Transatlantic Communications of the 21st Century
Sponsored by the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
The 2008 Plymouth Postgraduate Symposium (PPGS) built bridges and strengthed historical communication networks with fellow academics through a transatlantic communication representative of Marconi’s first wireless signal in 1901.
At 12:30 pm on the 12th December 1901 Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first wireless signals across the Atlantic between Poldhu, Cornwall and Signal Hill, St Johns Newfoundland, a distance of 2100 miles.
Now, over 100 years later, the University of Plymouth, through the PPGS, has rein-acted the communications link by transmitting a live video link between the Southwest and St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada. State of the art video technology was used to establish the exchange with a University of Plymouth researcher, James Parsons, who was on placement at Memorial University, Newfoundland at the time of the symposium and the PPGS conference itself.
James aged 42 and originally from Lumsden, Newfoundland, talked about his research that examines the future problems facing Canada’s Arctic icebreaking needs. The research paper ‘Use of grounded theory for qualitative analysis of expert interviews regarding Canada's Arctic icebreaking needs’ was presented via video, on Friday, 2nd May at 11 am, a copy of which will be available shortly in the 2008 proceedings.
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Sponsored by the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, the video conference highlights the famous historical link St John’s already shares with the South West. |