1 Connectivity in Canada’s Far North: Participatory Evaluation in Ontario’s Aboriginal Communities George Ferreira 1 Ricardo Ramirez 2 Brian Walmark 3 Abstract This paper tells the story about how video can become a vehicle for interactive policy making. The paper introduces the Fogo Island experience from over 30 years ago where films became a tool to bring community voices and aspirations together to the point that relocation policies were reversed. We then transport the reader to northern Ontario where the Fogo Process is being applied, now using digital video, as an evaluation and interactive policy-making tool in the context of a broadband connectivity project by Canadian First Nations. We explore how video testimonials are coherent with emerging evaluation approaches that place more emphasis on short-term outcomes –rather than results- and on narrative. We review major Communication for Development functions and we describe video testimonials as an example of participatory communication that enables beneficiaries and policy makers to understand their motivations and realities. From the beginning of time, technology has been a key element In the growth and development of societies. But Technology is More than jets and computers; it is the combination of knowledge, techniques and concepts; it is tools and machines, farms and factories. It is organization, processes and people. The cultural, historical and organizational context in which technology is developed and applied is the key to its success or failure. (Smillie, 1991:3) 1 Corresponding author: PhD Candidate, Rural Studies Programme, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1. Canada. E-mail: gferreir@uoguelph.ca 2 Associate Professor, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1. Canada. 3 Director, Keewatinook Okimakanak Research Institute (KORI) 135 Syndicate Avenue North, Suite 405, Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7C 3V6. Canada