Susan O'Donnell | The University of New Brunswick (original) (raw)
Papers by Susan O'Donnell
The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods, 2000
We are exploring ways to engage First Nation communities in New Brunswick in collaborative resear... more We are exploring ways to engage First Nation communities in New Brunswick in collaborative research projects and RICTA, a new Canadian network of research on ICT (information and communication technologies) with Aboriginal communities. The paper includes an overview of literature about Indigenous research. We start with Mihesuah's (1993) guidelines in this area as a reference to developing our own starting point towards methodologies for the specific cultural, geographic, socio-economic and political realities of First Nations in New Brunswick.
Community Exchange (CE) is the most successful online information network for the non-profit sect... more Community Exchange (CE) is the most successful online information network for the non-profit sector in Ireland. CE is also an online counter-public sphere, a space where alternative messages can be produced and exchanged outside the mainstream media and public sphere. CE emerged within specific Irish research, policy and practice contexts. It consists of a free-to-users email bulletin and website containing
This paper provides an overview of policies and strategies for broadband infrastructure and acces... more This paper provides an overview of policies and strategies for broadband infrastructure and access, and broadband video communication development and use in First Nation communities in Canada. Although using broadband for video communication remains underdeveloped in First Nation communities as a whole, successful initiatives have been underway for many years, particularly in the areas of distance education and telehealth applications.
2008 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2008
In this exploratory paper we examine the potential as well as the limitations of user-generated o... more In this exploratory paper we examine the potential as well as the limitations of user-generated online video (UGOV) to facilitate political discourse between citizens within a 'virtual' public sphere. The potential of UGOV lies in the opportunities it presents to citizens for online self-expression and exchange that is open, accessible, compelling, unconstrained and unmediated. The limitations mirror those of the public sphere itself; they are closely related to the technological, socio-economic, geographic, ethnic, and age-related constraints on accessibility, as well as digital divides that have limited the democratic potential of the Internet as a whole.
Proscenium - Canada's Arts and Culture Newsmagazine, 1994
In January, Prime Minister Jean Crétien made a commitment in the throne speech to develop a Canad... more In January, Prime Minister Jean Crétien made a commitment in the throne speech to develop a Canadian strategy for the information superhighway. But many artists are already pioneering explorations of the new telecommunications technologies and "cyberspace" and their implications for the arts.
Reference: O'Donnell, Susan (1994) "In search of the arts lane on the information superhighway," Proscenium - Canada's Arts and Culture Newsmagazine March, 25-26.
Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 2011
Equal access to mental health services is necessary for healthy individuals and communities.
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '15, 2015
Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics ... more Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics review for their evaluation or field trial protocol. Although this process varies by country, the underlying principles are universal. While this process is often a formality, for field research or lab-based studies with vulnerable users, formal ethics requirements can be challenging to navigate -a common occurrence in the social sciences; yet, in many cases, foreign to HCI researchers. Nevertheless, with the increase in new areas of research such as mobile technologies for marginalized populations or assistive technologies, this is a current reality. In this paper we present our experiences and challenges in conducting several studies that evaluate interactive systems in difficult settings, from the perspective of the ethics process. Based on these, we draft recommendations for mitigating the effect of such challenges to the ethical conduct of research. We then issue a call for interaction researchers, together with policy makers, to refine existing ethics guidelines and protocols in order to more accurately capture the particularities of such field-based evaluations, qualitative studies, challenging labbase evaluations, and ethnographic observations.
2006 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2006
Increasingly, municipal administrations across the globe are operating video surveillance camera ... more Increasingly, municipal administrations across the globe are operating video surveillance camera systems in public spaces, with the camera images available only to security personnel. This paper argues that it is possible and desirable to convert some municipal surveillance cameras into municipal webcams, with the images available not only to security personnel but also to everyone using the Internet. The authors provide an overview of municipal video surveillance and municipal webcams, reviewing findings from recent international research and discussing current municipal webcams. Key technical and social issues are discussed. Camera views of public spaces are intrinsically similar for both municipal video surveillance and webcams. The democratization of surveillance implies giving citizens more control over the technology affecting them. A case study discusses the technical infrastructure in the City of Fredericton, Canada that will allow the municipal cameras to be converted from video surveillance cameras into municipal webcams.
Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine, 2013
The introduction of a new technology in hospitals - Automated Dispensing Units (ADUs) - aims to c... more The introduction of a new technology in hospitals - Automated Dispensing Units (ADUs) - aims to contribute to more secure, safe, efficient and cost effective health services. Several studies highlight the beneficial effects of similar technologies as well as their cost-savings potential but there is little literature exploring nurses' perceptions and attitudes towards technology acceptance and the impact on technology use in a healthcare unit. This research aimed to explore nurses' perceptions and attitudes towards current technology use on their units and towards the introduction of ADU technology and use with nursing staff in two different hospitals in South-East New-Brunswick, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were realized with the collaboration of nursing staff from two hospitals which were in urban and rural settings, prior to the introduction of ADUs in hospital wards. Findings in this study highlight the fact that missing medications (i.e., doses not available in ca...
Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 2011
We conducted an online survey and interviews amongst mental health workers in Canada who reported... more We conducted an online survey and interviews amongst mental health workers in Canada who reported experience in working with rural and remote First Nations (although not necessarily telemental health). Sixty-three respondents (of the 164) to the online survey reported experience in working with clients in remote and rural First Nations. Only 16 of the online survey respondents with remote and rural First Nations experience reported having received training in videoconferencing use. When asked how frequently they used videoconferencing with clients, 51% reported never using it, 19% used it once every few months and 10% reported using it a few times a month. Approximately 50% of participants reported finding it useful. Approximately 38% found the technology easy or very easy to use, and 15% found it very difficult. Individual in-depth interviews were also conducted with professionals who had First Nations telemental health experience specifically (n = 5). A quantitative data analysis ...
2008 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2008
For Canada's remote and rural communities, video communications provide a vital lifeline. This st... more For Canada's remote and rural communities, video communications provide a vital lifeline. This study explores the challenges for video communications in remote and rural First Nation (Indigenous) communities. Central to our analysis are social and technical issues as well as the ICT experiences of community-based organizations and community members. We use an analytical framework to identify challenges in four categories: technical infrastructure, the interactions of the users with the technical infrastructure, the production and reception of audio-visual content, and the organizational and social relations. Our findings underline the need for community capacity building to address these challenges and use video communications to its full potential.
interactions, 2014
ABSTRACT Ethical implications for human-computer interaction research
Proceedings of
O'Donnell, S., Perley, S., Walmark, B., Burton, K., Beaton, B., and Sark, A. November 2007. ... more O'Donnell, S., Perley, S., Walmark, B., Burton, K., Beaton, B., and Sark, A. November 2007. ... * published in the Proceedings of the Community Informatics Research. Network (CIRN) 2007 Conference. Prato, Italy. November 5-7, 2007. NRC 49844.
Telemental health involves technologies such as videoconferencing to deliver mental health servic... more Telemental health involves technologies such as videoconferencing to deliver mental health services and education, and to connect individuals and communities for healing and health. In remote and rural First Nations communities there are often challenges to obtaining mental healthcare in the community and to working with external mental health workers. Telemental health is a service approach and tool that can address some of these challenges and potentially support First Nations communities in their goal of improving mental health and wellbeing. Community members' perspectives on the usefulness and appropriateness of telemental health can greatly influence the level of engagement with the service. It appears that no research or literature exists on First Nations community members' perspectives on telemental health, or even on community perspectives on the broader area of technologies for mental health services. Therefore, this article explores the perspectives on telemental health of community members living in two rural and remote First Nations communities in Ontario, Canada. METHODS; This study was part of the VideoCom project, a collaborative research project exploring how remote and rural First Nations communities are using ICTs. This current exploration was conducted with the support of Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO), our partner in Northwestern Ontario. With the full collaboration of the communities' leadership, a team involving KO staff and VideoCom researchers visited the two communities in the spring of 2010. Using a participatory research design, we interviewed 59 community members, asking about their experiences with and thoughts on using technologies and their attitudes toward telemental health, specifically. A thematic analysis of this qualitative data and a descriptive quantitative analysis of the information revealed the diversity of attitudes among community members. Finally, based on a discussion with the community telehealth staff, a 'ways forward' section was proposed as a way to begin addressing certain issues that were raised by community members. This article explores the continuum of community members' perspectives that range from interest and enthusiasm to hesitancy and concern. One participant reported personal experience with using telemental health and found the approach helpful in increasing her comfort in the therapeutic situation. In addition, concerns relating to appropriateness and safety were voiced. A variety of advantages (eg facilitation of disclosure, increased access to services, usefulness) and disadvantages or concerns (eg interference with capacity building, concerns about privacy) are reported and discussed. Following a coding procedure, a descriptive quantitative analysis demonstrated that 47% of the participants were categorized as having a positive response toward telemental health, 32% as having a negative response, and 21% as being neutral or undecided. Valuing Indigenous knowledge can help us understand community members' experiences of and concerns with telemental health and inform more successful and appropriate initiatives. With the invaluable support of the KO Telemedicine co-authors, we offer ways forward to address concerns identified by the community members. Most importantly, any ways forward for community telemental health initiatives need to be community driven and community led.
