Following the Diffusion of the Internet from Alaska to the Yukon

Posted October 28, 2019

In the summer, Seymour Goodman, a regents’ professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, visited Alaska and western Canada for three weeks. His visit was a follow-up of his 2000 effort to follow the global diffusion of the internet. The research funded by a grant from the Alaska Science Foundation was one of his first projects at the Nunn School. 

Through this research project, Seymour Goodman studied the spread of the internet to small, isolated villages in Alaska and the Yukon. Among the products of the effort was an email greeting to members of the faculty of the Nunn School from Old Crow, Yukon (where he obtained the caribou antlers in his office). There was also an article in the Communications of the ACM. The recent trip was highlighted by a four-day reunion of the 2000 team.