synonymous with a report card, fear of failing grades, non-renewal of funding due to “missing the mark”. When a major component of an evaluation is judging outcomes based on objectives, the positive, spin-off outcomes never seem to compensate for the areas not achieved. We either end up fudging results, or the self-respect of the project suffers, and the self-esteem of participants withers.”

Margaret Fiddler, former Principal, Keewaytinook Internet High School Who is this evaluation for? This evaluation is intended to be of value to: ▫ Keewaytinook Okimakanak community members – the people of Deer Lake, Fort Severn,

Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake and Poplar Hill ▫ Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project implementation team – all of those who have

worked hard to make the vision a reality ▫ Keewaytinook Okimakanak Chiefs Council – the leadership ▫ Representatives of Industry Canada SMART program, FedNor, Industry Canada

SchoolNet, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) Office of Learning Technologies (OLT), and other SMART First Nations funding agencies

▫ People involved in other community electronic network projects ▫ People interested in evaluation approaches for community electronic networks ▫ People from indigenous communities around the world ▫ All of the many partners and participants in the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project

who have been invaluable to its success

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Executive Summary This report is about the journey of the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project. We think of ‘evaluation’ as a way of appreciating the value of the project in terms of its contribution as a learning opportunity. In 1999 the Government of Canada embarked on its Smart Communities Program to help Canada become a world leader in the development and use of information and communication technologies for economic, social and cultural development. Selected through a nationwide competition, twelve projects were chosen for their world-class visions and strategies on how to achieve economic, social and cultural improvements through the use of information and communication technologies. As the winner in the “Aboriginal” category, Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO) of Northwestern Ontario embarked on a journey to become a centre of expertise in the integration of information and communication technologies into communities, organizations and families. Approximately 2,800 people live in the Keewaytinook Okimakanak communities of Deer Lake, North Spirit Lake, Poplar Hill, Fort Severn and Keewaywin. The KO communities are part of Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), located in northern Ontario, across an area roughly the size of France. NAN includes a total population of approximately 25,000 people. The majority of this population is aboriginal and lives in remote communities with 300-900 inhabitants. For many communities, the only year- round access into or out of their area is by small airplane. K-Net Services, based in Sioux Lookout, is the local KO agency charged with implementing the project. The project has been managed by KO’s K-Net Services between 1999 and 2003. K-Net was able to win this award by integrating commitments and funding support from a significant number of partners. They have contributed time, creativity, funds and trust in this experiment. The project set the platform for ground-breaking innovation in the use of information and communication technologies without precedents in remote parts of Canada. This report is an attempt to bring the reader into this journey. This account is rich with stories of pride and major achievements in the context of some of the most remote communities in Ontario. The Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project’s primary goals were to: improve community well-being, support First Nations self-determination and governance, and enhance First Nations capacity for sustainable growth and development. The evaluators and the implementers recognized early on that these goals refer to long-term, complex change, the evidence of which is not only difficult to verify in the short term, but when changes do happen, they will also be the result of other contributing circumstances outside the project in question. At the same time, this report is rich with evidence, quantitative and qualitative, of achievements at the level of the project objectives: improved access to educational choices; improved access to health professionals and medical specialists; dissemination of SMART results to individual and sectors; acquisition of ICT skills and knowledge; and development and adoption of ICT products and services in everyday life well-being. In many ways, the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project far exceeded initial expectations. The project created innovative new services that respond directly to the expressed needs of community members, such as myknet.org where over 9,000 K-Net users have created personal homepages. K-Net Services became a high quality broadband network operator, serving far beyond its home communities to reach over 50 communities and many organizations across Canada. The network now reaches from Vancouver, B.C. to Sydney, Nova Scotia and from Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto to Salluit, in northern Nunavik. All this from a project supported by a small group of remote communities with a population of about 2,800 people! A sampling of quotes from community participants illustrates the rich meaningfulness of the outcomes achieved for individuals, families and communities:

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"We had a young man who decided to stay in the community when KiHS [Keewaytinook Internet High School] first started. He stayed in the community because he hunts almost every day. It gives him the opportunity to stay behind… in the community an extra two years. He was able to go school, and also go out on the land after school, which is a good thing."

Madeleine Stoney, e-Centre Manager

"We had a middle-aged female patient come in with a diabetic ulcer on her leg that wasn’t healing. We used the telehealth to let the doctor have a look at the leg and actually see what was going on, and he was able to prescribe a course of treatment that was effective in healing it. It took a while, but it did work and prevented the client from having to travel out, wait, see a doctor, come back, and then start treatment."

Bonnie Hodgson, Nurse

K-Net services have helped in ways to communicate with people I rarely talk to in person. K-Net has come a long way to service the North. K-Net deserves to be applauded for all the things they have done to improve better communication.

Jesse Brown, Pipestone

“Almost everybody has a computer in the community. Some have three computers in their home.”

Chief Roy Gray of Fort Severn. Wawatay, January 15 2004: “KO Chiefs speak about ICTs in their Community” (http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11/act)

“The Nishnawbe Aski people have traditionally worn moose-hide moccasins for travel to meetings, but the new [video conferencing] technologies are a kind of magic flying electronic moccasins that foster meetings like this conference where Indigenous people can visit each other from many countries. In spite of differences in languages and cultures, peoples can meet and learn from each other overcoming the limits of time and space.”

Stan Beardy Grand Chief, Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) discussing the on-line Kuh-ke-nah International Indigenous Gathering in March 2004

As a demonstration project of Industry Canada’s Smart Communities Program, it was understood that the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project would be experimental, innovative, and a testing ground for new ways of doing things. This report provides evidence that this was achieved. Bringing broadband ICTs to remote First Nations communities in the context of a demonstration project begs the question of what exactly do we look for once the project is over – what and how are we evaluating. A central challenge lies in identifying the lessons and the underlying principles that may ‘travel' and help formulate recommendations. If there is one central recommendation to highlight it is: “There is no bad point in time to start – just do it!” – Dan Pellerin, Network Manager, K-Net The following is indicative of the type of recommendations that the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project yielded: ▫ Funders, policy makers and local planners must harness a number of government

programs to achieve a multiplier effect in terms of technology, costs and skills development. Include and involve members of isolated communities as early as possible when designing and implementing programs or plans to provide telecommunications services in those communities.

▫ Ensure local control of the entire network, including the end devices. Partner with firms and organizations that share a vision of local community ownership.

▫ Have the communities drive the network growth. Have them identify the needs and take ownership of the network as much as possible.

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▫ Start by linking those who share a need. Community needs and demands drive technology and network infrastructure development.

▫ It is critical to maintain community participation and stay focused, especially as the network develops and needs to be sustained with paying customers.

▫ Highlight and recognize the value of unique technology applications and solutions in isolated communities. These represent potential opportunities for other communities in Canada and internationally that will otherwise be missed.

▫ Train your staff, not the consultants. ▫ Support local capacity building opportunities and resources (e.g. training projects,

cooperative education, library services, public access sites) to ensure that youth, employment and business development initiatives experience growth and successes.

▫ Listen to the community – find out how they have communicated in the past. ▫ Share experiences and resources with other neighbouring communities with similar

challenges and visions to ensure growth and strength in numbers. ▫ For remote regions that want to control and own their networks, it is practically impossible

to build a sustainability strategy based on traditional business models. In order for a network to be sustainable in a small community, the community needs to be involved in all the development phases and ongoing operation as much as possible. This effort will ensure that all the local organizations and service agencies working with the community will be able to contribute to the ongoing operation and maintenance of the local network so everyone in the community can access these on-line services.

For the purpose of this evaluation we are focusing on OUTCOMES – the achievement of project objectives; and on project OUTPUTS – the successful implementation of the project deliverables. These are viewed in the context of the project’s longer-term goal, which is the achievement of community well-being. The measurement of project impact can only be assessed over time. The goal is the vision, the guiding principle, the beacon, and the direction to which all project activities should be oriented. The intention of this “evaluation” is not to cast judgment, criticize, measure shortfalls, nor to weigh the value of the investment of dollars, time and energy, against the tangible outputs of the project. This would be of little value either to the donors, or to other communities who would like to replicate a “smart community” project. Least of all would it be of benefit to those people who have been key participants in building the Kuh-ke-nah Network of SMART First Nations. The project has been a work in process, an experiment, a creative endeavour, a living, dynamic vision, a brilliant manifestation of collective energy and commitment. The evaluators had to adjust to this evolving project. This report also accounts for adaptations made in the evaluation methodology to ensure we captured the achievements and flagged the challenges as they emerged. The essence of the Kuh-ke-nah Network of SMART First Nations story is visual, oral, personal, embraces sights and sounds, and comprises a growing collection of anecdotes. Section 2 of the report provides the background and context of KO and the remote first Nations in North Western Ontario. The project management approach and its governance are described. This account is brought to life through people’s narrative; the reader is invited to look out for quotes in text boxes.

What stands out the most is the relentless effort at reporting progress. This report builds and links with the following sources of information and tools of communication: ▫ Kuh-ke-nah Portal: The K-Net Portal (http://knet.ca). ▫ K-Net News provides community members the opportunity to post updates and news

items to be shared in an open forum (http://knews.knet.ca/search.php). ▫ K-Net Photo Gallery provides both an open as well as a secure place to post collections

of digital photos along with annotations (http://photos.knet.ca). ▫ Workshop and Conferences and Associated Websites (e.g. SMART International

Gathering http://smart.knet.ca/international/, and Learning Language – iishikiishiwewin http://language.firstnationschools.ca/

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▫ Myknet.org: Personal homepages of K-Net users (http://myknet.org), many of which discuss experiences with the network and applications.

▫ Public chat services (http://chat.knet.ca) ▫ Private e-mail services (http://mail.knet.ca) ▫ Open and closed listserves for various groups (e.g. working-smart@lists.knet.ca for the

Smart Team membership) ▫ Facilitated discussion forums (e.g. http://turning-point.ca)

The evaluation methodology is discussed in Section 3 of the report. The project was designed with an ongoing, built-in evaluation process. Annual surveys within each of the five participating communities were undertaken to identify availability of new technologies, adoption of these technologies, and attitudes towards these changes – measured against other community realities, such as the use and knowledge of native languages, traditional ways, and other considerations. In addition, community engagement workshops were held during the first three years, initially to formulate a vision and design the project, and later to identify and measure desired results and indicators of success. Conversations with e-Centre staff revealed incredibly rich stories of project-related experiences that would never have been captured within a traditional evaluation framework. A process of community empowerment in self-directed visual story-telling was begun. Video footage from a series of interviews with community stakeholders in Smart-related programs was gathered and documented as part of a precursor to this evaluation – the Smart First Nations Case Studies, sponsored by the Institute for Communications for the Americas (ICA), and the First Nations SchoolNet, both programs of Industry Canada. The legacy of this initiative has been capacity-building within the communities, to enable people there to continue to document their stories, both those related to Smart activities, and others of self-expression. Section 4 of the report addresses the deliverables: ▫ Keewaytinook On-line Secondary School (KiHS) ▫ Community Information Technology Centres (e-Centres) ▫ Kuh-ke-nah Portal ▫ Data Warehouse ▫ Distributed Health Information Call Centre ▫ Caching/Router Project ▫ Broadband Network Deployment ▫ Smart Management and Organization

Section 5 focuses on outcomes, and how the project engaged each of the participating communities in developing visions of where they wanted to go in terms of health, education, local government and economic development. The engagement workshops allowed the communities to get a feel for what SMART could offer and suggest the indicators that they thought would capture achievements. These inputs helped develop results-based management planning tools and contributed indicators for community surveys. For each sector, however, the development of case studies – on video and text - turned out to be an appropriate way to capture the achievements. Some of the desired outcomes can be effectively measured quantitatively, using data from the community surveys, and the results-based measurement matrix. Others are better measured through testimonials, stories, and video. Documentation of individual outcomes is not uniform in this report; rather, a variety of reporting tools is used. The SMART Proposal to Industry Canada included a section on desired outcomes - Schedule A (Appendix 1, Schedule A). The reader will verify the achievements both in terms of the objectively verifiable indicators, and a narrative detailing other accomplishments along with a description of implementation challenges encountered. At the level of outcomes, the achievement

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is confirmed. The case studies mentioned above, complement this narrative, as do the results of the annual community surveys1. An important section refers to unanticipated outcomes that include:

▫ Strengthening and Extending K-Net Services as a First Nations Broadband Network Operator

▫ Excellence in Partnership and Program Development to Meet Community Needs ▫ Leveraging Services for Broader Applications ▫ Kuh-ke-nah Network Growth Beyond SMART Project Communities ▫ Telehealth Project Expansion ▫ Community Cable Network ▫ Introduction of New Technologies (e.g. IP for videoconferencing and telephony) ▫ Development of New Operating Systems and Resources ▫ Myknet.org ▫ Video Production for Telling Stories ▫ Promotion of Local Business and Tourism ▫ Research Facilities and Centres of Excellence ▫ Expanded Role of SchoolNet Helpdesk

A project as ambitious as this cannot avoid facing challenges, and in this journey the following are highlighted: finding terminology and the means to explain ICTs to community elders, waiting for parts and services, and as in other cases world-wide, with the SMART program ending, communities will have to find ways to maintain their connectivity and technical support. Language and culture can be eroded in a globalized world: the network had been useful for young people to keep in touch with family and friends in other places, but that so far it had not helped significantly them in the ongoing loss of language knowledge and use. K-Net has made special efforts to reverse this trend by promoting its use for preserving culture, providing opportunities for language training and retention, and adapting the technology to facilitate communication in Oji-Cree. Video conferencing has been an important medium that allows people to communicate orally in local languages. The creation of a syllabic keyboard is also an innovation that makes written communication possible in Oji-Cree. The Kuh-ke-nah On-line Language Resource Centre is an important resource supported by the Project. The K-Net chat line and the creation of personal web sites on MyKnet have encouraged many young people in KO and other First Nations communities to embrace the Internet, and use it to connect with one another and reduce their isolation from the “rest of the world”. These new spaces also create challenges in terms of monitoring content. The challenges are not unique to KO communities, but the cultural challenges and the urgent need to re-create culture are specific to the challenges of First Nations. As a Smart Community Demonstration Project, Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations is a work in progress. To assess the achievement of the long-term goal and vision of community well-being through the introduction of ICTs in these remote aboriginal communities, the results must weather the test of time, which is not possible within the time-frame of the project. This is understood to be a universal challenge in the evaluation of young ICT projects. Some have argued that financial sustainability is not the key issue. More relevant are issues such as community ownership, local content, appropriate technology, language and culture, convergence and networking, and the development impact itself. Within this context, we must consider the impact of the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations and measure its success in terms of community development, project ownership, and results integrated with broader development goals. However, the SMART Project has clearly made an impact on the KO communities. It has:

1 We refer to the survey data with a cautionary note as the last two years of data collection provide less reliable numbers than what we could have expected. As evaluators, we believe the data provides a general picture from which we can observe general trends only.

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improved choices in education; improved access to health services; disseminated SMART results to individuals and sectors; introduced ICTs skills and knowledge; and it has developed ICT products and services, which have been adopted in everyday life.

