This course explores the relationships between colonialism, the growth of digital networks and applications, and community development. It re-frames problems like the ‘digital divide’ by illustrating how people and communities are taking ownership and control of solving them.

It recognizes that this work faces significant challenges. Historic and ongoing inequalities restrict the abilities of individuals and communities to effectively use digital technologies. However, people are also undertaking many projects of self-determination, including in the area of technology development. This course explores these initiatives, focusing on how they represent expressions of Indigenous resurgence and innovation in the emerging network society.

The course was initially developed in 2013-2014 as SOCI 2804, a for-credit course in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). It is part of the First Nations Innovation project, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The project is a partnership between UNB, Atlantic Canada's First Nations Help Desk, the First Nations Education Council in Quebec, and Keewaytinook Okimakanak K-Net Services in Ontario.
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Topic outline

10
TOPIC 10: Towards an e-Community strategy
In our final topic, we introduce the e-Community strategy and explore how it is being implemented in practice. We look at how organizations like the Assembly of First Nations and Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s K-Net Services in Ontario developed this initiative. The e-Community strategy was adopted by First Nations leadership through several resolutions passed by the national Chiefs-in-Assembly. In 2013, it was also articulated in a statement by regional First Nations technology organizations in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada on First Nations Broadband Infrastructure and Operations Policy. We conclude by examining how the e-Community strategy is being set up in First Nations in Quebec and Ontario.

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First Mile Connectivity Consortium
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Supported by the SSHRC-funded
First Nations Innovation Project
This course came about through discussions among the project partners, who wanted to generate freely available online resources to support community-based ICT development.

Please email the course developer Rob McMahon with any suggestions, or if you have additional material you'd like to see here.

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