This paper assesses to what degree providing on-line employment resource and health and wellness ... more This paper assesses to what degree providing on-line employment resource and health and wellness services at the community level achieves the Canadian communication policy objective of an inclusive knowledge society. Over a two-year period (2004-6) the authors conducted an empirical research study at four non-government community-based organizations (NGOs) that deliver social services and information. The purpose of the study involved
International Indigenous Policy Journal, 2011
Across Canada, rural and remote First Nations face a significant 'digital divide'. As self-determ... more Across Canada, rural and remote First Nations face a significant 'digital divide'. As self-determining autonomous nations in Canada, these communities are building broadband systems to deliver public services to their members and residents. To address this challenge, First Nations are working towards a variety of innovative, locally driven broadband development initiatives. This paper contributes a theoretical discussion that frames our understanding of these initiatives by drawing on the paradigm of the 'First Mile' . We argue that broadband development policy in Canada must be re-framed to address the specific needs of First Nations. The First Mile position foregrounds community-based involvement, control, and ownership: a consideration we suggest has particular resonance for First Nations. This is because it holds potential to move beyond the historical context of paternalistic, colonial-derived development policies, in the context of broadband systems development. We argue First Nations broadband projects offer on-the-ground examples of a First Mile approach, and call for more research in this area.
Our research is working in partnership with three First Nations organizations -K-Net, Keewaytinoo... more Our research is working in partnership with three First Nations organizations -K-Net, Keewaytinook Okimakanak in Sioux Lookout, Ontario; Atlantic Canada's First Nation Help Desk in Membertou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; and the First Nation Education Council in Wendake, Quebec -that have set up videoconferencing networks linking First Nations communities spread out over large geographic areas. Initially set up for educational and health purposes, the application, reach and scope of these communication networks have expanded since the mid-90s to include cultural, social, and community development activities. Qualitative data collected in fifteen in-depth interviews with technical and administrative staff at K-Net and Atlantic Canada's First Nation Help Desk reveal how both their relationship-building approach to networking, and their repurposed applications of videoconferencing, have supported development in the First Nations communities they serve.
The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods, 2000
We are exploring ways to engage First Nation communities in New Brunswick in collaborative resear... more We are exploring ways to engage First Nation communities in New Brunswick in collaborative research projects and RICTA, a new Canadian network of research on ICT (information and communication technologies) with Aboriginal communities. The paper includes an overview of literature about Indigenous research. We start with Mihesuah's (1993) guidelines in this area as a reference to developing our own starting point towards methodologies for the specific cultural, geographic, socio-economic and political realities of First Nations in New Brunswick.
Community Exchange (CE) is the most successful online information network for the non-profit sect... more Community Exchange (CE) is the most successful online information network for the non-profit sector in Ireland. CE is also an online counter-public sphere, a space where alternative messages can be produced and exchanged outside the mainstream media and public sphere. CE emerged within specific Irish research, policy and practice contexts. It consists of a free-to-users email bulletin and website containing
This paper provides an overview of policies and strategies for broadband infrastructure and acces... more This paper provides an overview of policies and strategies for broadband infrastructure and access, and broadband video communication development and use in First Nation communities in Canada. Although using broadband for video communication remains underdeveloped in First Nation communities as a whole, successful initiatives have been underway for many years, particularly in the areas of distance education and telehealth applications.
2008 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2008
In this exploratory paper we examine the potential as well as the limitations of user-generated o... more In this exploratory paper we examine the potential as well as the limitations of user-generated online video (UGOV) to facilitate political discourse between citizens within a 'virtual' public sphere. The potential of UGOV lies in the opportunities it presents to citizens for online self-expression and exchange that is open, accessible, compelling, unconstrained and unmediated. The limitations mirror those of the public sphere itself; they are closely related to the technological, socio-economic, geographic, ethnic, and age-related constraints on accessibility, as well as digital divides that have limited the democratic potential of the Internet as a whole.
Proscenium - Canada's Arts and Culture Newsmagazine, 1994
In January, Prime Minister Jean Crétien made a commitment in the throne speech to develop a Canad... more In January, Prime Minister Jean Crétien made a commitment in the throne speech to develop a Canadian strategy for the information superhighway. But many artists are already pioneering explorations of the new telecommunications technologies and "cyberspace" and their implications for the arts.