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Lessons Learned and Best Practices As a demonstration project of Industry Canada’s Smart Communities Program, it was understood that the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project would be experimental, innovative, and a testing ground for new ways of doing things, in terms of the ever-evolving technology and applications of this technology, but more importantly in terms of planning, organization, implementation at the community level, governance, and monitoring and evaluation. Kuh-ke-nah has been a bold and creative experience. From the outset, the project has been grounded in a set of basic principles and best practices. The proposal submitted to Industry Canada in 1999 provided a comprehensive report on lessons learned from early K-Net experiences, beginning in 1995. These have guided the project development and have been tested over the course of the three years of the SMART project, refined. A summative list of “lessons learned”, and “best practices” - which can be passed on to others intent on creating their own “smart community”, is presented below. These best practices have also served to inform and guide the Kuh-ke-nah team as the project has migrated far beyond the original project plan into other communities and initiatives. Bringing broadband ICTs to remote First Nations communities in the context of a demonstration project begs the question of what exactly do we look for once the project is over. In a rural Ontario context, we would be working within an economic development mindset where one intends to subsidize a program to allow stakeholders to 'test-drive' new technologies and explore future applications and get a sense of their relevance and cost effectiveness. Such was the success of Industry Canada’s Community Access Program (CAP) that allowed communities to learn to access and use email. The demonstration process is really about priming the demand pump. The demand can refer to service agencies that buy into the technology (health, education, local government, businesses and information services) and to residents who begin to see the value of higher bandwidth to the home. In this context, a CAP site can become redundant and close down and still be considered a success in that people learned the technology, organizations explored the applications and new opportunities became known. In the context of SMART in remote, First Nation communities, similar questions arise. Is the e-Centre an organization that must be sustained? Will its impact be based on the continued provision of services and equipment? Or should our focus lie in the changes that the e-Centre staff, equipment and services have contributed to in the health, education, local government and business sectors? The challenge lies in identifying the lessons that they impart in the form of 'principles that travel', moreso than in seeking to sustain project activities or installations that may have served their purpose and can be integrated into new or different programs in the community. It is evident from the proposals, business plans and implementation of new projects related to the original Smart demonstration project that there is now a maturity and confidence in the best practices tested and refined through experience. Best Practice Recommendations As a result of K-Net's experience in establishing telecommunications networks among NAN communities, the K-Net Services team offers a number of observations and suggestions for leaders in isolated communities as well as in urban-centred government and corporate settings, and community networking advocates world-wide. The following recommendations are based in the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project experience.

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Policy – Donor agency and regulatory environment ▫ Leaders of isolated communities should invite government and corporate leaders

involved in telecommunications to visit their communities. Unless they experience the reality of a remote and isolated community it is impossible for them to appreciate the physical realities faced by people in the communities.

▫ Work with funding programs that understand the importance and value of true

broadband connectivity in small communities. If it weren't for FedNor, the federal regional economic development initiative in Northern Ontario, and other funding partners, along with their understanding and commitment to providing these communication tools across the region, the Kuh-ke-nah Network and the millions of dollars invested in this region by both the private and public sector would probably not have taken place.

▫ An ongoing advocacy effort has been required to lobby federal regulators to develop

policies that serve rural and remote communities. Lobby government agencies to ensure that they use the community network to deliver their services throughout the region. There is a tendency for government agencies to want to build, own and operate their own networks for their own specific purposes. There is another tendency for government agencies to believe that only large corporate network providers can meet their network needs. These tendencies represent a myopic bureaucratic mindset that will kill community networks because much needed network operating dollars completely bypass community networks.

▫ Harness a number of government programs to achieve a multiplier effect in terms of

technology, costs and skills development. ▫ Engage the private sector to respond to rural and remote conditions.

Organizational – Project governance, management, role of community, partnerships

▫ Being dedicated to producing results for and with all the communities involved in the

project without doing this work just for the appearance of creating a profile for oneself or a position of power over other organizations and groups generates successes with communities providing new and innovative opportunities and positive results with learning and sharing occurring throughout the experience for everyone involved.

▫ Getting communities involved in the planning and implementation of broadband

connectivity solutions and applications supports local innovation and capacity building. These communities will be better prepared to be the providers of online services and resources making them owners of their local networks and producers of local socio-economic opportunities.

▫ Including and involving members of isolated communities as early as possible when

designing and implementing programs or plans to provide telecommunications services in those communities.

▫ Ensuring that your organization is made up of champions/visionaries working on behalf of

the communities. ▫ Training people in the community and giving them a profile. ▫ Ensuring local control of the entire network, including the end devices. Partnering with

firms and organizations that share a vision of local community ownership.

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▫ Having the communities drive the network growth. Having them identify the needs and take ownership of the network as much as possible.

▫ Ensuring that everyone, including business owners, recognize that business needs are

different from community or social needs and work within that recognition rather than opposing it.

▫ Having a long-term vision and plan locally. Keeping up with changes locally and

nationally that can impact on your network, both positively and negatively. ▫ Start by linking those who share a need. Community needs and demands drive

technology and network infrastructure development. It is critical to maintain community participation and stay focused, especially as the network develops and needs to be sustained with paying customers.

▫ Aggregating the needs of each community by finding the main community users and their

immediate bandwidth requirements. ▫ The organization should be constantly evolving to keep pace with technology, policies

and community demands, while at the same time influencing how the technology is adapted, how policies are formulated, and how community demands are channeled

Operational - technical, capacity-building, reporting and communication

▫ Highlight and recognize the value of unique technology applications and solutions in

isolated communities. These represent potential opportunities for other communities in Canada and internationally that will otherwise be missed.

▫ Learn about the technology – if you don’t learn it yourself, you will become dependent on

consultants and vendors. ▫ Train your staff, not the consultants. Support local capacity building opportunities and

resources (e.g. training projects, cooperative education, library services, public access sites) to ensure that youth, employment and business development initiatives experience growth and successes.

▫ Use flexible open source software products. These can be adapted to suit organizational

and community needs; and allow the community to control evolution of the software services. Avoid dependencies in hardware and software solutions. Purchase technology to meet the needs and skill levels, not the other way around.

▫ Develop financial and management capacity at the executive level to match project

management needs - but also at the community level. ▫ Listen to the community – find out how they have communicated in the past. Did they

use HF radio? Is there a tower you can still use? Can you send them an antenna and a laptop and get them connected – even through a narrow bandwidth? Use the technology that is available, and build from that. That first connection is the key; from then on, the challenge to bring more bandwidth has to do with dollars, skills and management.

▫ Invest in local connectivity solutions and business initiatives that will contribute to

community development and well-being. ▫ Share experiences and resources with other neighbouring communities with similar

challenges and visions to ensure growth and strength in numbers.

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▫ Establish two-way communication to mentor community technicians as you become more knowledgeable.

Sustainability

▫ For remote regions that want to control and own their networks, it's practically impossible

to build a sustainability strategy based on traditional business models. ▫ Technologies like IP-based video conferencing and telephony service can provide much

needed revenue while offering residents and subscribers an alternative to traditional independent services. To maximize value and revenue video conferencing must deliver TV quality images, requiring two-way symmetrical services. Watch out for salesmen selling non-symmetrical connectivity products and services that remove limited financial resources from the region.

▫ Aggregate demand for video, voice, and data services across the community and provide

an integrated solution. ▫ Establish revenue generating services such as technical assistance, website and portal

development and hosting. These services will be valuable to businesses and organizations across the community.

▫ In order for a network to be sustainable in a small community, the community needs to be

involved in all the development phases and ongoing operation as much as possible. This effort will ensure that all the local organizations and service agencies working with the community will be able to contribute to the ongoing operation and maintenance of the local network so everyone in the community can access these on-line services.

“There is no bad point in time to start – just do it!” – Dan Pellerin, Network Manager, K-Net

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1.0 About this evaluation 1.1 Evaluation Approach The intention of this “evaluation” is not to cast judgment, criticize, measure shortfalls, nor to weigh the value of the investment of dollars, time and energy, against the tangible outputs of the project. This would be of little value either to the donors, or to other communities who would like to replicate a “smart community” project. Least of all would it be of benefit to those people who have been key participants in building the Kuh-ke-nah Network of SMART First Nations. The project has been a work in process, an experiment, a creative endeavour, a living, dynamic vision, a brilliant manifestation of collective energy and commitment. The authors of this evaluation – the TeleCommons Development Group – in consultation with project staff, community members, project participants, donor agency representatives, agreed that the final product should be a “living document”, something which is meaningful to a broad range of readers. In fact, words and numbers alone cannot communicate the experience of Kuh-ke-nah. Text, charts and graphs can tell only part of the story. The essence of the Kuh-ke-nah Network of SMART First Nations story is visual, oral, personal, embraces sights and sounds, and comprises a growing collection of anecdotes. 1.2 Quantitative vs Qualitative Evaluation Measurements The science of evaluation can measure “quantitative” impacts, like the return of investment, the “bang for the buck”, the achievement of designated goals, or the impact of the project on economic growth in communities. The design of the present evaluation was a long process, with considerable input from a variety of project stakeholders - though there was little debate in terms of what the evaluation should achieve. There was consensus that in addition to measuring quantitative impact, this evaluation should somehow capture the stories, the events that touched lives, the unexpected results, impacts that could not easily be identified within a “results-based management” framework. 1.3 Integrated Project Evaluation Tools The SMART First Nations project was designed with an ongoing, built-in evaluation process. Annual community surveys (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report) within each of the five participating communities were undertaken to identify availability of new technologies, adoption of these technologies, and attitudes towards these changes – measured against other community realities, such as the use and knowledge of native languages, traditional ways, and other considerations. In addition, community engagement workshops (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community Workshops Reports) were held during the first three years, initially to formulate a vision and to design the project, and later to identify and measure desired results and indicators of success. The Telehealth and the Keewaytinook Internet High School (KiHS), components of the overall Smart Community Project, carried out independent evaluations, which have been used to measure their success, and to help those programs evolve and grow, extending their benefits to other neighbouring communities. These built-in evaluation tools were useful in capturing data throughout the SMART Project. Results from the community surveys document the technology changes in the communities, and adoption of ICTs by community members. They also measure other socio-economic changes related to language, culture and cost-savings. (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report) (Appendix 4, Community Survey Questionnaire) The community engagement workshops brought together stakeholders grouped by sector: health, education, and economic development. The primary objectives of the workshops were to review project progress and

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impact, and plan future activities. As it turned out, the workshops proved to be most worthwhile to raise awareness about the SMART project, and to reconfirm – as well as adjust – the project goals. Workshop participants also generated a community-specific set of indicators of impact, both at the output level, as well as over the long-term. (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community Workshops Reports) 1.4 The Stories ”Slipping Through the Net” All of these evaluation tools have proved very useful, and a portion of this evaluation report reviews outcomes, measured against the original Smart Community proposal. During the course of designing the final evaluation, though, it became evident, that these tools were not entirely successful for capturing the essence of the project. Conversations with e-Centre staff revealed incredibly rich stories of project-related experiences that would never have been captured within a traditional evaluation framework. There were stories of Elders timidly and reluctantly experimenting with video conferencing with other Elders in other isolated communities. Communicating cautiously at first, they would grasp the new technology, and before long would embrace the medium enthusiastically, and would not want to stop “visiting” their friends. There were anecdotes about the popularity of the Internet summer camps, which would use the Web as a tool to investigate local nature and traditional ways, before sending the kids out onto the land to discover these things firsthand. These were the sorts of stories that were “slipping through the net”. 1.5 Video as an Evaluation Tool In an attempt to capture these elusive stories, a new data-gathering, story-capturing, tool was added to the evaluation tool-kit – video. In consultation with e-Centre staff and the rest of the project team, plans were made to involve a University of Guelph Rural Studies Ph.D candidate, George Ferreira - a video producer and trainer whose work focuses on community development through communications - to visit the five participating communities and provide e-Centre staff with video training. A process of community empowerment in self-directed visual story-telling was begun. Video footage from a series of interviews with community stakeholders in Smart-related programs was gathered and documented as part of a precursor to this evaluation – the Smart First Nations Case Studies, sponsored by the Institute for Communications in the Americas (ICA), and the First Nations SchoolNet, both programs of Industry Canada. The legacy of this initiative has been capacity-building within the communities, to enable people there to continue to document their stories in video, both those related to Smart activities, and others of self-expression. The Case Studies, with linked video interviews, are integral to this evaluation report as evidence of “Outcomes”. (Appendix 5, Case Studies) 2.0 Background and Description of Project This evaluation focuses on the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project and the work of K-Net Services, a program of Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO) tribal council, in implementing and managing the project. The Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project has enabled the KO tribal council, through K-Net Services, to provide a range of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to First Nations in remote regions of northwestern Ontario. The project was initially focused on the communities of Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake,

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and Poplar Hill, but the reach of the project eventually expanded to include Nishnawbe Aski First Nations (NAN) across Ontario, and other First Nations communities across Canada. Approximately 2,800 people live in the Keewaytinook Okimakanak communities. Deer Lake is the largest community with a total population of 850. There are 314 people living in North Spirit Lake, 316 in Poplar Hill, 470 in the community of Fort Severn, and 539 in Keewaywin. (This figure reflects the status Indian population on reserve (2,489) and seasonal workers employed by the Band such as teachers, health workers, and contract workers (300)).2.

The KO communities are part of Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), located in northern Ontario, across an area roughly the size of France. NAN includes a total population of approximately 25,000 people. The majority of this population is aboriginal and lives in remote communities with 300-900 inhabitants. For many communities, the only year- round access into or out of their area is by small airplane. In 1999 Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO), the Northern Chiefs Council, representing five member communities, entered a national Canadian competition, sponsored by Industry Canada, for a CAD $5 million grant that had to be matched with an additional $5 million from other sources. The project was selected in April 2000 as the only

Aboriginal Smart Community Demonstration Project for all of Canada. Industry Canada was particularly interested in supporting projects that were developed with communities, not for them. The agency was also interested in ensuring that project lessons and impacts were well documented so that others could learn from the chosen demonstration projects. K-Net Services, based in Sioux Lookout, is the local KO agency charged with implementing the project. [Appendix 5, Case Study – Executive Summary] 2.1 Project Goal and Objectives The goal of the Kuh-ke-nah Network of SMART First Nations project is to demonstrate how First Nation communities can collaboratively use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to re-determine their relationship with Canada and the world. This goal is embedded in meeting three primary objectives as articulated in the SMART proposal. ICTs must:

• Contribute to community well-being in a tangible way; • Support community autonomy, self-determination and governance; and, • Enhance community capacity for sustainable development.

2 Data is drawn from: the Sioux Lookout Area Aboriginal Management Board’s 1998 Human Resource Study

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2.2 Project Management Approach The Kuh-ke-nah network acts as an incubator for the development of online applications that combine voice, video and data services in the service of First Nation communities and their organizations. A collaborative and creative project management approach combines with broadband high-speed connectivity solutions to enable network users and their organizations to harness and employ ICTs for applications they deem appropriate. A “community-owned and managed” framework for project governance is the incentive for the collaborative and creative project management approach. 2.3 Project Governance Along with building a “smart” network, Kuh-ke-nah planners originally envisioned building a “smart” organization that would be able to effectively contribute to the development and sustainability of both the network, and the applications used by communities. The attention paid to building a community owned and managed initiative has been key to the project. The Kuh-ke-nah Network initiative is community owned and managed. Community engagement has been the foundation of the collaborative and creative network and program management approach adopted by KO Chiefs in each of the five communities, and K-Net Services. The KO Chiefs have directed the development of the network and continue to provide oversight for the directions and development undertaken by their staff, via K-NET Services. Staff members are strongly encouraged to ensure that individual program elements are locally managed and owned. Recommendation: Getting communities involved in the planning and implementation of broadband connectivity solutions and applications - moving towards the connections in the urban centers - supports local innovation and capacity building. These communities will be better prepared to be the providers of online services and resources making them owners of their local networks and producers of local socio-economic opportunities. Initial Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations community engagement planning (Appendix 6, 1999 Community Planning Workshops) enabled community members to take responsibility for on-going involvement in the development and direction of the network. Based on the success of a first round of community engagement planning workshops, ongoing annual workshops were included as a core on-going project activity.

SMART First Nations team members live and work with local organizations and individuals as they introduce ICTs to communities and work with community members to harness those ICTs. Representatives from the different departments within the tribal council form advisory teams with community representatives to determine strategies and development models that are transferable to each community. At the local level, project staff members receive requests and take direction from community leadership. Local workshops and training sessions ensure that the needs of the community are introduced and addressed. Staff

are continuously learning about, and acquiring, facilitation skills to support a consistent and locally delivered process for the development and evaluation of local initiatives.

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Recommendation: In order for a network to be sustainable in a small community, the community needs to be involved in all the development phases and ongoing operation as much as possible. This effort will ensure that all the local organizations and service agencies working with the community will be able to contribute to the ongoing operation and maintenance of the local network so everyone in the community can access these on-line services. Recommendation: The organization should be constantly evolving to keep pace with technology, policies and community demands, while at the same time influencing how the technology is adapted, how policies are formulated, and how community demands are channeled A distributed office management model utilizing extensive applications of ICTs is required to support full-time staff in eight different communities: Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake, Poplar Hill, Balmertown, Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay. Local e-Centres, based in each of the five KO communities are the local hubs for the SMART project. Each delivers a variety of services that enable their staff to have direct contact with individual community members who come to the e-Centres to access the Internet, use ICT equipment, receive training, or simply learn about what the technology can do. E-Centre staff are also available for one-on-one and group training sessions for community members, and provide technical assistance to the schools and clinic. The e-Centres provide another mechanism for ensuring that SMART team members are able to address local needs as they are identified.

