There’s an interesting post on the profy blog, “Computers Without Borders: Cloud Computing and Political Manipulation” looks at the implications of political control of the developing ‘cloud’, the network of networks that is increasingly providing the opportunity to deliver services down the wire, rather than off a local drive or server. Political control of the Internet always seems like a fairly boring topic but this posting makes a good point about education.
I quote, “Other projects depend on cloud computing overcoming politics to be successful as well. What good is One Laptop Per Child bringing laptops to remote areas of poor countries (including our own) if there is no internet cloud of information, applications and services for the computers to access? How will it help these countries overcome hardship if they get cut off from the flow of information and the global economy because a bureaucrat in a suit thousands of miles and several time zones away is closing access to a data port to keep citizens in his country in the dark about political maneuvering?”
She’s right.
Sometimes the most arcane and tiresome issues have got staggeringly important implications.
1 response so far ↓
1
Leslie Poston
// May 30, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for calling some attention to the very unglamorous issue of politics and how they affect cloud computing and the global economy. It’s an issue that deserves more attention than it gets.
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