Reference: O'Donnell, Susan (1994) "In search of the arts lane on the information superhighway," Proscenium - Canada's Arts and Culture Newsmagazine March, 25-26.
Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 2011
Equal access to mental health services is necessary for healthy individuals and communities.
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '15, 2015
Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics ... more Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics review for their evaluation or field trial protocol. Although this process varies by country, the underlying principles are universal. While this process is often a formality, for field research or lab-based studies with vulnerable users, formal ethics requirements can be challenging to navigate -a common occurrence in the social sciences; yet, in many cases, foreign to HCI researchers. Nevertheless, with the increase in new areas of research such as mobile technologies for marginalized populations or assistive technologies, this is a current reality. In this paper we present our experiences and challenges in conducting several studies that evaluate interactive systems in difficult settings, from the perspective of the ethics process. Based on these, we draft recommendations for mitigating the effect of such challenges to the ethical conduct of research. We then issue a call for interaction researchers, together with policy makers, to refine existing ethics guidelines and protocols in order to more accurately capture the particularities of such field-based evaluations, qualitative studies, challenging labbase evaluations, and ethnographic observations.
2006 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2006
Increasingly, municipal administrations across the globe are operating video surveillance camera ... more Increasingly, municipal administrations across the globe are operating video surveillance camera systems in public spaces, with the camera images available only to security personnel. This paper argues that it is possible and desirable to convert some municipal surveillance cameras into municipal webcams, with the images available not only to security personnel but also to everyone using the Internet. The authors provide an overview of municipal video surveillance and municipal webcams, reviewing findings from recent international research and discussing current municipal webcams. Key technical and social issues are discussed. Camera views of public spaces are intrinsically similar for both municipal video surveillance and webcams. The democratization of surveillance implies giving citizens more control over the technology affecting them. A case study discusses the technical infrastructure in the City of Fredericton, Canada that will allow the municipal cameras to be converted from video surveillance cameras into municipal webcams.
Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine, 2013
The introduction of a new technology in hospitals - Automated Dispensing Units (ADUs) - aims to c... more The introduction of a new technology in hospitals - Automated Dispensing Units (ADUs) - aims to contribute to more secure, safe, efficient and cost effective health services. Several studies highlight the beneficial effects of similar technologies as well as their cost-savings potential but there is little literature exploring nurses' perceptions and attitudes towards technology acceptance and the impact on technology use in a healthcare unit. This research aimed to explore nurses' perceptions and attitudes towards current technology use on their units and towards the introduction of ADU technology and use with nursing staff in two different hospitals in South-East New-Brunswick, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were realized with the collaboration of nursing staff from two hospitals which were in urban and rural settings, prior to the introduction of ADUs in hospital wards. Findings in this study highlight the fact that missing medications (i.e., doses not available in ca...
Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 2011
We conducted an online survey and interviews amongst mental health workers in Canada who reported... more We conducted an online survey and interviews amongst mental health workers in Canada who reported experience in working with rural and remote First Nations (although not necessarily telemental health). Sixty-three respondents (of the 164) to the online survey reported experience in working with clients in remote and rural First Nations. Only 16 of the online survey respondents with remote and rural First Nations experience reported having received training in videoconferencing use. When asked how frequently they used videoconferencing with clients, 51% reported never using it, 19% used it once every few months and 10% reported using it a few times a month. Approximately 50% of participants reported finding it useful. Approximately 38% found the technology easy or very easy to use, and 15% found it very difficult. Individual in-depth interviews were also conducted with professionals who had First Nations telemental health experience specifically (n = 5). A quantitative data analysis ...
2008 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2008
For Canada's remote and rural communities, video communications provide a vital lifeline. This st... more For Canada's remote and rural communities, video communications provide a vital lifeline. This study explores the challenges for video communications in remote and rural First Nation (Indigenous) communities. Central to our analysis are social and technical issues as well as the ICT experiences of community-based organizations and community members. We use an analytical framework to identify challenges in four categories: technical infrastructure, the interactions of the users with the technical infrastructure, the production and reception of audio-visual content, and the organizational and social relations. Our findings underline the need for community capacity building to address these challenges and use video communications to its full potential.
interactions, 2014
ABSTRACT Ethical implications for human-computer interaction research
Proceedings of
O'Donnell, S., Perley, S., Walmark, B., Burton, K., Beaton, B., and Sark, A. November 2007. ... more O'Donnell, S., Perley, S., Walmark, B., Burton, K., Beaton, B., and Sark, A. November 2007. ... * published in the Proceedings of the Community Informatics Research. Network (CIRN) 2007 Conference. Prato, Italy. November 5-7, 2007. NRC 49844.