Regional workshops and conferences have provided additional opportunities for strengthening community ownership and management, and extending outreach to communities and organizations outside the original group of KO communities. Many of these are documented on-line. 2.4 Project Reporting and Communication

The project has taken a proactive approach to sharing information about project progress and achievements, and encouraging discussion and feedback. Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations plans and progress reports are reviewed by a board of the KO Chiefs. All developments require a board resolution. This further ensures that the project addresses local needs, and that local issues are being appropriately addressed.

Comments from e-Centre managers about their work in the communities: "We introduce the SMART tools, we raise awareness about them, and we help thecommunity with ongoing support," says Raymond Mason, e-Centre Manager forKeewaywin First Nation. "Passing on what I have learned about ICTs to others in the community andencouraging more community members to learn about what computers and ICTs cando for them," is how Darlene Rae, e-Centre Manager, North Spirit Lake, createsawareness in the community of the possibilities available through the Internet. "Introducing the new technologies to the community, such as using videoconferencingnot just for meetings but also for social gatherings to build bridges between thedifferent communities,” is how Oscar Meekis, e-Centre Manager for Deer Lake FirstNation, sees his role.

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Annual Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations program reports, prepared originally for funding agencies, are widely circulated to KO communities, available on-line, and used as resources for workshops and presentations. Reporting also includes an aggressive program for sharing lessons learned and best practices during presentations and at conferences – regionally, nationally and internationally. The goal of this sharing is to attract more partnerships, and stimulate interest in the development of similar projects in other regions and communities. The annual community and business/organization surveys and data collection among all households and businesses/organizations (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report), in each KO community have enabled the project to track and document the changes and developments within each community and across the network. The survey results are reported back to the communities and the KO Chiefs. (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community Workshops Reports) A variety of on-line reporting tools, discussion forums and presentation forums provide avenues for reporting to KO communities and their organizations. As a result, Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations network and application users are able to share ideas and needs. The on-line reporting tools have evolved to enable discussion and sharing of a wide variety of interests. These have served as a repository of project documentation, and a key source of secondary data for the evaluation. The tools include: ▫ Kuh-ke-nah Portal: The K-Net Portal (http://knet.ca). This is the definitive entry-point to

the full suite of K-Net information, archives, links, and communication tools. Included in this portal is an archive of SMART activities (http://smart.knet.ca), including the original proposal to Industry Canada (http://smart.knet.ca/archive/), and a link to an index of Best Practices http://smart.knet.ca/smart2002/practices.html.

▫ K-Net News provides community members the opportunity to post updates and news items to be shared in an open forum (http://knews.knet.ca/search.php). All news items have been archived, indexed according to category, and are searchable by key-words.

▫ K-Net Photo Gallery provides both an open as well as a secure place to post collections of digital photos along with annotations (http://photos.knet.ca).

▫ Workshop and Conferences and Associated Websites (e.g. SMART International Gathering http://smart.knet.ca/international/, and Learning Language – iishikiishiwewin http://language.firstnationschools.ca/

▫ Myknet.org: Personal homepages of K-Net users (http://myknet.org), many of which discuss experiences with the network and applications.

▫ Public chat services (http://chat.knet.ca) ▫ Private e-mail services (http://mail.knet.ca) ▫ Open and closed listserves for various groups (e.g. working-smart@lists.knet.ca for the

Smart Team membership) ▫ Facilitated discussion forums (e.g. http://turning-point.ca)

K-Net has also established a partnership with Wawatay News, a First Nations news agency based in Sioux Lookout, to showcase SMART stories in print and digital format. Beginning in February 2003, Rick Garrick, a Wawatay News reporter, researched and wrote two stories for the Kuh-ke-nah News Page, that appeared in each weekly issue. In total 25 issues featured stories on the SMART Project. Each of the fifty articles contains interviews and information about the work being done by the Kuh-ke-nah Network of SMART First Nations demonstration project. All of these stories are available on-line at http://photos.knet.ca/Kuhkenah-pages. Recommendation: Share experiences and resources with other neighbouring communities with similar challenges and visions to ensure growth and strength in numbers.

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3.0 Evaluation methodology 3.1 Measuring Smart Impacts – Short, Medium and Long-term The underlying vision of the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project is a long-term goal – one which is difficult, if not impossible to measure within the timeframe of the project. This vision remains the guiding principle, the Goal which orients all project activities. To measure the long-term impact of the project on the KO communities is to determine whether the project has achieved its goals, fulfilled its vision. Although one can identify trends towards community well-being, or progress towards the project goal, it was not anticipated that the project would fully reach its goal within the time-frame of the Smart project. The proof of success, and evidence of impact – both positive and negative – will be evident in the much longer term. More tangible are the project Outcomes, which refer to the objectives which can be measured in the medium term, within the time-frame of the project. The Kuh-ke-nah proposal identified a series of medium term outcomes, and indicators of successful achievement of these objectives. Finally, there are the short-term project deliverables, or project Outputs. These are the project activities which KO was contracted to implement in order to achieve the project objectives. These are the KiHS, the e-Centres, the K-Net portal, telehealth programs, and the creation of the network itself.

GOALS:

Measured by IMPACT

OBJECTIVES:

Measured by OUTCOMES

DELIVERABLES:

Measured by OUTPUTS

Long-term goals which articulate the project vision: the achievement of "community well being". These can only be measured over the long term, and are not the core focus of this evaluation.

Mid-term objectives, which are the specific desired outcomes, such as improved educational opportunities, improved access to health services.

Short-term deliverables such as the creation of a grade 9 and 10 program in the KiHS"; a functional Telehealth program, the establishment of e-Centres; creation of the K-Net web portal; and the installation of the high-speed network.

For the purpose of this evaluation we are focusing on OUTCOMES – the achievement of project objectives; and on project OUTPUTS – the successful implementation of the project deliverables. These are viewed in the context of the project’s longer-term goal, which is the achievement of community well-being. The measurement of project impact can only be assessed over time. The goal is the vision, the guiding principle, the beacon, and the direction to which all project activities should be oriented. 3.2 Evaluation Information Sources and Data-gathering Tools The evaluation methodology is community-centred and includes the following sources of information: ▫ Community Members and Project Participants: Review of results of opportunities for

community members to tell their own stories, provide first-person verification of results, and discuss issues such as sustainability and impacts. Primary data from first-person interviews (video, telephone, face-to-face, email, and video-conferencing).

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▫ Project Reports: Secondary data from the core Project reporting tools – reports, K-Net portal.

▫ Household and Business/Organizational Surveys: Results from community surveys conducted annually over a three-year period. (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report)

▫ Community Engagement Workshops (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community

Workshops Reports) 4.0 Proposed Project Deliverables: Broadband Applications and Support Services To achieve the goals and objectives of the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project, a bundle of broadband applications and corresponding support services were planned for each of the participating communities. These were intended to address community demand for ICT-enabled solutions and establish a community platform for introducing advanced informatics applications once the demonstration project phase concluded. These proposed applications and services were: Keewaytinook On-line Secondary School (KiHS) Kuh-ke-nah would support the phased development of on-line access to high school for youth in the five KO communities. The pilot phase would evaluate the experience of Grade 8 students enrolled in an on-line Native studies course. Grade 9 and 10 curriculum would be developed, applied and evaluated during years two and three. Community Information Technology Centres (e-Centres) Community Information Technology Centres would provide a hub for SMART service access and training in each community. A local Coordinator would run the Centre and organize technology transfer workshops and demonstrations. The Centre would provide access to IP videoconferencing, workstations for the disabled and for multi-media production, and act as a central office for the Community Coordinator, Network Technician, and Content Developer. Kuh-ke-nah Portal The Portal was envisioned to be a “community of communities” - a high speed WAN-based gateway that reflects local character and priorities. The Portal was intended to encourage an interactive and collaborative relationship with users by siting iterative web resources that draw on -- and benefit -- local people, organizations, and businesses. The Kuh-ke-nah Portal would also be a showcase for the governance projects, cultural practices, and human services that the network animates and supports. Data Warehouse The Data Warehouse Initiative would facilitate the development and agreement on data policies, procedures, standards and definitions. It would also lend technical support to the development of community and regional database projects. Distributed Health Information Call Centre In the original proposal, it was planned that the network would support an integrated (IP) Internet Protocol environment for dynamic (data/voice) health information delivery. Because of advances in information technology, as well as a partnership with the Northern Ontario Remote Telecommunications Health Network (NORTH) and additional funding from Health Canada, FedNor and other partners, the planned health call centres evolved into a telehealth pilot project. This allows people in the KO communities to link with medical practitioners and specialists at facilities in large, distant urban centres, through highly sophisticated telehealth equipment. Caching/Router Project The aim of this SMART service was to research, evaluate, and market a caching solution that would meet the needs of small schools, and community access sites that are remote and or

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isolated. This was intended to provide efficiencies in bandwidth use – and cost – by caching frequently used sites on the K-Net server to make them more readily accessible. Because of changing environments and opportunities, as well as user demand, the caching/router project evolved to support IP video conferencing and IP telephony services. To enable and support these applications, the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nation project had significant and clearly defined technical and organizational requirements: Broadband Network Deployment Kuh-ke-nah proposed to build a broadband IP network that would terminate in local e-Centres. Each Centre would provide a suite of access services, and interconnect with and manage a local cable “headend” for distribution of high speed data to the home, and to the Band Office, Nursing Station, School, and the Nishnawbe Aski Police Services building. Smart Management and Organization Kuh-ke-nah proposed to integrate ICT and broadband applications throughout all its programs and services to better meet the needs of the member First Nations. The Kuh-ke-nah SMART project is governed by the KO Chief's Council, who are directly accountable to their communities. Local e-Centre Coordinators would be trained to facilitate local planning and to coordinate feedback from communities. The Evaluation Team would provide on-going community workshops and briefings during the evolution of the project. 4.1 Assessment of Outputs/Deliverables Each of these outputs - the proposed broadband applications and support services - has been achieved by the project. Overall, the project has exceeded expectations and has achieved a great deal more, as the SMART project has taken on a life of its own and acted as a catalyzing agency to further the overall goals of a network of First Nations in Canada. It has also attracted the interest of aboriginal nations worldwide, and inspired interest in future collaborations and shared learning. There were significant, unanticipated outcomes that deserve further discussion, and are covered in this report in Section 5.4, Significant Unanticipated Outcomes. 4.2 Sustainability of Output/Deliverables The Smart Demonstration Program provided KO with a grant of $4.65 million, and required the same amount to be sourced from other partners. K-Net was able to bring on board a large number of partners, including the private sector, to come up with the additional funding bases. FedNor (Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario), INAC (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada), Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, HRDC (Human Resources Development Canada) all contributed to the required matching funds, as well as Bell Canada, Cisco, Adcom, and the KO member First Nations, who all provided in-kind support. K-Net has learned to bring these different partners to the table, and created alliances that did not exist before. These alliances have built a network of trust that is K-Net’s most valuable social capital. Although Smart Community funding has come to an end, K-Net has been able to build on these relationships to attract additional resources and partnerships to support the network and the Smart activities. Recommendation: Harness a number of government programs to achieve a multiplier effect in terms of technology, costs and skills development Recommendation: Work with funding programs that understand the importance and value of true broadband connectivity in small communities. If it weren't for FedNor, the federal regional economic development initiative in Northern Ontario, and other funding partners, along with their understanding and commitment to providing these communication tools across the region, the Kuh-ke-nah Network and the millions of dollars invested in this region by both the private and public sector would probably not have taken place.

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K-Net has also been able to leverage its state-of-the-art network, in combination with its considerable experience and skills to provide services to other organizations, resulting in income generation and overall reduced costs. For example, as Regional Management Office for SchoolNet, K-Net received $3.379 million to improve ICT equipment and on-line services in Ontario First Nation schools and communities. K-Net has also developed a set of business models which allow it to reduce costs and provide high quality services. Among other things, K-Net is a network provider that pays for transport services using Bell Canada’s existing network, and satellite services from Telesat. As of October 2003, each community was paying $2,675 per month to K-Net. From this amount, K-Net pays Bell Canada a monthly fee per community of $2,075 for bandwidth. The balance of $600 is made up of $300/month for the T1 (1.5Mbps) Internet access which K-Net buys in bulk, $200 for the shared portion of the Toronto linkup, and $100 for service support that includes service support/ programming routes/ maintenance. The community monthly fee is paid for by a variety of community customers including the KiHS, Telehealth, the Band Office, cable fees, and other programs. Those private residences with cable TV and cable modems pay a monthly fee to the local cable operator. Recommendation: Aggregate demand for video, voice, and data services across the community and provide an integrated solution. Recommendation: Engage the private sector to respond to rural and remote conditions E-Centre staff have been encouraged to think of their e-Centres as a business, and develop strategies for sustainability beyond the SMART project. Some operational revenue has come from the network, and some also from jobs created in the community, such as fixing computers, installing servers, rebooting equipment, general troubleshooting, helping set up web sites for businesses in the community, as well as overall support for the Telehealth and KiHS activities. E-Centres in some of the communities have become cable service providers, and have begun to work out business plans for sustainability. Recommendation: Establish revenue generating services such as technical assistance, website and portal development and hosting. These services will be valuable to businesses and organizations across the community. Recommendation: Train your staff, not the consultants. Support local capacity building opportunities and resources (e.g. training projects, cooperative education, library services, public access sites) to ensure that youth, employment and business development initiatives experience growth and successes.

Recommendation: In order for a network to be sustainable in a small community, the community needs to be involved in all the development phases and ongoing operation as much as possible. This effort will ensure that all the local organizations and service agencies working with the community will be able to contribute to the ongoing operation and maintenance of the local network so everyone in the community can access these on-line services. 5.0 Proposed Outcomes/Objectives In this section we refer to the proposed Outcomes, and the various tracking tools put in place to monitor, measure and report on Outcomes: ▫ Community Engagement Workshop Reports (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community

Workshops Reports)

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Goals and Objectives of Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations Demonstration Project as Identified in the Proposal (Schedule A)

Through the use of Information and Communication Technologies, the Project will: Improve community well-being:

▫ Improved access to educational choices ▫ Improved access to health professionals and medical specialists

Support First Nations self-determination & governance: ▫ Dissemination of SMART results to individual and sectors

Enhance First Nations capacity for sustainable growth and development ▫ Acquisition of ICT skills and knowledge ▫ Development and adoption of ICT products and services in

everyday life well-being.

▫ Community Surveys (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report) ▫ Results-based Management Survey Charts (completed by SMART Project Staff)

(Appendix 1, Schedule A) ▫ Case Studies (Appendix 5, Case Studies)

Only highlights and key points from the Workshop Reports, Community Surveys and Case Studies are included in the body of this report. Full documentation is linked and referenced. RBM Charts are included as a reference tool for monitoring project outcomes. 5.1 Identification of Objectives Pre-project community engagement workshops were held in November and December of 1999 in Red Lake, with representatives from each KO community, to set the foundation for a consultation approach for the overall project, and again in December of 1999 in Fort Severn, to develop the consultation approach at the community level. These workshops provided key input to the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations proposal to Industry Canada’s Smart Communities program, and identified a range of desired results for SMART and other ICT-based projects. (Appendix Project objectives identified during these workshops were improvements in:

• Community well-being • Self-determination and Governance, and • Enhanced Community Capacity.

