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CAT channel buys into Smart Communities

Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 03/02) - Want all of Yellowknife to see your vacation pictures while you're still lying on the beach in Cancun?

Thanks to a $142,000 Smart Communities project with NorthwesTel Cable, vacationing Yellowknifers will soon be able to do just that: e-mail a picture from anywhere in the world, and the community access channel will broadcast it.

NorthwesTel will provide about half of the needed money, said Smart Communities director Phil Lee. The rest comes from Industry Canada, which is handing out $5 million in matching money to each of 12 communities Canada-wide to fund Internet and new-technology initiatives.

"Our project is to make the CAT channel interactive and really open it up so that anybody could contribute," said Dave Gilbert, manager of marketing and customer service for Northwestel Cable.

The project will link cable Channel 20 to the Internet, making electronic submissions possible. It has been approved by Smart Communities, but is still awaiting federal approval.

It will also provide over 50 seniors with free cable, which would include specially-designed programming.

"For seniors there are still barriers to getting on the Internet," said Gilbert. "The technology can be a little intimidating if it's new to you. What we've heard is it would be worthwhile to take some of the Internet content and basically capture a guided tour of the Web site and put that on TV."

At the Baker Centre, online technology is not new. Four years ago, the centre installed five computers with Internet access to train seniors in the emerging technology.

"There's quite a few who wanted to be able to e-mail to their families," said Marion Wylie, who was answering phones at the centre last week.

The computers have since grown in popularity, and according to Wylie, "I know there's quite a few (seniors) that do use (them)."

Plans for the project include a Web site created by seniors with memories of Yellowknife in the past, and information for their demographic.

Community access TV will also serve as a marketing device for Smart Communities.

"It broadens our exposure within the community and it addresses a segment of our population that generally shy away from the technology," said Lee.

In Yellowknife, one of Smart Communities' biggest projects is a series of themed Web sites that will organize information into categories like business and culture.

Smart Communities will unveil the project's portal on April 8. The portal, which will join information from the network, will be available on the Internet.