K-Net conducting online survey on Internet connectivity

During the month of November, K-Net along with the University of New Brunswick (UNB), will be conducting a survey of community connectivity in northwestern Ontario.
“The survey will help us identify community needs to improve connectivity services,” said K-Net Coordinator Brian Beaton in a press release.
The partnership said it hopes the information gathered will help identify the broadband and connectivity needs of community residents.
With the survey information, researchers will work with collaborating First Nation communities to develop community reports and recommendations for action, while community leadership can use this information to help take on more strategic management and ownership of their connectivity and online activities.
K-Net, a program run by Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO), is the largest provider of Internet connectivity and services to First Nation communities in the region.
The survey is part of the partnership’s VideoCom project, in which the research focus is videoconferencing and a range of other technologies such as cell phones. Recently the research team completed reports and papers on community use of mobile and online technologies in collaboration with Fort Severn First Nation and Mishkeegogamang First Nation. KO/K-Net and UNB began the project in 2007 and will continue until at least September 2012.
The survey will be conducted online, and anyone who had an @knet.ca email address in September - more than 43,000 people living in the region – will be invited to participate in the survey. Over 140 users completed the survey on the first day.
While survey leader Dr. Susan O’Donnell, Adjunct Professor at the University of New Brunswick, is working out of Fredericton, research assistant Crystal Kakekaspan, a Grade 12 student at Queen Elizabeth High School, is working part-time on the project from Sioux Lookout.
For every hundred completed surveys, there will be a draw for a prize of the winner’s choosing of either a $50 Walmart gift certificate, a $50 Keewaytinook Mobile phone card or a $50 Northern store gift card. The grand prize draw is a laptop. The prize draw will take place in early December.