These primary objectives were included in the Results Based Management (RBM) matrix for the project (Appendix 1, Schedule A) and linked to specific outcomes:

5.2 Community Engagement Workshops

These objectives were identified at the proposal stage of the SMART project in 1999. The SMART Project, however, has been committed from the start to a participatory approach, and to this end the management team scheduled a series of community engagement workshops to review the original objectives with community members, and further refine the objectives, to generate community-based indicators of project achievement, and also to promote the project and educate community members as to “What is SMART?” Workshops were held in each of the five participating communities in 2000, and again in the winter of 2001- 2002. (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community Workshops Reports)

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The 2001-2002 workshops took place during a full week in each of the communities. They were organized according to sector: education, health, and economic development. Community stakeholders from each of these sectors were invited and encouraged to participate each for a full day in these workshops. A common agenda included: ▫ What do you want to achieve during the workshop ▫ Listing of workshop participants, and identification of those who were “missing” ▫ Introduction to the SMART project, and the proposed deliverables ▫ Review and discussion of results of annual community surveys regarding ICTs ▫ Brainstorming of goals and objectives ▫ Identification of potential applications to existing and other possible programs ▫ Identification of indicators of achievement of goals and objectives ▫ Next steps and business planning for the e-Centres ▫ Entertainment, and community feast (open to all community members)

These workshops marked a transformation of the initial project proposal towards community understanding and ownership of the project. They were acknowledged as a key opportunity for marketing and promotion of the project, and also, because of the focus on applications according to the three main sectors – education, health and economic development – they helped community stakeholders involved in these sectors identify with the potential benefits of broadband communication for their sector-specific goals and objectives. The main contribution of the workshop was to bridge the gulf that so often exists between

project planners and community members. It was also an opportunity to create some facilitation and planning skills among KO staff. Representatives from the KO management team in health, education and economic development, as well as technical and multi-media staff from Balmertown and Sioux Lookout, attended these workshops as resource people. Video conferencing with other specialists and management staff during the workshops strengthened the communication and dialogue, with the result of greater project understanding. Not to be underestimated in terms of significance to project advancement were the community feasts, held one evening during the week in each community. These were an open invitation to all families in the communities to come together to celebrate the project and learn more about the new technologies. 5.3 Impact and Importance of Community Engagement Workshops Community Engagement Workshops were an important component of the overall project. In addition to their role in rooting the project plan in a community context, they achieved the following: ▫ Community engagement and involvement of the broader community ▫ Engagement of Chiefs and Band Council in the SMART Project [include pix of

consultation with band in Keewaywin] ▫ Capacity building – enhancement of facilitation skills, planning, understanding of ICTs

and context of project support for e-Centre staff and sectoral representatives ▫ Clarification of project goals and objectives ▫ Understanding and promotion of project within the communities ▫ Consolidation of sectoral stakeholders ▫ Strengthening of partnerships

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▫ Integration of SMART project with related Telehealth and KiHS initiatives ▫ Provision of feedback on community surveys

5.4 From Broad-based to Sectoral Objectives The reconfiguration of project objectives from a broad-based to a sectoral approach is significant on many levels. First, at the community level, it brought together stakeholders during the workshops, and at an individual project level (i.e. Telehealth, KiHS, etc.) with a common purpose who were thereby better able to appreciate the opportunities afforded by the availability of high-speed Internet. Both the Telehealth and the KiHS initiatives were distinct, and initially pilot projects, with their separate though related goals, objectives, budgets and management plans, but both dependent on the broadband infrastructure and the SMART initiative. During workshop brainstorming sessions, participants identified, for each of their sectors: ▫ Goal, according to sector (i.e. Healthy Community, Better Education, Economic

Development) ▫ Existing programs supporting goals ▫ Opportunities for enhancing existing programs with ICTs ▫ Opportunities for new programs available through new ICTs ▫ Indicators of achievement of goals and objectives

The indicators were summarized in a simplified Results-based Management framework, specifying which indicators related to short-term outcomes, and which referred to long-term results. Some of the indicators were integrated into the annual survey questionnaire for households and for local organizations. Community workshop reports documented these discussions. (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community Workshops Reports) Recommendation: Have a long-term vision and plan locally. Keep up with changes locally and nationally that can impact on your network, both positively and negatively. 5.5 Indicators from Community Engagement Workshops

Community engagement workshops held in each of the five KO communities from 2000 to 2003 brought together key stakeholders in each of three designated sectors: education, health and economic development. These workshops were an opportunity for community members to learn more about the project, and through a series of facilitated exercises, participants worked together to identify useful applications of high-speed Internet, and indicators of success. These indicators were not categorized as to their short/medium or long-term relevance. Instead, they were grouped together, and represent an indication of where the

community would like the SMART project to take them. These indicators represent the aspirations of community stakeholders. Full listings of community-generated indicators are available in the Community Engagement Workshop Reports. (Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community Workshops Reports)

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The community workshop process which enabled the generation of these indicators is noteworthy as a capacity-building exercise. Community workshop exercises, which were used in the planning workshops and later community engagement workshops, have been passed on to community members, who have used and adapted similar processes in subsequent related workshops. Education - Outcome and Impact Indicators from Community Engagement Workshop: ▫ Students maintain their Native language ▫ More training and education opportunities ▫ Students getting credit for high school ▫ More students and adults achieving higher education ▫ People taking courses at home ▫ Adults upgrading and enhancing their education level ▫ Youth performs on par with others in Ontario ▫ More Native / community members trained ▫ More people use on-line training ▫ Number of students in KiHS ▫ Number of successful students in KiHS ▫ Level of computer / Internet literacy

Health - Outcome and Impact Indicators from Community Engagement Workshop: ▫ Increase in the use of traditional medicine ▫ Diseases like TB and diabetes are controlled

or reduced ▫ Suicide rates are reduced ▫ Community members are more informed

about health issues ▫ More health information is shared with the

young generation ▫ Fewer teen pregnancies ▫ People better understand the effects of drugs

and alcohol ▫ More people are going for treatment ▫ More people coming for counseling ▫ New moms know more about good diet ▫ Less alcohol abuse ▫ Less stressed people ▫ Better awareness related to diabetes ▫ Hygiene awareness ▫ Pregnant moms are more aware about the use

of drugs, alcohol, and smoke ▫ Trained medical escort ▫ Trained paramedics ▫ Have more specialized training for the medical

staff ▫ Less people travelling to see a physician ▫ Better care for patients ▫ Satisfaction by elders for the services provided

Economic Development - Outcome and Impact Indicators from Community Engagement Workshop: ▫ Sales through e-Commerce ▫ More businesses ▫ Locally owned tourist camp ▫ Web sites promoting tourism

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▫ Increased number of training courses ▫ Increased number of business partners ▫ Buildings and facilities: e.g. arena, community complex, TV station, hotel, sports facilities,

laundromat, theatre, library, fitness centre, bowling alley, mini-mall, apartment complex, arcade, garage and gas, training centre, computer store, youth centre, bingo hall restaurant, e-Centre

▫ More engineers and experts living in the community ▫ Improved roads (including all-season roads) ▫ Presence of Economic Development Officer in the community ▫ Fiscal management ▫ More jobs ▫ More native nurses in the community ▫ Better facilities at airport ▫ Ministry of Natural Resources transfers know-how to community ▫ More trails ▫ GIS expertise in community ▫ Business plans and proposals for economic activities ▫ Land-use planning that reflects traditional values ▫ Micro-fishery ▫ Economic activities that promote traditional activities (e.g. show-shoe-making, hides and

tanning, birds, goose-hunt, etc.) ▫ Community store ▫ Marketing and sales of arts and crafts ▫ Community-based web design ▫ Retail enterprises (e.g. barber shop, salon, clothing, toys, stationery, sleds, video, art,

bakery, etc.) ▫ Recording studio in community ▫ Better business management skills ▫ Skills development/learning centre ▫ Better security in community ▫ Less air travel – reduction in costs ▫ More people in community ▫ Reduced welfare dependency – more jobs ▫ Self-sustaining community projects – e.g. gardening, livestock, ▫ Fire-protection program – fire truck ▫ More cash staying in the community ▫ Taxi service ▫ Improved hydro facilities

These indicators are significant, not so much because they can assist us in the measurement of impact or achievement of objectives, but because they represent community values and needs, and are largely a representation of what community stakeholders see as what they would like to achieve through the SMART project. These indicators were generated by creative brain-storming sessions, which, apart from educating communities about the Project itself, helped workshop participants understand the relationship between ICTs and their specific needs and aspirations. 5.6 Community Surveys Community Surveys were conducted in each of the KO communities throughout the project. The purpose of the surveys was to capture data on use of ICTs and other information related to culture, heritage and impact of ICTs. Questionnaires were developed and pretested, then administered at households, businesses and organizations. Most significant was the base-line data gathered at the outset of the project in 2000. These initial surveys were conducted for the most part by e-Centre staff, and in subsequent years by summer students. Data from the surveys do have some limitations, though the results, presented in graph format with text interpretation, have been valuable as a tool for discussion and feedback at the community level. They are also a

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useful archive for ongoing and future assessment of project impact. This evaluation report does reference the community survey reports selectively, with links and references to the full reports. This is largely because of the acknowledged limitations of quantitative measurement of impacts and outcomes. (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report) 5.7 Case Studies: Education, Health, Economic Development, Network The production of a series of Case Studies on the SMART Project, commissioned by Industry Canada and the Institute for Communication for the Americas (ICA), (International Development Research Centre - IDRC), analyze and showcase the SMART First Nation Project according to the sectoral framework. These studies, completed in the spring of 2004 provide a concise description of project activities. They also identify some of the lessons learned and best practices. The University of Guelph, in partnership with the TeleCommons Development Group and SMART Project staff, conducted the research and completed the series of five case studies. It was during the creation of these case studies that video became a key communication medium for capturing the SMART stories, and when KO community members began to learn the fundamentals of video production for the documentation of local stories and evaluation testimonials. It was intended that these case studies would be an integral component in the final SMART Evaluation Report. These multi-media case studies, and the ensuing and ongoing compilation of video documentation, were intended to be the solution to the challenge of capturing the stories of impact of the SMART Project. The case studies include narrative description of the SMART Project (Education, Health, Economic Development, Network Development). They also include video documentation of testimonials of project impact, some of which are also transcribed in text. These testimonials, from community members as well as project staff, convey the impact of the SMART Project more effectively than any of the quantitative measurement tools. Appendix 5, Case Studies)

5.8 Summary of Outcomes This Summary references the various tracking mechanisms that were put in place for linking indicators to outcomes. These include the Results-based Management framework from the proposal to Industry Canada (Appendix 1, Schedule A); the multi-media Case Studies created by the evaluation team with the support of the Institute for Connectivity for the Americas (ICA) and Industry Canada’s SchoolNet (Appendix 5, Case Studies); the Community Surveys (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report); information from K-Net reports and other documentation; as well as quotes from community members. OBJECTIVE: IMPROVED ACCESS TO EDUCATIONAL CHOICES Results-based Management Matrix - Outcomes – Education A Results-based Management Matrix was included in the SMART Proposal (Appendix 1, Schedule A). This identified specific desired outcomes, linked to Results, in terms of education:

Outcome: Improved Access to Educational Choices

Objectively Verifiable Indicators Results 10% overall growth in KiHS enrolment Thirteen First Nations KiHS classroom open in

September 2002, with nearly 200 students starting classes, and 143 students on nominal roll – a 55% increase from 2001

K-Net signs agreement with eight additional communities to deliver KiHS

For the 2003-04 season there were KiHS classrooms in 13 communities: Bearskin Lake,

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Cat Lake, Deer Lake, Eabametoong, Fort Severn, Fort William, Keewaywin, Kejick Bay, North Spirit Lake, Poplar Hill, Sachigo Bay, Weagamow, and Webequie. Under the INAC funding agreement, KiHS is now capped at being able to serve thirteen First Nations.

Ontario Ministry of Education certifies G10 on-line curriculum

MOE Regional Director of Education monitors teacher, course, and student work on regular basis. Curricula for both Grades 9 and 10 have been certified.

Teacher Professional Development website launched

Teacher professional development website launched on July 2002 (all reference materials posted, on-line course for teachers delivered using e-learning tools, on-going discussion forum, orientation workshop delivered)

Professional Development website registers 500 or more hits per student each month

This number is surpassed due to web-based e-learning environment

KiHS learners rate on-line schooling as good / very good in annual surveys

Students are successfully obtaining Grade 9 and 10 credits for completion of their courses. No annual survey of KiHS students was completed. Grade 8 courses are rated by students and teaching staff and found to be very well received by everyone

Access to Educational Choices – Summary of Outcomes: The project has met this objective through the successful establishment of the KiHS in each of the KO communities, and surpassed this objective through the expansion of the KiHS initiative to 10 other communities, and other related educational initiatives. As well, First Nations in Manitoba and in Treaty 3 are now planning their own Internet-based High School program based on the Keewaytinook Internet High School model after reviewing the KiHS business case and program proposal to INAC. Until recently, in order to continue their education after Grade 8, KO children were forced to leave their families and communities to attend secondary schools hundreds of kilometres away. For many young people, this involved major culture shock and a loss of social support, and often resulted in students quitting school. Many First Nations parents and grandparents are still reluctant to send their children to high school in other communities because of the devastating experiences they faced in Indian Residential Schools. In 2000, KO began an experiment to pave the way for what has become a model of innovation in distance-education. Driven by community need, individual commitment, and persistence in overcoming technological and financial challenges, the Keewaytinook Internet High school (KiHS) pilot project was launched. This pilot project linked 36 Grade 8 students in Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake and Poplar Hill. Students were based in a local classroom setting in each of the communities with their own teacher mentor. The students also interacted online with each other and with a Native Studies instructor who was based 2,000 kilometres away in Kingston, Ontario. The KiHS project faced numerous challenges. At the beginning, bandwidth and Internet connection speeds were slow. Some of the communities did not even have telephones when the pilot started. As well, teachers had no previous experience in this method of mentoring students in a local classroom while also acting as a subject specialist/instructor to students in the other distant communities. A curriculum for high school distance-education appropriate for remote First Nations learners still had to be developed. And because computers and the Internet were fairly new technologies being introduced as key learning tools, both the students and teachers had a lot to learn. (Appendix 5, Case Studies)

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Community member statements

"The KiHS service that KO sponsors is probably one of the best things that’s happened to this community. It’s helping those students who are unable to stay in school down south, and they have a choice to stay a little longer in the communities with their parents." Matthew Kakekaspan, Chief Executive Officer "Kids were leaving the community at a very young age. I went out when I was 12 years old. It was very difficult. A lot of our kids were dropping out because of cultural shock, homesickness. We wanted to keep them longer in the communities so they could mature before they go out. We’ve always been a part of the land. It was the biggest thing I missed when I went out to school."

George Kakekaspan, Special Projects Coordinator

“I have been going to high school in my community. I have been in the Keewaytinook Internet High School (KiHS) program for 2 years now. KiHS is a great program that enables me to earn high school credits while I stay home with my friends and family. I have met the KiHS Staff and some of the teachers on-line. I have gotten all my computer skills there and I’m learning more things about the Internet, high school work and computers. K-Net has helped me learn more high school work. I believe it’s starting to be easy now. All communities are connected to the Internet by satellite dish. We also can communicate together easier and faster with other communities and other places around the world.”

Martha Quedant, Kejick Bay “Now they don’t have to go out there and leave their families behind [for school and training courses]” Chief John McKay of Keewaywin. Wawatay, January 15 2004: KO Chiefs speak about ICTs in their Community [http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11/act] “I have been teaching in Cat Lake for 4 years now. For 3 of those years, I have been fortunate to work for Keewaytinook Internet High School (KiHS). KiHS is a great program that enables students to earn high school credits while remaining in their community.

The students I have met and worked with in Cat Lake have not only gained high school credits but they have also increased their computer skills. All their skills will be valuable for them and their community in the future. Not only have the students been taught, but they have also taught me a great deal about their lives.

Jeremy Snihur, Cat Lake

"We had a young man who decided to stay in the community when KiHS first started. He stayed in the community because he hunts almost every day. It gives him the opportunity to stay behind… in the community an extra two years. He was able to go school, and also go out on the land after school, which is a good thing."

Madeleine Stoney, e-Centre Manager

"You wanted to have an Internet high school to keep the kids in the communities rather than having them fly out. From here, the closest high school is about 700km away. So some kid 14 years old would have to fly that far and board in school. It just doesn’t work very well."

