[P2P-F] Fwd: [Networkedlabour] CAMRI Seminar (Sep 25): Vincent Mosco on the Political Economy of Cloud Computing and Big Data

Wed Aug 21 13:43:25 CEST 2013

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs at uti.at>
Date: Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 6:43 PM
Subject: [Networkedlabour] CAMRI Seminar (Sep 25): Vincent Mosco on the
Political Economy of Cloud Computing and Big Data
To: networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org

Vincent Mosco:
To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World
September 25, 2013
02:00pm-04:00pm
Room A7.03, Harrow Campus, University of Westminster, Communication and
Media Research Institute (CAMRI), London: Northwick Park tube station
(Metropolitan Line)
Full information:
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/**research/a-z/camri/seminars/**
camri-seminar-calendar/2013/**to-the-cloud-big-data-in-a-**turbulent-world<http://www.westminster.ac.uk/research/a-z/camri/seminars/camri-seminar-calendar/2013/to-the-cloud-big-data-in-a-turbulent-world>

Opening talk of this autumn’s CAMRI Research Seminar Series (announcement
of further dates/events will follow)

Participation
Participation is free and everyone is welcome. Please register at latest
until 22 September by sending an email to Christian Fuchs:
christian.fuchs at uti.at.

Abstract
This presentation offers an account of the political, economic, social and
cultural issues emerging from the growth of cloud computing. It starts by
situating cloud computing as a major force in the globalisation of
informational capitalism and in the advance of a particular way of knowing,
what I call digital positivism. It proceeds to examine the origins of cloud
computing in the movements that arose in the pre-internet era to create an
information utility.
The presentation then defines cloud computing, describes its major
characteristics, and identifies the leading corporate, and government cloud
players. In doing so, it describes the battles for market power among a
handful of companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook,
and Rackspace, the rapid and, for some, worrisome, expansion of the
government cloud, the internationalisation of cloud computing, and the
emergence of bottom-up community cloud projects.
Next, it considers how the cloud is being marketed and mythologised through
advertising, social media, corporate and government research, industry
lobbying, and marketing events. Massive promotion is essential because dark
clouds are gathering over the industry including the environmental problems
created by data centres; concerns over privacy, security, and surveillance;
and labour issues, particularly the impact on IT departments, and more
generally on knowledge workers whose jobs are threatened by the cloud. The
presentation concludes by offering a technical and a cultural critique of
big data, digital positivism, and the cloud’s “way of knowing.”

Biography
Dr Vincent Mosco is Professor Emeritus, Queen's University, Canada. He is
formerly Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society and Professor
of Sociology. He is author of many works, including The Political Economy
of Communication, second edition (Sage, 2009), The Laboring of
Communication: Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite (co-authored with
Catherine McKercher, Lexington Books, 2008), and The Digital Sublime: Myth,
Power, and Cyberspace (MIT Press, 2004).

-- 
Christian Fuchs
Professor of Social Media
University of Westminster,
Communication and Media Research Institute
http://fuchs.uti.at, http://www.triple-c.at
@fuchschristian
+44 (0) 20 7911 5000 ext 67380

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