VOICE IT

Much has happened but I haven't been recording adventures here so much. Recently got involved with a major research project in MB. The project is sponsored by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, in one of their divisions called Communities and Universities Research Alliance. The project title is Vital Outcome Indicators for Community Engagement for Children and Youth. So SSHRC-CURA VOICE. The project is a long term project to try to determine the indicators for success for northern youth. It is a participatory action research project with contributors from a number of communities and sectors throughout MB.

My participation so far is to work with the Knowledge Mobilization group to set up and organize a broad spectrum of social media. Such as Twitter and Facebook. We are starting out using a Wikispaces wiki to coordinate information, one of the long term requirements of the project specifications is that Knowledge mobilization occur through the use of a wiki. Right up my alley!

We have had a launch meeting via the new Cisco systems tele-presence suite located at Brandon University, University College of the North in Thompson and The Pas, U of W and U of M in Winnipeg.

Prior to the launch meeting the KM group met under the direction of Dr. Robin Enns and Dr. Karen Rempel to begin the process of setting up a web based communications system. Applications used include Skype, Mindmeister, Zotero and Ushahiti.

One of the over-riding concerns for this project is to be respectful of the Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP)

of information generated by First Nations people. The basic precepts of participatory action research require that all participants be equivalent and that the distinctions between the researcher and the subjects be eliminated.

The bones of the VOICE-IT wiki are emerging. This wiki is to support the work of the KM group but may also serve as a model that could be used to coordinate activities and to aggregate information through out the project.

A workshop is scheduled for June 28-28 at Elkhorn Resort to provide background information about the PAR approach.