Carl Seibel, FedNor

"Now after four years, their grammar has improved dramatically for the English language and they can keyboard without even looking at the keyboard. They’re really fast and it’s one of the things they’ve picked up. They can do a lot more stuff than I can, and they’re only ten to fourteen years old."

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George Kakekaspan, Special Projects Coordinator

"When the Smart project started, we equipped each classroom with a computer. They had two computers in each classroom as well as a printer. We established a computer lab at the school, so all the kids right from K4 were able to use the computer. I think they picked up their computer skills quite easily… I would say most of the students at the school now have web pages, where they’re also picking up web design skills - they’re able to use those frequently."

Madeleine Stoney, e-Centre Manager “My nephew was able to earn two credits from KiHS before he attended high school (outside the community). I personally know a couple of people who are taking on-line university courses. They have families and jobs, and they can get their education without having to leave their community.”

Diane Bluecoat, Fort Severn "Everything falls into the computer. My job involves computers – everything I do. We have Internet access, we have homepages; we have a new homepage that we are making right now. Basically we’re just teaching ourselves and training ourselves to understand these new tools that are being brought to us."

David McKay, Multi-media Coordinator I worked for Keewaytinook Okimakanak High School, it really opened my eyes for the upgraded technology we have today as a group of people. The workshops that are held in Balmertown are really exciting and it helps show you all kinds of methods of receiving and delivering certain kinds of mail, and the fancy things you can do with your Inbox. All but not least, the homepages are amazing. Keep up the good work guys 'n' gals...

Liz Bunting

"I think that having syllabics online, and teaching others that don’t know how to speak their language, or write their language…I speak it, but I don’t know how to write it or read it. So it would be a benefit for me if I could just take something online to teach myself how to write this stuff."

Madeleine Stoney, e-Centre Manager

"One of the biggest obstacles I have is computer skills because I never really worked on computers before. But I’m very lucky in that capacity because my daughter and my friend’s daughter have been able to help me with it. They’re more like my teachers on the computer. "

Julie Meekis, Telehealth Coordinator "You can do research on a computer. If you want to know anything about stress, you just press stress.com. It’ll give you information, links for where else to go for information on stress… Anything you want to know, you can get it from the Internet."

Lawrence Mason, Mental Health Coordinator

"We have a new medical school (Northern Ontario Medical School) (NOMS) that’s going to be a virtual medical school, and the emphasis is going to be on rural medicine, training doctors to practice in these rural sectors. That’s because the infrastructure exists. This type of medical school has never been built and developed. It tears down a lot of these walls and makes it possible for institutions to reach out and be part of the community, instead of always having people leaving to participate in an institutional environment."

Brian Beaton, K-Net Services Coordinator I'm writing to you to tell how much experience I had in Kejick Bay with K-Net. It was a very educational experience with K-Net. I learned how to take off the virus with a student

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who has been there ever since she finished grade 8. Bobb Dyer was our teacher for grade 8 science for K-Net. But it wasn't my first choice where I wanted to go to high school it was my second choice where I wanted go. My first choice was Queen Elizabeth District High School because what I wanted is to know how to do some research in the library, meet lots of new friends, and I wanted to be smart in advanced courses. So far I'm doing all this in these courses.

Ronald Quoquat, Kejick Bay OUTCOME: IMPROVED ACCESS TO HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND MEDICAL SPECIALISTS Results-based Management Matrix Outcomes – Health The SMART Proposal (Appendix 1, Schedule A) identified specific desired outcomes in terms of Health: Improved access to health professionals and medical specialists.

Outcome: Improved access to health professionals and medical specialists Objectively Verifiable Indicators Results Telehealth website is launched Web site was launched in December 2001. It

was updated in June 2003 to its present format.

80% or more people living in KO communities rate access to health services as better/far better

Reference: NORTH Network Telehealth evaluation (March 2004) and Telepsychiatry evaluation (December 2002), and ongoing assessment of telehealth activities on the KO Telehealth web site. Patient satisfaction forms are completed and submitted to NORTH Network for clinical applications.

Health practitioners rate telehealth services as satisfactory or very satisfactory

Physician and nurse satisfaction forms collected and submitted to NORTH Network (Telehealth Evaluation Report March 2004)

Telehealth Network statistics show minimum of 5 teleradiology images transferred each month between Fort Severn/Deer Lake & the Sioux Lookout Zone Hospital

Teleradiology project managed by Thunder Bay Regional Health Centre with digital x-rays being stored in Thunder Bay and read by radiologist in Sioux Lookout.

Community Health Records indicate that the following health specialty services are delivered at least once over the telehealth network: Diabetic counseling, Paediatric, Psychiatric, ENT, and Dermatology

All specialties are recorded and presented on-line on the KO Telehealth web site under Monthly Statistics. Over 40 different specialties have been accessed throughout the Smart project.

KO telehealth training curricula is prepared and posted in the web site

The entire First Nations Telehealth Coordinator Training Manual is available on-line for staff members only. Several presentations have been made to the Canadian Telehealth Society annual conference over the past three years about this training manual.

KO health statistics show year over year reduction in patient transfers

Patient transportation information is tracked by Health Canada. This information is summarized in the initial Telehealth consultation report used to develop the initial telehealth pilot project and then updated again

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for the expansion of the telehealth project to include all 24 remote First Nation health centers in the Sioux Lookout Zone.

Improved access to health professionals and medical specialists: Summary of Outcomes Isolation and lack of medical services in Canada's remote Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations communities has meant that people have had to fly out to hospitals hundreds of kilometres away for medical treatment, which can cost thousands of dollars per flight. When people in the KO communities were asked how they wanted to use broadband information and communication technologies, improved health services was a priority. In 1999, KO entered into a partnership with the Northern Ontario Remote Telecommunications Health (NORTH) Network, which allowed people in the communities to access medical professionals in distant locations through the use of remote diagnostics, videoconferencing, and other specialized Internet tools facilitated by local telehealth coordinators. Reduced travel is one of the benefits of the telehealth program, but it also provides improved health services, access to specialists, and less isolation for nurses visiting the communities. Telepsychiatry is an important component of the program, linking patient and mental health practitioners for videoconferencing consultations. The K-Net system is also being used in many informal ways to improve the mental and emotional health of KO communities. Online communication between family and friends separated by distance can help people cope in times of stress. Plans are now underway to expand the KO telehealth initiative to include all 24 remote First Nation health centers in the Sioux Lookout Zone. "The common priority for broadband development and implementation was health care services. The need for distributed health informatics was expressed a cross sectors and was described in several forms. Most often, people talked about the tele-consultative opportunities that network access could bring. Another aspect of service was access to continuing medical education. Similarly, health care professionals and community people identified ways that broadband services might let them share best and local practices with other communities.3" (Appendix 5, Case Studies) Community member statements – Improved access to health professionals and medical specialists

“Somebody recently saw a doctor in Vancouver through Telehealth. Instead of waiting for appointments, patients have greater access to a specialist through Telehealth.”

Chief Roy Gray of Fort Severn. Wawatay, January 15 2004: KO Chiefs speak about ICTs in their Community ([http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11/act)

“If an old person goes through Telehealth, they don’t have to fly out.”

Chief Jimmy Rae of North Spirit Lake. Wawatay, January 15 2004: KO Chiefs speak about ICTs in their Community (http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11/act)

3 Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations Telecommunications Consultation Report – May 1999

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"We had a middle-aged female patient come in with a diabetic ulcer on her leg that wasn’t healing. We used the telehealth to let the doctor have a look at the leg and actually see what was going on, and he was able to prescribe a course of treatment that was effective in healing it. It took a while, but it did work and prevented the client from having to travel out, wait, see a doctor, come back, and then start treatment."

Bonnie Hodgson, Nurse "With the elderly, I find that I really have to coach them to come in, but once they realize what goes on, they say like the other people that it is good that we do not need to go out of the community. A lot of those elders, I think the only time they go out is for surgery, but other than that, they get seen here by the nurses or by telehealth with the doctor in Sioux Lookout."

Julie Meekis, Telehealth Coordinator

"We need to find ways to use telehealth more. We have a Mental Health Consultant who’s hired to come in here to the community every month and it’s costing us a lot of money to bring her in… There’s a waiting list, and when she comes in, she sees about 45-50 clients in 5 days."

Daisy Kabestra, Health Centre Director “The patients see the psychiatrist through teleconferencing. They feel comfortable. It’s almost like you’re in the same room – that’s what it starts to feel like after a while.”

Lawrence Mason, Mental Health Worker

“I think it might be very beneficial to older clients and to clients who don’t want to leave the community but who want high level health care. Our evaluations have shown that patient satisfaction is very high, and we want to offer that benefit to all First Nations people in the Sioux Lookout Zone.”

Donna Williams, Regional Telehealth Coordinator "One of the biggest obstacles I have is computer skills because I never really worked with computers before – but I am very lucky in that capacity because my daughter and my friend’s daughter who is eleven years old have been able to help me with it. When I am stuck, they come to the office and they show me how. They are more like my teachers on the computer… We are just getting trained on the stethoscope for the cardiac machine and… I am still not up to it because it is computerized too – I am not too comfortable with the computer. I am scared I may make a mistake and then what I send out there will be all mumble jumble."

Julie Meekis, Telehealth Coordinator

"The computer to me is vital – there is all kinds of information, teaching and learning programs…If you want to know anything about stress, it will be on the Internet…A couple of days ago, I had a youth come into the office. We used the computer to look up treatment homes… like what programs the treatment home had to offer. Anything you want to know, you can get from the Internet…from anger management, depression, stress, different kinds of phobias, your research is on the computer."

Lawrence Mason, Mental Health Coordinator

A seven year old child was seen through telehealth for follow-up with the specialist, whom she had been seeing at the Fracture Clinic in Thunder Bay Regional hospital. She had fractured her wrist and was referred to a pediatric orthopedic doctor for consultation by the community physician. The child had a closed reduction under general anesthetic and needed to be reassessed after three weeks. On her last follow-up appointment with her doctor, it was arranged for her to be seen through telehealth by the community physician and this was approved. Dr

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Remus (orthopedic doctor) agreed to see her through telehealth. Thunder Bay Regional hospital was connected with Fort Severn telehealth, and everything went perfect during clinical session. We had no problems with the connections. The child was delighted and awed when she saw her doctor on the monitor. She did not expect to see this kind of health service in her community. It was an exciting day for both mother and child during that time. The trip to Thunder Bay was avoided. Telehealth services have made a lot of changes since telehealth started. It is convenient for people that don’t like to travel or can’t travel due to various reasons.

Jessie Matthews, Community Telehealth Coordinator, Fort Severn

“Yes, I have heard about Telehealth and I think it is very useful in our community. The reason why I like Telehealth is because our people don’t have to go out for appointments. They can see the doctor here in Keewaywin. I think it’s important that Telehealth listens to the people on how they wish to improve Telehealth but I don’t see any problems. The nurses are doing a good job. Tele-Health is something else we can use to care for the patients. That’s what I experienced from coming to the Clinic. There are many health services in the Clinic, the only thing I would recommend is that we get an x-ray technician like they do in the bigger communities

Naomi Kakegamic

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Community Survey Results Each of the graphs produced for this report is from the data collected annually by the First Nation workers in each of the participating communities. The number of respondents (N) changes from year to year but the resulting percentages represent a fair presentation of the results of this work. Community survey results demonstrate the sharp increase in video-conferencing use for health-related reasons between 2000 and 2003. (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report)

Use of video-conferencing for health reasons during 2000 - 2003 periodKO Communities

n = (2000) = 0, (2001) = 42, (2002) = 71, (2003) = 58

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2000 2001 2002 2003

Per

cent

OUTCOME: DISSEMINATION OF SMART RESULTS TO INDIVIDUALS AND SECTORS Results-based Management Matrix Outcomes – Dissemination of SMART results The SMART Proposal (Appendix 1, Schedule A) identified specific desired outcomes in terms of Dissemination of SMART results to individuals and sectors. Objective: Dissemination of SMART results to individuals and sectors Objectively Verifiable Indicators Results Three regional governance database projects are available on the Internet

1. K-News – http://knews.knet.ca is a tool for posting local and regional news items about meetings, updates and general interest information. Database is searchable and supports users from

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across the region to submit news. 2. User databases – e-mail, homepages

and photo galleries are maintained and supported on an on-going basis with new users added daily and an increased usage from month-to-month with over thousands of daily visits and hundreds of thousands of daily hits.

3. Network Traffic and Management Database – used by Industry Canada to assist in the development of the National Satellite Initiative. Used by local technicians to identify traffic requirements and potential problems with spam or viruses.

Conference evaluation shows that 65 delegates from 90% of NAN First Nations attend the first SMART conference

A NAN-wide conference was held February, 2002 to showcase and discuss the SMART project. There were over 100 representatives from over 50 NAN communities in attendance.

KO community governance databases are rated good or very good by peers at Year Two SMART conference

Year Two conference involved a series of virtual hosted displays and exhibitions delivered in partnership with various other organizations and events. All the databases and information was shared at these events but no formal rating system was undertaken. The usage of these ICTs and databases increased substantially after each of these events. See http://smart.firstnation.ca/ - past conferences for a list and archive of these events.

INAC & KO communities sign MOU on data warehousing

Minister of INAC worked with KO to deliver a variety of live, interactive on-line events including announcements, special meetings and exhibitions. MOU’s with INAC included the operation and evaluation of the on-line internet-based secondary school program and the on-line governance consultation process and a financial management support system for First Nations.

A comprehensive SMART lessons learned/project best practices CD distributed to 600 First Nations

SMART lessons learned were published on the Industry Canada Smart Communities web site as well as on the K-Net portal at http://smart.knet.ca/smart2002/practices.html

KO / SMART coordination meeting records are posted annually

Records of all KO/SMART Communities meetings have been posted on the K-Net portal

KO / SMART Board meetings results are posted on the web site

Records of all KO/SMART Communities meetings have been posted on the K-Net portal

Financial statements are released five days after being approved by the Board of Directors

All Financial statements are available upon request to the KO Finance Manager for approved funding bodies.

Community Member Statements: Dissemination of SMART results

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The time that I spent teaching in Poplar Hill and Fort Severn First Nations and my ongoing experience with other K-Net funded projects have given me a new appreciation for the Internet and the diversity of the First Nation communities who utilize it. High speed Internet is allowing people in First Nation communities to share their successes and address common struggles in new and innovative ways. With the emergence of collective online programs in education, health and other social services and the onslaught of personal and community-based Internet sites, it is becoming increasingly difficult to refer to fly-in First Nation communities as "isolated" places. A few years ago, Mathew Coon Come, then head of the Assembly of First Nations, said, "We missed the Industrial Revolution. We will not miss the Information Technology Revolution." It only takes a short visit to the K-Net website (www.K-Net.ca) to see just how true this statement really is.

Fernando Oliveira, course instructor for the Grade 8 Supplementary Program

I was the first female Chief in Fort Severn and I along with the other Keewaytinook Okimakanak Chiefs lobbied in 1997 for the Telemedicine project to come to Fort Severn. It has been good to connect with families that live far away and to send messages to them, too, especially to write to the high school kids that are in town or cities. I was hoping when I signed the agreement for these programs that they would turn out well and so far it has been very excellent!!! I can write to my friends all over the place. This is one of the good things that I did for my community.

Maria Thomas, Fort Severn

K-Net has helped us a great deal in enabling our communities to be connected by the web. We can communicate easier and faster with other communities and other places around the world. Communication brings us together and makes us stronger.

Even with all these advances, we still need to remember the past. The words, stories, and traditions of Elders need to be preserved and K-Net provides the technology to do that. I would like to see a place where we can view the stories and listen to words of Elders. K-Net provides us some examples in the "Language" and "Arts and Crafts" sections but maybe we need more of that in order to keep a record of traditional knowledge.

Jeremy Snihur, Cat Lake

The only experiences I had with K-net is I found out I have family & friends in communities I didn't know existed or forgot about, and to keep in touch with everyone. K-Net services have helped in ways to communicate with people I rarely talk to in person. K-Net has come a long way to service the North. K-Net deserves to be applauded for all the things they have done to improve better communication.

Jesse Brown, Pipestone

I really enjoy K-Net. It helps me to browse for information about the First Nations communities, and of course happenings in each reserve.

