Attavik Stories

From The Office of the Languages Commissioner

"Making sites available in Inuktitut is incredibly important. For young people to use their language on an everyday basis, they need to be able to use it in all facets of their lives. Computers are an important part of that.

There had been significant problems implementing Inuktitut on the Web. You had to download fonts and change computer settings. This led to inconsistencies, and a lot of time was lost and wasted.

Every roadblock to Inuktitut makes it less likely that people will use it.

Web Networks has been great from the get-go. They're open to listening and suggestions. They gave us what we asked for. They let us play with it to see what worked, then made modifications. They exceeded our expectations.

The interface is so easy to use, you can do other things and still have a site that looks like full-time resources are committed to it. I was able to tap in and work on the site while on the road.

For a site like ours that has a lot of information, it's very important to keep up to date. You can't lose weeks posting material. I can literally cut and paste material in Inuktitut, hit OK, and it's on the site. "

Jonathan Dewar, Public Affairs Officer
The Office of the Languages Commissioner

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From the Nunavut Municipal Training Organization

"In the big picture, maintaining the viability of a language is a matter of making things functional in the language. It is ultimately practical. Maintaining pride of language is a part of pride of culture -- and mental health and wellness.

People whose first language is English make a lot of assumptions about communicating. Having a Web site in two languages promotes clear communication. Visitors can cross-reference to ensure they're getting it right.

The real effectiveness of a Web site is to transfer information and to stay up to date. it has to be current all the time and solve problems for people.

If we had to become Web site programmers and be able to write in code, we would have never achieved the functionality that we have, or else we would have gone broke trying to do it.

Web Networks was great to work with. They were very helpful. They worked to capture our vision and make the technology workable. They were committed. They went above and beyond the call of duty on lots of occasions."

Chuck Gilhuly, Executive Director
Nunavut Municipal Training Organization

"It's been working very well, we're very happy with it. We're getting a lot of good feedback on the site.

It's very easy to use, as long as you can read the English dropdown boxes. You can write your translation very easily, right on the same page. The boxes say exactly what everything is for. It's very simple to use - anyone can use it.

Everything is right there on one page. When you're done, you hit POST, and everything is on your site."

Aseena Allurut, Program Officer
Nunavut Municipal Training Organization