ICT Conference Workshop

Blogger: 
Charles

Charles presented a 1.5 hour workshop at the ICT Conference in Vancouver BC, 19-22 February 2009. http://www.ictsummit.ca/

According to their e-notices, this conference is "Canada’s largest ICT (information and communication technology) Summit for all communities! The Annual Summit is a gathering of community leaders, educators, community based health care providers, librarians, technology service providers, businesses, government, research and non-profit organizations, who come together to discuss information and communication technology. The Summit attracts over 400 people from British Columbia, across Canada and across the Americas. Every year we come together to better understand how ICT is changing our lives."


Presentation Title: Community Building With Maps and Multimedia - Open Source Web Solutions

Overview: I explored several web portals that First Nations communities have recently built using open-source software. These include (i) a pedometer tracking map site for Songhees Nation (a community-university partnership with the STEM Project, University of Victoria), (ii) a language map site by the First Nations Heritage, Language and Culture Council, FPHLCC, (iii) a curriculum site for forests knowledge for the Tlowitsis, and (iv) a community green map for the University of Victoria, including First People's layers. We examine how each of these tools is used to strengthen their respective communities.

Proposed Session Rationale:

  • Issue 1. What happens when you build a web resource and no one comes? We explore what makes these projects succeed. Strengths include: community-university partnerships enable the sharing of expertise and energy, pedometer tracking sites offer realistic and engaging goals, multimedia sites like the language map site link maps and oral traditions, on-line community maps enable the sharing of a community's assets and locked-down curriculum sites keep information secure.
  • Issue 2. OK, maybe it sounds interesting: but is it expensive? We discuss the use of free and open source software to address this issue. We demostrate some of the flexibility of open source content management systems.

Click on the picture to left to grab the Workshop Brochure (PDF).