Barry Roundhead OBJECTIVE: ACQUISITION OF ICT SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE Objective: Acquisition of ICT Skills and Knowledge Objectively Verifiable Indicators Results

e-Centre logs in 5 communities show that 500 people are served each year use community access facilities

All households in the KO communities are now able to connect to the Internet at 1mbps or higher. This has resulted in shifting role for the

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e-Centres, which still do provide Internet access. Community Surveys in Year One indicated that the e-Centres were the primarily location for Internet access.

15 SMART employees achieve 60% or higher on exit testing for skills development programs

SMART employees in each of the KO First Nations participated in a variety of workshops and training environments. Individual assessments were determined using a variety of strategies including successful completion of assigned tasks, job performance reviews whenever problem areas were identified, local feedback and satisfaction reviews, community visits, etc. Over the three years of the SMART project a total of nine community employees who started with the SMART project remained with the project to the end (i.e. 60%). The majority of the other employees who completed the project worked on the project for more than a year. Everyone working on the project gained 100% in their skills in all the different aspects of supporting and developing their local community networks and supporting local broadband applications.

e-Centre logs show that 50% of the population attends a digital literacy workshop

Most community training took place on a one-to-one basis. The number of e-mail accounts in each community is a good indicator of the engagement of the local population with ICTs. In all the KO Smart First Nations, over 90% of the population has e-mail accounts with the majority also developing and maintaining their own web pages.

Community portals are launched in the five communities

Community portals have been launched for each of the five KO communities: ▫ http://www.deerlake.firstnation.ca/ ▫ http://www.fortsevern.firstnation.ca/ ▫ http://www.keewaywin.firstnation.ca/ ▫ www.nsl.firstnation.ca ▫ www.poplarhill.firstnation.ca

Portal registers 1000 or more hits per community per month by year end

The statistics for the K-Net portal are available on-line and have been reported monthly as a K-News article. With a monthly average of over 150,000 visits and over 4 million hits, there is a strong indication that the local sites are also being accessed on a regular basis.

Web based reports reveal a minimum of two workshops per community take place from January to March 2003

Video-conferenced meetings and workshops were conducted on a regular basis for community workers and residents. A variety of local events and community engagement workshops reported throughout this report highlight the level of involvement of everyone in the development and maintenance work being undertaken within this initiative.

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OBJECTIVE: DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION OF ICT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN EVERYDAY LIFE Objective: Development and Adoption of ICT Products and Services in Everyday life Objectively Verifiable Indicators Results Household High Speed Internet service tests show that 90% of homes are able to connect at 1 mbps or higher

All households in the KO communities are able to connect to the Internet at 1mbps or higher. Local cable plants were either upgraded (Deer Lake and Fort Severn) or installed (Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake and Poplar Hill). Internet connections and local technical support is owned and managed by the individual First Nations.

K-Net produced revenues increase from FY 1999-2000 baseline by 12.5% in each year

Network infrastructure growth provides additional revenues for the ongoing operation and maintenance requirements for the regional and national connections. Strategic partnerships with other Aboriginal Networks and organizations provide a strong foundation for future growth of infrastructure as well as applications that address local needs and priorities. Additional programs and services are being added as the capacity and funding becomes available. Throughout the SMART project, fundraising and program development resulted in investments of millions of dollars across the region resulting in network growth, new applications and partnerships.

MOU signed between K-Net and each First Nation transferring SMART infrastructures (Help Desk, e-Centre, high speed LAN) to local ownership & control

It has been a policy and an operating principle that SMART infrastructure and management is based in individual local communities. Developing and supporting local capacity to maintain and operate their network infrastructure and applications has always been a program priority throughout the SMART project.

K-Net signs agreements with eight additional communities to deliver KiHS & telehealth services

The KiHS is now operating in thirteen First Nation communities. The telehealth program has been extended to an additional 19 communities. There are over 60 points-of-presence (POPs) on the Kuh-ke-nah Network accessing broadband connectivity services and applications.

Development and Adoption of ICT Products and Services in Everyday life: Summary of Outcomes What K-Net has accomplished in less than a decade in terms of network and technical infrastructure development is incredible: communities have gone from one phone for 400 people four years ago to accessing broadband services from individual homes. There are few rural communities in Canada – and particularly few remote ones – that have experienced such a dramatic transformation.

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The K-Net network that we see today is the result of several key factors that have come together in the development process: ▫ An organization made up of champions/visionaries working on behalf of the

communities; ▫ Constant evolution of the organization to keep pace with technology, policies and

community demands, while at the same time influencing how the technology is adapted, how policies are formulated, and how community demands are channeled;

▫ A significant number of government programs have been harnessed by K-Net to achieve a multiplier effect in terms of technology, costs and skills development;

▫ An ongoing advocacy effort to lobby federal regulators to develop policies that serve rural and remote communities;

▫ The private sector has expanded infrastructure as a direct response to the above pressures.

These factors are the building blocks that have created the K-Net network and services now in existence. For other groups wanting to replicate this effort, these basic components are a foundation; the technology and network infrastructure have grown from a vision and are the result of community needs and demands. Of course, the K-Net experience merely reflects how the above building blocks have come together in this particular part of Canada – any other community around the world that wishes to create a local network will have to respond to its own unique geographic, political, financial and social situation. (Appendix 5, Case Studies) Recommendation: Ensure that your organization is made up of champions/visionaries working on behalf of the communities. Recommendation: Leaders of isolated communities should invite government and corporate leaders involved in telecommunications to visit their communities. Unless they experience the reality of a remote and isolated community it is impossible for them to appreciate the physical realities faced by people in the communities. Recommendation: Work with funding programs that understand the importance and value of true broadband connectivity in small communities. If it weren't for FedNor, the federal regional economic development initiative in Northern Ontario, and other funding partners, along with their understanding and commitment to providing these communication tools across the region, the Kuh-ke-nah Network and the millions of dollars invested in this region by both the private and public sector would probably not have taken place. Community Member Statements: Development and Adoption of ICT Products and Services in Everyday life

“Almost everybody has a computer in the community. Some have three computers in their home.”

Chief Roy Gray of Fort Severn. Wawatay, January 15 2004: “KO Chiefs speak about ICTs in their Community” (http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11/act)

Community Survey Results Community surveys, undertaken between 2000 and 2003 were most useful in their measurement of introduction and adoption of ICTs in everyday life (Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report). Community survey results revealed that the number of the respondents with a phone connection at home increased during the survey period from 63.9% in 2000 to 72.8% in 2003, while the number of homes with a TV has increased from 96.2% in 2000 to 99.6% in 2003.

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After the phone connection, Internet was the other ICT tool that increased dramatically in the last three years. In 2000, only 6.9% of the homes that had a computer had an Internet connection, while in 2003 this number increased to 84.3%.

Presence of Internet at homeKO communities - Comparison 2000 - 2003

n = (2000) = 29, (2001) = 40, (2002) = 81, (2003) = 83

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

2000 2001 2002 2003

Per

cent

Survey results indicated that the Internet was and is used for a number of services such as e-mail, education, health, searching for information (including Government information, Band related information, etc), e-commerce and chat. Since 2000, K-Net has been tracking what the Internet is used for and by whom (age group and gender) to have an idea of how people’s use of the technology evolves in each community. The graph below shows the data over the past three years. While this data is far from conclusive, it does suggest some general trends. For example, email remained the main application and is used by close to one-third of all the respondents.

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Use of InternetKO communities - Comparison 2000 - 2002

n = (2000) = 779, (2001) = 1233, (2002) = 1274

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

E-mail

Educa

tion

Health

Govern

ment in

fo

E-commerc

e

E-bank

ing

Chat g

roups

Per

cent

2000 2001 2002

The residents of KO communities access Internet at a variety of locations such as the Band office, friends’ homes, school, and the e-Centres. In 2000, the main place where the Internet was accessed was the Band office (42.3% of respondents), followed by the school (38%). As the number of homes with an Internet connection increased, the residents of the KO communities began to access the Internet more form homes, and less from the other access points. In 2003, the main access point for Internet was the school (26.6%), followed by homes (22.5%), and the Band office (22.3%). The number of people using video conferencing facilities increased from 2.6% in 2000 to 15.7% in 2003. The main uses of video conferencing are for meetings, education, and health related issues. The purpose of using video-conferencing was primarily for health related issues, followed by education, and administrative purposes (meetings, interviews, etc). The number of flights that community members have “saved” through the use of video – conferencing ranges from one to more than six flights per month.

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Use of video-conferencing facilitiesKO communities - Comparison 2000 - 2003

n = (2000) = 342, (2001) = 319, (2002) = 286, (2003) = 249

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

2000 2001 2002 2003

Perc

ent

Purposes for using video-conferencing during 2003KO Communities

n = 58

20.7%Education

43.1%Health

36.2%Other

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Number of flights per month saved by using videoconferencing during 2003KO Communities

n = 40

47.5%None

50%1 - 2 flights

2.5%More than 2 flights

Between 2002 and 2003 there was an increase in the use of different multi media tools such as digital cameras, scanners, and video cameras. The number of people using digital cameras increased from 13,2% in 2002 to 16% in 2003. Scanners were used by 13.9% of respondents in 2002, and 14.4% in 2003. Video cameras were used by 15.6% of respondents in 2002, and 17.2% in 2003. Web cameras were used by 5.2% of the people in 2002 and 8.4% in 2003. Another ICT based service that the community members started using is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

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Use of multimedia toolsKO communities - Comparison 2000 - 2003

n = (2002) = 288, (2003) = 250

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Digital cameras Scanners Video cameras Web cameras

Per

cent

2002 2003

Use of VoIPKO communities - Comparison 2000 - 2003

n = (2000) = 181, (2001) = 217, (2002) = 279, (2003) = 196

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

2000 2001 2002 2003

Per

cent

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OUTCOME – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Economic development was not identified as a specific Objective in Schedule A. It was, rather, defined in terms of other goals and objectives, and linked to the goal of “Community Well-being”. Many of the economic outcomes are captured in the section “Unanticipated Outcomes” in this report. A comprehensive summary and analysis of economic development outcomes are included in the Case Study on Economic Development. (Appendix 5, Case Studies) To better understand the complex analysis of economic impact, the Case Study describes economic development in a “Sustainable Livelihoods” framework. This captures the interrelated components of economic development – not just the financial, but also the physical, social, human and natural dimensions. Human capital refers to the people within a community, their skills, personal well-being, self-esteem, and ability to take initiative to enhance their own and their community’s lives. Social capital refers to people connecting to people, recognizing the importance of networking and exchange, of creating and strengthening links of trust. Physical capital looks at the technical aspects of economic development – which, in the case of the KO communities, focuses on the installation and application of state-of-the-art information and communication technologies. Natural capital is an important, though often overlooked, aspect of economic development. Natural resources, the land and environment, and their relationship to culture, language and heritage are aspects of the natural capital of communities. ( Financial capital is more commonly understood in terms of economic development. Jobs, income generation, financial growth and cost savings can be measured over the long term. Under the sustainable livelihoods framework, however, the dynamism and relationships between all five components are studied, resulting in an understanding of the contribution of each to the economic health of the community. This chart, created by the UK Department for International Development maps the dynamics between the five “capitals” in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. A full explanation of these relationships, and the “economic development” analysis of the K-Net SMART First Nations Project are included in the Case Study on Economic Development (Appendix 5, Case Studies)

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In the case of the K-Net communities, it is obvious that the technical services and infrastructure of the network are indeed affecting the sustainable livelihoods of the people. There is evidence showing that individuals are becoming more empowered and thinking in new ways, taking on new roles, accessing information to improve livelihoods, and exploring ways to make the investment economically sustainable after the Kuh-ke-nah SMART Demonstration Project. These accomplishments alone are impressive for communities as remote as the KO ones. People in the KO First Nations communities are learning to apply Information and communication technologies to their unique situation in innovative ways, thereby directing their own economic development. Access to high-speed Internet has provided community members to tools to improve their lives on many levels. They are now connected with one another and with the outside world. Many have gained technical skills to solve their own problems with the network and computers, with decreasing dependence on K-Net experts. Others have taken on new roles, and in the process learned how to coordinate telehealth services; manage e-Centres; write proposals; identify opportunities for economic development; and create innovative projects using the Internet. There have been benefits from improved health and education services, and the appeal of a community linked to the broader world. The impact of ICTs on economic development in these remote communities is described as a delicate balance between improving livelihoods through innovations and change, and the danger of disrupting the social fabric and the loss of tradition, language and culture.

5.9 Significant Unanticipated Outcomes The following is a list of significant, unanticipated outcomes, over and above the specific outcomes sought in the SMART proposal to Industry Canada’s Smart Communities program: 5.9.1 Strengthening and Extending K-Net Services as a First Nations Broadband Network Operator The SMART project has been the primary catalyst for what can only be described as the phenomenal growth of K-Net Services as a First Nations broadband network operator, servicing communities and organizations across Canada. This growth is one of the most significant outcomes of the SMART project. K-Net Services, which predated the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project, originated as a First Nations service provider which began in 1994 as an organization of the KO Northern Chiefs Council charged with accessing resources and funding to create an electronic bulletin board service, offering computer training and acquiring computers for each KO First Nation community. From 1994 to 1996, K-Net began offering a wider range of services, including Internet service provision to communities and community organizations. It became an Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a difference – the difference being its focus on serving the unique needs of its communities through lobbying for broadband services, and developing technical innovations to meet the specific requirements of isolated communities (e.g. using Linux open-source software to build routers that can be managed remotely). K-Net also became a regional technology support organization and a regional information content development organization.

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Recommendation: Getting communities involved in the planning and implementation of broadband connectivity solutions and applications supports local innovation and capacity building. These communities will be better prepared to be the providers of online services and resources making them owners of their local networks and producers of local socio-economic opportunities. Today, K-Net Services is able to provide its affiliated agencies and organizations across the region with the same level of connectivity and support that can be expected from any carrier class provider. K-Net is unique among broadband service providers in its capacity, as well as determination, to enable local community management of network services. A variety of applications and services are being delivered out of Keewaytinook Okimakanak offices in Sioux Lookout and Balmertown as well as in K-Net partners’ sites located across the country. On a national level, points-of-presence (with video conferencing capabilities) are located in First Nation organizations in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Wendake, Quebec, Winnipeg and Thompson, Manitoba, La Ronge, Saskatchewan and Vancouver, British Columbia. Agreements are continually being completed to add other communities to the network. These communities are being served by terrestrial and satellite connectivity solutions depending on the community telecommunications infrastructure access. K-Net works with local community technicians and suppliers to create local service providers (ISPs) and to help in the establishment of locally appropriate connectivity solutions. K-Net supports the local technicians in the remote First Nations who take on the responsibility for the community portion of the network. This arrangement lessens the requirements for managed service contracts and reduces the time for local repairs and network maintenance. It also builds community IT capacity, and the sense of community ownership. Specific K-Net services include: ▫ Website hosting ▫ Email hosting. Prior to SMART, in 1998, there were 1,200 active K-Net email accounts.