Telemental health involves technologies such as videoconferencing to deliver mental health servic... more Telemental health involves technologies such as videoconferencing to deliver mental health services and education, and to connect individuals and communities for healing and health. In remote and rural First Nations communities there are often challenges to obtaining mental healthcare in the community and to working with external mental health workers. Telemental health is a service approach and tool that can address some of these challenges and potentially support First Nations communities in their goal of improving mental health and wellbeing. Community members' perspectives on the usefulness and appropriateness of telemental health can greatly influence the level of engagement with the service. It appears that no research or literature exists on First Nations community members' perspectives on telemental health, or even on community perspectives on the broader area of technologies for mental health services. Therefore, this article explores the perspectives on telemental health of community members living in two rural and remote First Nations communities in Ontario, Canada. METHODS; This study was part of the VideoCom project, a collaborative research project exploring how remote and rural First Nations communities are using ICTs. This current exploration was conducted with the support of Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO), our partner in Northwestern Ontario. With the full collaboration of the communities' leadership, a team involving KO staff and VideoCom researchers visited the two communities in the spring of 2010. Using a participatory research design, we interviewed 59 community members, asking about their experiences with and thoughts on using technologies and their attitudes toward telemental health, specifically. A thematic analysis of this qualitative data and a descriptive quantitative analysis of the information revealed the diversity of attitudes among community members. Finally, based on a discussion with the community telehealth staff, a 'ways forward' section was proposed as a way to begin addressing certain issues that were raised by community members. This article explores the continuum of community members' perspectives that range from interest and enthusiasm to hesitancy and concern. One participant reported personal experience with using telemental health and found the approach helpful in increasing her comfort in the therapeutic situation. In addition, concerns relating to appropriateness and safety were voiced. A variety of advantages (eg facilitation of disclosure, increased access to services, usefulness) and disadvantages or concerns (eg interference with capacity building, concerns about privacy) are reported and discussed. Following a coding procedure, a descriptive quantitative analysis demonstrated that 47% of the participants were categorized as having a positive response toward telemental health, 32% as having a negative response, and 21% as being neutral or undecided. Valuing Indigenous knowledge can help us understand community members' experiences of and concerns with telemental health and inform more successful and appropriate initiatives. With the invaluable support of the KO Telemedicine co-authors, we offer ways forward to address concerns identified by the community members. Most importantly, any ways forward for community telemental health initiatives need to be community driven and community led.
This paper assesses to what degree providing on-line employment resource and health and wellness ... more This paper assesses to what degree providing on-line employment resource and health and wellness services at the community level achieves the Canadian communication policy objective of an inclusive knowledge society. Over a two-year period (2004-6) the authors conducted an empirical research study at four non-government community-based organizations (NGOs) that deliver social services and information. The purpose of the study involved
International Indigenous Policy Journal, 2011
Across Canada, rural and remote First Nations face a significant 'digital divide'. As self-determ... more Across Canada, rural and remote First Nations face a significant 'digital divide'. As self-determining autonomous nations in Canada, these communities are building broadband systems to deliver public services to their members and residents. To address this challenge, First Nations are working towards a variety of innovative, locally driven broadband development initiatives. This paper contributes a theoretical discussion that frames our understanding of these initiatives by drawing on the paradigm of the 'First Mile' . We argue that broadband development policy in Canada must be re-framed to address the specific needs of First Nations. The First Mile position foregrounds community-based involvement, control, and ownership: a consideration we suggest has particular resonance for First Nations. This is because it holds potential to move beyond the historical context of paternalistic, colonial-derived development policies, in the context of broadband systems development. We argue First Nations broadband projects offer on-the-ground examples of a First Mile approach, and call for more research in this area.
Our research is working in partnership with three First Nations organizations -K-Net, Keewaytinoo... more Our research is working in partnership with three First Nations organizations -K-Net, Keewaytinook Okimakanak in Sioux Lookout, Ontario; Atlantic Canada's First Nation Help Desk in Membertou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; and the First Nation Education Council in Wendake, Quebec -that have set up videoconferencing networks linking First Nations communities spread out over large geographic areas. Initially set up for educational and health purposes, the application, reach and scope of these communication networks have expanded since the mid-90s to include cultural, social, and community development activities. Qualitative data collected in fifteen in-depth interviews with technical and administrative staff at K-Net and Atlantic Canada's First Nation Help Desk reveal how both their relationship-building approach to networking, and their repurposed applications of videoconferencing, have supported development in the First Nations communities they serve.