Videoconferencing and Sustainable Development for Remote and Rural First Nations in Canada

Videoconferencing can be used to connect remote and rural First Nation communities to work together on sustainable development priorities. This paper presents two case studies of videoconferencing events. In both cases, a real-time high-bandwidth connection provided rich visual and audio data to be exchanged among communities separated by vast distances. The host communities for these videoconference events are small First Nations with traditional lifestyles connected to the land. Despite their remoteness and traditional cultures, these communities have the capacity to use advanced high-bandwidth technologies in innovative ways to contribute to sustainable development of their communities.La vid\ue9oconf\ue9rence permet de raccorder des collectivit\ue9s des Premi\ue8res nations en r\ue9gions rurales et \ue9loign\ue9es en vue de leur collaboration \ue0 des projets prioritaires de d\ue9veloppement durable. Le document pr\ue9sente deux \ue9tudes de cas de vid\ue9oconf\ue9rence. Dans les deux cas, une connexion \ue0 grande largeur de bande en temps r\ue9el a permis l'\ue9change de riches donn\ue9es audio et visuelles entre des collectivit\ue9s s\ue9par\ue9es par de grandes distances. Les collectivit\ue9s h\uf4tes des vid\ue9oconf\ue9rences \ue9taient de petites Premi\ue8res nations menant un style de vie traditionnel ax\ue9 sur la terre. Malgr\ue9 leur isolement et leurs cultures traditionnelles, ces collectivit\ue9s ont la capacit\ue9 de se servir de technologies \ue9volu\ue9es \ue0 grande largeur de bande de fa\ue7ons novatrices aux fins de leur d\ue9veloppement durable.NRC publication: Ye