At the end of SMART funding in 2004, there were over 9,000 email accounts. ▫ Server hosting - K-Net can house other organizations’ servers in the K-Net office. ▫ Domain name registration and domain name hosting. ▫ IP Videoconference connections and services from coast, to coast, to coast ▫ Wide Area Broadband Network supporting band office programs, health and education

services for a growing number of participating First Nation communities. ▫ Various scalable community broadband applications in the areas of health, education,

data warehousing, portals, IP video conferencing and telephony, community and regionally based networks are in operation

▫ Satellite services. K-Net works with Industry Canada (FedNor; Broadband for Rural and Northern Development (BRAND); Spectrum, Information Technologies and

“K-Net believes that in order for a network to be sustainable in a small community, then the community needs to be involved in all the development phases and ongoing operation as much as possible. This effort will ensure that all the local organizations and service agencies working with the community will be able to contribute to the ongoing operation and maintenance of the local network so everyone in the community can access these on-line services.” This position was adopted in the Nishnawbe Aski (NAN) Chiefs in AssemblyResolution 03/49: Support For The Development Of The Nan Broadband RegionalNetwork for First Nations, which among other things directs government programsand services along with other agencies to utilize and contribute to local communitynetworks.” Source: http://services.knet.ca/network.html

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Telecommunications (SITT); SchoolNet, Community Access (CAP) programs); and other partners to provide community broadband connectivity solutions using public benefit transponder resources available from Telesat Canada

▫ Web site and digital graphic design ▫ A variety of on-line applications in support of First Nations community economic and

social development, including Turning Point, an on-line communication space for “Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people working together toward a common goal of justice and healing”, and “Raising the Children”, an on-line multi-media training program for Aboriginal parents

▫ Training services, including computer assisted learning packages, and community-based training sessions

▫ A technical Help Desk to support hardware and network services. This service supports K-Net clients as well as SchoolNet and telehealth services

5.9.2 Excellence in Partnership and Program Development to Meet Community Needs K-Net Services has evolved into far more than a broadband network provider. The SMART Project has helped strengthen K-Net’s ability to expand partnerships and drive new programs in line with community needs. K-Net has gained significant experience and success with what one research study calls a “lego”, or “building-block” approach to accessing resources to meet community needs 4 – an approach which selectively assembles resources as required or available. K-Net channels KO capacities (creative, technical, organizational, human, etc.) to develop partnerships, and acquire existing program funding, to support the project needs expressed by community members and leaders. K-Net acts as a “learning organization” that is continuously and creatively adapting funding program requirements to address community needs. Recommendation: The organization should be constantly evolving to keep pace with technology, policies and community demands, while at the same time influencing how the technology is adapted, how policies are formulated, and how community demands are channeled 5.9.3 Leveraging Services for Broader Applications

K-Net has leveraged the SMART Project in numerous productive directions, many of which are reflected in the unanticipated outcomes described below. ▫ Kuh-ke-nah Network Growth Beyond SMART Project Communities ▫ Telehealth Expansion ▫ Community Cable Network ▫ Introduction of New Technologies ▫ Development of New Operating Systems and Resources ▫ MyKnet – K-Net Home Pages ▫ Promotion of Local Business and Tourism ▫ Expanded Role of Helpdesk ▫ Expanded Role of e-Centres ▫ New Buildings ▫ International Activities

5.9.4 Kuh-ke-nah Network Growth Beyond SMART Project Communities The Kuh-ke-nah Network has grown far beyond SMART project expectations. Network services now support over 30 participating First Nations communities and several other agencies that serve First Nations communities with health and educational services. Since its inception, the

4 Ramirez and Richard. PACTS Report, 2000, http://www.devmedia.org/documents/K%2DNet%20Services%2Edoc

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Kuh-ke-nah Network has grown from a regional bulletin board service to a national broadband network, well beyond the goals and objectives of even the Smart Community proposal. The network provides support for band office programs, health and education services in each participating First Nation. It also supports the development of broadband applications that combine video, voice and data services requiring high-speed connectivity solutions. The long-term objective is to establish local community networks, linked across the country to other networks that share and distribute broadband services and programs that benefit the local community. K-Net Services is currently financially self-sustaining, using a combination of service revenues and grants to support its staff and services. K-Net management and service coordinators are considering embarking on a business planning process to better enable KO Chiefs and KO communities to oversee the long-term evolution of K-Net Services. The migration of K-Net services beyond the original five KO communities, and the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project include the following significant initiatives: ▫ Migration of services, support, training, technologies, etc. to other communities. For

example, the telehealth program is now being extended to an additional 18 First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario. There has been significant buy-in from other First Nation organizations and communities to access similar resources and support the expansion and development work

“Because SMART projects have had real results, the government of Canada has been willing to take the risk of putting expensive and complicated technology into other small remote communities where there is not apparent technical expertise. There have been funding difficulties – not all departments could see their way to participate, but this was overcome by forming diverse partnerships in many sectors to ensure that the sound ideas developed by KO could go forward.”

Carl Seibel, FedNor ▫ Modelling of the network in other regions (Manitoba, Atlantic First Nations, Quebec,

etc.). Twenty-one First Nations schools in the Atlantic provinces have modelled their community network on the K-Net design, with the assistance of K-Net’s technical team, and there are plans to include all the First Nations in their region by next year. All of these will have video conferencing capabilities.

▫ Agent for Industry Canada’s Public Benefit Satellite Transponder Space:

(http://smart.knet.ca/satellite). Since February 2002, K-Net has been acting as “an agent of Industry Canada” in the development and deployment of public benefit bandwidth on a portion of the initial transponder made available through the Telesat / IC arrangement. During that time K-Net worked out space and resource sharing agreements with the Kativik Regional Government, based in Quebec, to include their 14 member communities on the available bandwidth allocated to K-Net. K-Net is now working on a similar arrangement with the Broadband Communications North team led by the Keewatin Tribal Council in northern Manitoba for usage of the public benefits transponder space. A consortium of regional networks has been working together since 2002 with the agencies in the development of a strategy to deliver efficient usage of the limited C-Band space by sharing information and collaborating in support

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of the goal of delivering broadband connectivity to every First Nations, rural and remote community in Canada by 2005. To support this initiative, K-Net has developed a Satellite Network Management System to maximize usage of available bandwidth.

▫ Additional network initiatives: In June 2004 K-Net completed the installation of a 7.3 M satellite earth station in Sioux Lookout to accommodate the growing demand for bandwidth in the original SMART communities, as well as the additional communities. In November 2002 K-Net installed a fibre loop in Sioux Lookout to connect 24 agencies delivering high speed services to remote northern First Nations. In August 2002 K-Net completed a wireless network in Thunder Bay to provide high-speed Internet and video-conferencing for a number of organizations serving First Nations people.

:

Network Diagram of the K-Net connectivity infrastructure October 2003 5.9.5 Telehealth Project Expansion The KO Telehealth Project was seeded through the SMART project to deliver telemedicine services to initial project communities. The SMART project provided the impetus to establish and technical resources for KO to embark on a two-year pilot study with Ontario’s NORTH Network to determine the benefits and uptake for telehealth services in First Nation communities.

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The goal of the Project has been to improve First Nations access to health professionals and health programming. The aim is to enhance the existing nursing, physician and community health worker service and improve First Nations access to integrated health services.

Telehealth is part of the existing community health system. Community consultations directed the project to use community Nursing Stations as the access point for telemedicine services. Each Nursing Station is provided with a telemedicine workstation that includes video cameras, stethoscopes, and otoscopes. FedNor and Northern Ontario Heritage Fund (NOHFC) cover capital costs, and equipment is owned by individual First Nation communities. Funding was also received to for half-time Community Health Coordinators (CTCs) for each participating community.

Project oversight is provided by three committees that include community members and community leaders:

▫ First Nation Telehealth Advisory Committee ▫ Telehealth Evaluation Advisory Sub-Committee ▫ Telehealth Sustainability Advisory Sub-Committee

Following a telehealth workshop held in October 2002, KO submitted a proposal to Health Canada’s Primary Health Care Transition Fund (PHCTF), which resulted in approval for funding of the telehealth program in an additional 18 communities in the region. A proposed establishment of a Centre of Excellence for First Nations Primary Care Health Services and Research will ensure ongoing research and development resources for the operation of these services and projects. KO purchased and renovated a building in Balmertown to house the Telehealth programs and staff. This will also accommodate the Centre of Excellence, under the Ontario’s Health Access Centres Program, once funding is secured. The NORTH Network facilitated 1,002 Continuing Medical Education (CME) events, 687 administrative meetings, 6,032 patient consultations from Tuesday, April 01, 2003 to Wednesday, March 31, 2004. Of the total 7,721 video conferencing sessions the total number of patient consultations consisted of 78% vs. the number of CME events at 13% and 9% for administrative usage. Of these the First Nations Communities had 578 clinical sessions, 397 educational sessions, and 312 administrative sessions for a total of 1,287 sessions.5 5.9.6 Community Cable Network Broadband community connectivity solutions can support cable television services and vice versa. Cable television services provide a reliable revenue stream that can financially anchor other network services. Community owned cable television services in communities like Keewaywin, Fort Severn and North Spirit Lake provide home and office broadband Internet service together with television service. The monthly cost to subscribers is reasonable in comparison to cable and broadband subscription rates in urban centres. The networking of all households and offices in KO communities was not an anticipated outcome of the SMART project. Many KO community households have purchased cable modems and

5 NORTH Network Statistics Report (www. northnetwork.com)

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home computers to take advantage of broadband service via cable. K-Net Services provides substantial support for the establishment, operation, business configuration, staff training, and maintenance of community cable networks in First Nations communities. Reliability of systems is comparable to, or better than, systems in urban centres.

5.9.7 Introduction of New Technologies K-Net staff are now working in partnership with other First Nations organizations across Canada to deploy and support IP (Internet Protocol) video conferencing and IP telephony services as a revenue generating stream for the Kuh-ke-nah Network. Over 100 video conferencing units are now in place in First Nations and First Nation organizations across the country. K-Net presently has IP telephones operating very successfully in several First Nations across the region. IP telephony services within the different organizations serving the First Nations on the Kuh-ke-nah Network create additional savings for these organizations, which go towards local First Nation economic development initiatives. The new telephone system in the K-Net office in Sioux Lookout operates entirely over the Kuh-ke-nah Network. K-Net presently has IP telephones operating very successfully in several First Nations across the region – one at each of the e-Centres, as well as 20 in the band office and other organizations in Slate Falls. Before the IP telephone system was installed, people had to wait in line to use the one Bell phone. Currently the Slate Falls system is set up for local calls to Sioux Lookout or Dryden, or toll-free calls, but that has not been a difficulty because most of Slate Falls business is done in the Sioux Lookout area. A telephone directory for all of the numbers on the network is available on-line. Video conferencing quickly became a highly valued communication tool in the KO communities. In communities like North Spirit Lake, which had only one telephone, located out-of-doors, video conferencing has been used for basic communication for conducting business, connecting with friends and family, as well as the specialized applications for telehealth and the KiHS. 5.9.8 Development of New Operating Systems and Resources K-Net has demonstrated a sprit of independence and innovation in the development of its technical platform and technology applications. From its origins as a “BBS” (bulletin board communication service) in the mid-90s, to its current high-end broadband capabilities, K-Net has opted to stick with Open Source operations software, and has adapted those programs to support the specific management and application needs of the program as a whole. Over the course of the project, technical staff have developed and implemented a number of innovative systems to support the communication needs. These include: ▫ Post Nuke open source software for web development

Cable TV: Generating income It wasn't that long ago, that the community of Deer Lake, Ontario was without cable TV. In the late 90s a man named Ennis A. Meekis had a lot to do with cable tv building being established and the signal being transmitted to the homes in Deer Lake. The Ennis A. Meekis Memorial T.V. Station was named in his memory. Today the community members have access to their own community channel (21) and make gooduse of it by holding live TV auctions, tv bingos twice a week, and gospel nights on Wednesdays and Sundays of each week. The cable station is managed by the Cable Manager and TV Committee. The TV Committee is in charge of running the TV station which includes the collection of cable payments, posting of daily announcements, and organizing TV Auction sales on a monthly basis, and also cable hook-ups and disconnections. http://www.deerlake.firstnation.ca/

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▫ E-learning platform ▫ Scheduling software for video conferencing, ▫ Network management tools – remote and local ▫ On-line reporting and invoicing tools ▫ Adaptation of BREEZE video-conferencing software

Further information on the innovative networking services is available on the K-Net site, under K-Net Services. Recommendation: Use flexible open source software products. These can be adapted to suit organizational and community needs, and allow the community to control evolution of the software services. Avoid dependencies in hardware and software solutions. Purchase technology to meet the needs and skill levels, not the other way around. 5.9.10 Strengthening and Restructuring of Project Organization and Management K-Net has evolved as an organization, in response to the needs and realities of the growth and complexity of its service provision – both in terms of network growth, delivery of community services. Rooted in its commitment to community needs, participatory management, and excellence of service, K-Net has shaped itself as a delivery system to sustain services, with fiscal and management responsibilities. K-Net continues to operate as a not-for-profit organization, responsible to the KO tribal council. Its increased capacity for financial management has grown significantly. This has been achieved through hiring of new professional staff, but also through training and capacity building of existing staff. This has been critical for an organization that manages millions of dollars of revenues and expenditures, and one which is responsible to a number of donor agencies for transparent fiscal management, and to communities dependent on sustainable services. K-Net has hired professional staff to direct the accounting requirements of a project of this degree of financial responsibility, it has also provided opportunities for training of junior staff, and those at the community level, responsible for individual projects. It has become an acknowledged “Best Practice” that programs should be in place to provide capacity–building for financial management at the community level. Best Practice: Develop financial and management capacity at the executive level to match project management needs - but also at the community level. 5.9.11 MyKnet MyKnet.org is nothing short of a phenomenon. This do-it-yourself web-building tool provides a highly popular forum for aboriginal self-expression and sharing that did not previously exist. No one involved in the SMART project envisioned the degree of acceptance and up-take among community members to create and maintain homepages on the web. As of July 2004, there are over 9,300 individual myknet.org users. In just one week in July 2004, over 2,000 users were active in updating their homepages. Anyone with a “knet” email account is eligible to create a homepage, which is hosted on a K-Net server for free. Many MyKnet.org users, who range in age from youth to elder, manage their websites like “Web Blogs”, which act as public diaries. Pages are updated daily with expressions of personal interests and activities. Favourite poems, photographs of family and friends, music and personal writings are common on MyKnet.org. Users have the ability to express themselves, and connect and communicate with people who share their unique interests – within their communities and around the world. Users share their worlds, and even archives of their personal chat sessions, with whomever wants to connect to their site. They often engage other MyKnet.org users in conversations about shared interests. The various bits and pieces of a MyKnet.org site,

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when pieced together over a year provide an intimate view of what it is to be that the creator of that site: what she thinks about, what she does, and how she relates her friends and her community. There are important social and psychological dimensions to MyKnet.org that deserve further exploration. The phenomenon of MyKnet.org begs the question of how important individual self-expression is to the health and well-being of aboriginal community members who live in remote communities. By simply communicating in words, pictures and music, a user is confronted with her own ideas, interests and opinions which may generate further reflection. MyKnet.org may have a very important role to play in building the confidence of young First Nation community members. It is quite likely that frequent MyKnet.org users will gain more personal confidence in their ability to communicate, in their world-views, in their writing, and in their personal activities and projects. Frequent experience articulating ideas on a MyKnet.org website may enable users to gain new confidence articulating ideas in face-to-face experiences. Personal websites may also assist users in their personal journeys of self-discovery and intellectual self-reliance. The rules and regulations for creating a personal site on MyKnet.org require only that the user respect the need for a safe and healthy on-line space for young people. To that end, any homepage containing material that another K-Net user finds offensive or inappropriate will be suspended until such material is removed. “A majority of young people in KO and neighbouring communities are computer and Internet literate, and many of these youth create and maintain their own web pages. This is particularly significant in communities where students have been underachieving in reading and in academics.”

Carl Seibel, FedNor K-Net servers receive more than 20 million hits in October Posted by: Brian Beaton, brian.beaton@knet.ca on Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 06:10 AM GMT

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 September. 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. 5.9.12 Video Production for Telling Stories The K-Net portal has become a repository and access point for multi-media interactive documentation of project activities, and a glimpse into the lives and heritage of people in KO communities. Through the SMART Evaluation there has been a shift in media use beyond Internet and digital still photography, to the use of video for capturing stories. This adoption of locally produced video for the SMART Evaluation was supported by Industry Canada, and reinforced through the production of five multi-media Case Studies, supported by the Institute of Communication for the Americas (ICA), and Industry Canada’s First Nations SchoolNet. As part of the First Nation SchoolNet / RMO initiative, Cal Kenny, K-Net Multi-media Coordinator, has been working with First Nation schools and communities to gather and prepare various video

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material for presentation on-line. A growing number of short on-line videos are now available through the K-Net Portal. Some examples of on-line videos are:

• Trout Logic -2003 Angus Miles learns trout logic from his mother.

• Washaho Cree Nation - 2003 For ten days in early October, twelve people from Fort Severn put their words and beliefs into action to honour their ancestors, practise their traditions and re-visit their homelands.

• Paddling to Washaho, A Healing Journey - 2004 Fort Severn Chief and Council worked with their community elders and youth to support their nine day wilderness canoe trip from Beaver Lake back to their community and homes.

