The SIKU.org platform and mobile app: social media tools and services for sea ice safety and Inuit self-determination in research and stewardship - Joel Heath & Lucassie Arragutainaq

SIKU.org is a social media online platform and mobile app designed with and for Inuit. It provides a wide variety of tools and services towards Inuit self-determination in research, education and environmental stewardship. Winner of the 2017 Google.org Impact Challenge in Canada, over the last year substantial progress has been made in developing, conducting workshops, consultation, piloting in northern communities and obtaining design input and feedback from Inuit hunters, youth including Nunavut Sivuniksavut and community-driven research programs.

Far too often, Inuit knowledge and observations have been considered anecdotal by academic communities. The unique research tools available on the SIKU platform and mobile app prove a means for Inuit to document their land-use observations on an ongoing basis, providing a detailed quantitative data set that can be used to bolster their reports and analysis of observations that were previously considered qualitative. Through the tools and services of the SIKU platform, communities and Indigenous organizations can define and implement their own research programs, as well as steward and analyze their own results for their own purposes. As such, it is an important distinction that the platform is designed to facilitate Inuit self-determination in research and stewardship, rather than citizen science (i.e., where the public helps crowd source collection of data towards academic endeavour).

In addition to the tools and services provided by the platform, an important component of aligning the approach of SIKU with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s National Inuit Strategy on Research involves consultation on approaches to data stewardship, intellectual property rights and tools and permissions that support the unique needs of Inuit, towards refining a Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for the platform, as well as defining logic for sharing, permissions and other features. This presentation will highlight the approach and logic defined to-date through ongoing consultation, and seek additional input moving forward towards how SIKU can best facilitate the parallel needs of individual contributors, projects, communities and Indigenous organizations, towards the long-term benefit of Inuit self-determination.