This document discusses several topics related to information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Arctic region. It addresses considerations for equipment manufacturers and carriers forming alliances, issues around standardization and commercialization. It also examines technical challenges of ICT in the Arctic like telemedicine demands and the need to integrate different communication systems. The document questions whether ICT may be destroying indigenous cultural traits by contrasting characteristics of oral and literate cultures. It explores how ICT represent Western scientific knowledge and notes the need to understand this knowledge embodied in technologies. Finally, it discusses premises of knowledge integration, differences in how knowledge is generated between scientific and oral/indigenous ways of knowing.

1. ICT in the Arctic– Two elements for consideration Oliver Krone University of Lapland Department of Research Methodology

2. FUNET – a topology of ruralness