• Pelican Falls Residential School Gathering hosted by Northern Nishnawbe Education Council - 2004 http://streaming.knet.ca/pelican_falls_100k.wmv (low speed) http://streaming.knet.ca/pelican_falls_300k.wmv (high speed)

• Painter and a Musician – video of two young artists from Keewaywin, their art and their inspiration. This video was a product of the evaluation research, and included in the on-line Case Study on Economic Development. [link to video].

5.9.13 Promotion of Local Business and Tourism The K-Net portal provides a wealth of information. As the site has evolved it has incorporated a number of additional web sites highlighting community initiatives, celebrating First Nations heritage and culture, and providing opportunities for “e-business”. Accomplished artists and artisans from the broader Nishnabe Aski communities across northwestern Ontario display samples of their creations in an online gallery. http://arts.knet.ca/. Photographs and video clips on community web sites portray images of land, culture and heritage, providing an otherwise unavailable profile of life in these remote communities. Site-based interactive communication tools allow visitors to post entries in guest books and connect directly. Sites like these can open the door to opportunities in e-commerce and tourism. In the past, the lack of even basic telephone service made it impossible to effectively operate a business beyond the boundaries of the community. Now, with email, digital photography and videos online, a community is well equipped with tools to interact with the global community. 5.9.14 Research Facilities and Centres of Excellence In 2004 K-Net established two specialized research and learning centres in Balmertown to centralize resources and research related to ICTs and First Nations, and to assist in the identification and dissemination of best practices in the use of ICTs for community development.

▫ KO Research Institute (KORI) In 2004 the KO Chiefs passed a resolution to establish KO Research Institute in Balmertown. Now operational, KORI is in place to coordinate and manage academic research undertaken about KO and its program and departments. The Research Institute will collect and share information about First Nations connectivity and ICTs with particular emphasis on the development of applications created by grassroots communities to address their particular needs.

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▫ Centre of Excellence for Research and Development of Telehealth The establishment of a Centre of Excellence for First Nations Primary Care Health Services and Research will ensure ongoing research and development resources for the operation of these services and projects. KO purchased and renovated a building in Balmertown to house the Telehealth programs and staff. This will also accommodate the Centre of Excellence, under the Ontario’s Health Access Centres Program, once funding is secured.

5.9.15 Expanded Role of SchoolNet Helpdesk In October 2002, K-Net won the bid for providing technical assistance and help-desk services to First Nations schools as one of the Regional Management Organizations (RMO) for an expanded SchoolNet program. The selection of K-Net was based on its previous SchoolNet experiences, its success in building, sustaining and expanding the KiHS, and its commitment to increasing educational opportunities for First Nations and remote communities. In February 2003, the First Nations SchoolNet program provided special one-time funds for K-Net to develop a national IP (Internet Protocol) videoconferencing network connecting the six First Nations RMOs sites across Canada. As the Ontario RMO, K-Net provides assistance to schools to help them overcome their connectivity and hardware challenges, in addition to help-desk services for troubleshooting local area network and connectivity problems. The first steps to providing these services are completion of a survey of school needs, and signing a Memorandum Agreement between the school and K-Net. Three other special projects included in this SchoolNet work include:

▫ Supporting the development of the First Nation schools portal service at http://firstnationschools.ca/;

▫ A videoconferencing pilot project which will add at least 15 more FN schools across Ontario to the Kuh-ke-nah network; and

▫ An online content development initiative with six First Nation organizations across Ontario.

Map of urban sites with video conferencing connections and facilities that now have Quality of Service (QoS) for their video and audio traffic over the Kuh-ke-nah Network.

5.9.16 Grade 8 Supplementary Programs In addition to the KiHS program, K-Net has nurtured the development of a Grade 8 Supplementary Program to enrich the studies of young people in KO and other NAN communities. This is a spin-off of the First Nations SchoolNet Program. The Grade 8 Supplementary Courses Program was created to help First Nation students prepare for the

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demands of high school. This program provides online courses in Science, Math and English for grade 8 students in First Nation schools. These courses highlight the skills and knowledge that have a direct connection to the grade 9 curriculum. The G8 Program operates three courses per school year within a three-term structure. Courses are delivered one at time (not simultaneously). Before the start of each term, First Nation elementary schools across Ontario are invited to register for the program free of charge. Prior to the start of each course, teachers register their students online. During this process, the teacher is required to submit a first and last name, an email address, a temporary password and a digital photo for all participants. Any required material (such as headphones) will be mailed to the school free of charge. When the course begins, students are required to spend 3 hours per week completing assignments. Since the program is not a “live” broadcast, there is no set day or hour. Teachers are free to structure their participation time according to their needs or preference. The online program is a secure and private environment that is only accessible by registered teachers and students. Within this environment, students will read and submit assignments, check their grades, and interact with students from other First Nation schools. Teachers are also an integral part of the online community. Along with the regular functionality that is provided to students, teachers are also have access to a virtual staffroom (where they may exchange messages with other teachers), an online grade book that tracks the progress of their students, and an online marking interface that makes grading assignments simple and straight-forward. Some sample statements from teachers, and from students enrolled in Grade 8 supplementary course include the following: ▫ “I thought the course was great. For teachers whose specialty is not science it was a

chance to really pick up some good ideas. From the students point of view; they are isolated so it was good to reach out and learn with people outside”

▫ “Students seem to take greater ownership of their participation in these types of courses. It's also a great exemplar for teachers who need to beef up their own curriculum.”

▫ “Overall, this was an excellent experience for my students. I noticed that many were more motivated, attended more regularly, and made more of an effort than they normally would have.”

▫ “Thanks for the boost to our school year.” ▫ “All the information is on the courses, it’s not too hard or too easy, and it’s really

interesting.” ▫ “I think this course is interesting because it is different from other work.” ▫ “I was surprised that I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about.”

5.9.17 Expanded Role of e-Centres E-Centres in each of the communities serve as the Kuh-ke-nah hub for the SMART project. Originally intended to provide public access, training, network operation and training, the role of the e-Centres and their staff have evolved over the course of the project. The e-Centre in North Spirit Lake has been in operation since March 2001, and is the longest running e-Centre in the Network. Because operational budgets for the e-Centres have relied on funding from the SMART project, e-Centre staff have been exploring alternative roles in their communities - collaboration with telehealth and on-line educational initiatives, and other services which can generate the cash-flow required to ensure their sustainability. Most e-Centres have plans to charge their residential, institutional and business customers for Internet access. North Spirit Lake and Fort Severn are combining their e-Centres with their libraries, to share costs. Deer Lake is already charging and has 42 homes connected out of a total of 100 homes: 40% is more than double the

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national average. With Telehealth, the nursing stations are a major user of bandwidth, so Health Canada will be paying a significant portion of the total cost. 5.9.18 New Buildings and Infrastructure The SMART Program has enabled the installation of adequate facilities for infrastructure for the KiHS and e-Centres for existing and potential office space. In order to accommodate expanded programs, new buildings have been shipped in and constructed for five KiHS classroom buildings, and three e-Centres. This may not be immediately noteworthy to many readers as a significant outcome. However, in remote locations, where all building supplies, equipment and infrastructure must be shipped to communities either by plane, or over treacherous winter roads, at considerable cost, this is truly significant. That the SMART Project has been able to support this input of new buildings and supporting infrastructure to house SMART programs is a measurable positive contribution to life in the remote KO communities. 5.9.20 International Activities The Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations project has gained a high profile within Canada, but also internationally. There have been numerous presentations on K-Net at international events by project partners, and by K-Net staff. In 2003 Jesse Fiddler, K-Net’s manager of multi-media services, attended the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, to participate in the Indigenous Global Forum. In 2004 he made a presentation on K-Net at an international conference of the Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) in Italy. Video-conferencing has made it possible for K-Net to build relationships and share experiences with other groups around the world. Using a specialized “Breeze” video-conferencing platform, K-Net hosted the two-day Kuh-ke-nah International Indigenous Gathering in March 2004. The Gathering provided a virtual space for bringing together Indigenous people from around the world to show how they used information and communications technologies. Participants demonstrated online how they are influencing positive change in their communities by addressing community needs, achieving community development goals, improving community services, supporting cultural expression and building new capacities. Each of the five KO communities and K-Net staff linked to the conference by video-conference, to interact with other participants from New Zealand, Australia, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Tanzania, India and China, as well as others based in Canada, the United States and Europe. Participants included a large number of community-based Indigenous ICT practitioners. To accommodate the various connectivity capabilities of participants, the International Gathering employed a suite of complementary information and communication applications to coordinate information flow and encourage presenter/participant interaction. The primary components were telephony, web conferencing; videoconferencing/ videostreaming; and a web portal. The Conference showcased the SMART Community Project, and also facilitated an exchange of experiences in the use of ICTs for Indigenous peoples. The Kuh-ke-nah International Indigenous Gathering was the culminating event of KO’s SMART First Nations Project. Grand Chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation made an introductory presentation, in which he highlighted the dramatic changes in communication capabilities of First Nations people, because of new information and communications technologies: “The Nishnawbe Aski people have traditionally worn moose-hide moccasins for travel to meetings, but the new technologies are a kind of magic flying electronic moccasins that foster meetings like this conference where Indigenous people can visit each other from many countries. In spite of differences in languages and cultures, peoples can meet and learn from each other overcoming the limits of time and space.”

Stan Beardy Grand Chief, Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN)

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6.0 Challenges For all its successes and positive impact, the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations Project is not without challenges. Sustainability, impact on local language and heritage through access to global culture, as well as the inherent difficulties of maintaining a project of this scale in remote communities are just a few of challenges faced by Kuh-ke-nah. These are briefly summarized from the perspective of the e-Centre Manager in one of the KO communities. 6.1 E-Centre Sustainability Darlene Rae, e-Centre Manager in North Spirit Lake articulates some of the challenges faced by e-Centre staff: ▫ Finding terminology and the means to explain ICTs to Elders. Darlene said that

showing Elders how an application works in ways that they find useful is the best way to involve them. She hopes to develop translations for applications in Ojibway to further facilitate their involvement.

▫ Waiting for parts and services. Because they are based in a fly-in community, staff and

their clients and customers must often cope with delays to get the required part or help to get things operating again. This is why the K-Net SMART model has supported the ongoing training of community technicians. Darlene points out that they have learned the value of regular maintenance and preventative troubleshooting and always keep spare parts and back-up machines on hand.

▫ Sustainability. Darlene would like to see the e-Centre operated as a small business in

the future. They have already begun by providing and expanding their ISP service. They would like to expand on the hardware and software sales and service, expanding to items in demand by community members. She feels that she and her staff can offer their skills and knowledge to other communities involved in ICT development. She also wants to expand the e-Centre as a book and online research centre where community members will have a choice of media in which to find out the information they need to live and work.

Now that the SMART program is over, communities will have to find ways to maintain their connectivity and technical support. Most e-Centres have plans to charge their residential, institutional and business customers for Internet access. North Spirit Lake and Fort Severn are combining their e-Centres with their libraries to share costs. Deer Lake is also charging for services, and has 42 homes connected out of a total of 100 homes: 40% connectivity is more than double the national average. Through the Telehealth programs, nursing stations have become a major user of bandwidth, which results in a continuous revenue source from Health Canada, which pays half of the total cost. E-Centre sustainability does remains a challenge, although the continuation and expansion of the SMART project provides opportunities for e-Centre staff to extend their expertise and services both within and beyond their communities.6

6.2 Language and Culture Darlene notes that the network had been useful for young people to keep in touch with family and friends in other places, but that so far it had not helped them in the ongoing loss of language knowledge and use. English is the language of the Internet, and erosion of indigenous languages and culture has become a universal challenge. Sensitive to the potential negative impact of the Internet on language and culture, K-Net has made special efforts to reverse this trend by

6 Smart International Conference Report

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promoting its use for preserving culture, providing opportunities for language training and retention, and adapting the technology to facilitate communication in Oji-Cree. Video

conferencing has been an important medium that allows people to communicate orally in local languages. The creation of a syllabic keyboard is also an innovation that makes written communication possible in Oji-Cree. The Kuh-ke-nah On-line Language Resource Centre, and the “Legends” site, are important resources supported by the Project.

6.3 Youth Culture The K-Net chat line and the creation of personal web sites on MyKnet have encouraged many young people in KO and other First Nations communities to embrace the Internet, and use it to connect with one another and reduce their isolation from the “rest of the world”. At the same time, the Internet has opened the gate to all the negative influences and unsavoury aspects of the global Internet. First Nations youth, like young people everywhere have been attracted to chat lines, computer games, and to popular culture on-line. This has led to criticism from parents and community leaders, concerned for the safety and the integrity of their youth, as well as the overshadowing of local heritage and language by global culture. There is no easy solution to this. K-Net has, however, put in place some measures to limit the potential negative influences of the Internet. The K-Net chat line is monitored for content, and users who abuse their privileges are cut off. The MyKnet home pages are self-monitored. Anyone who is offended by any content on home pages are asked to inform the web manager, who will remove the offending web site. Also, parents are encouraged to monitor their children’s on-line activities. This is likely to be an ongoing debate and discussion as to the pros and cons of the Internet for youth. 7.0 Assessment of Impact – Long-term As a Smart Community Demonstration Project, Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations is a work in progress. To assess the achievement of the long-term goal and vision of community well-being through the introduction of ICTs in these remote aboriginal communities, the results must weather the test of time, which is not possible within the time-frame of the project. This is understood to be a universal challenge in the evaluation of young ICT projects. An argument for patience in assessing sustainability – particularly financial sustainability – is expressed by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron, a development communication specialist from Bolivia, who has studied and written extensively about community ICT experiences.

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7.1 Sustainability ”Sustainability deals with a wider range of issues [than financial sustainability]. This may be a longer process, like the process of development itself. The ICT component, as any communication component, should develop along with the development process, not in isolation from it. The interaction between community participation, the technical inputs for development and the communication and knowledge tools will define the success or failure of a particular development communication effort. The understanding of this process is lacking in many of those who insist on urgent proof of economic sustainability. We need to recognize the pace of development in a particular context, instead of imposing the pace of the institutional agendas of funding agencies.”7 Gumucio-Dagron argues that financial sustainability is not the key issue. More relevant are issues such as community ownership, local content, appropriate technology, language and culture, convergence and networking, and the development impact itself. Within this context, we must consider the impact of the Kuh-ke-nah SMART First Nations and measure its success in terms of community development, project ownership, and results integrated with broader development goals. 7.2 Understanding Long-term Impact Over the course of the project, and through the engagement workshop process, it became clear that impact of the project would not necessarily be evident, nor measurable in the short, or even medium-term. However, the SMART Project has clearly made an impact on the KO communities. It has: ▫ Improved choices in education ▫ Improved access to health services ▫ Disseminated SMART results to individuals and sectors ▫ Introduced ICTs skills and knowledge ▫ Developed ICT products and services, which have been adopted in everyday life

Have ICTs improved community well-being? Do they support First Nations self-determination and governance? Have they enhanced First Nations capacity for sustainable growth and development? Have they indeed achieved the long-term goals and vision identified at the outset? Time will tell. The goals remain clear though, and have been sharpened throughout the course of the project from people working together for a common purpose, through the evolution of planning and decision-making skills, and the enhanced communication afforded by ICTs. The goals are stronger now because they have been articulated again and again, both within the communities, and to other groups and individuals world-wide. The course towards achievement of these goals has been set. The goals have not changed. Although the achievement of the broader goals may not be measurable at this stage, this evaluation has amassed a considerable collection of testimonials and stories which indicate that the Project has had a remarkable positive impact on individuals. It will be important and very interesting to continue to monitor the SMART project over the next few years, to see what the impact of ICTs, harnessed for community well-being, and First Nations sustainable growth and development will be.

7 Gumucio-Dagron, (Take Five: A Handful of Essentials for ICTs in Development)

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Appendices Appendix 1, Schedule A Appendix 2, Community Survey Summary Report Appendix 3, 2001-2002 Community Workshops Reports Appendix 4, Community Survey Questionnaire Appendix 5, Case Studies Appendix 6, 1999 Community Planning Workshops