[ICTs-and-Society] CAMRI Seminar (Sep 25): Vincent Mosco on the Political Economy of Cloud Computing and Big Data

[Jakob Rigi]

Hi All,

Below is the abstract of an article of mine that is published in the
current issue of Capital & Class. 


All the best
Jakob


Peer production and
Marxian communism:
Contours of a new
emerging mode of
production


Jakob Rigi
Central European University, Budapest


Abstract
This article argues that communism is currently emerging as a new mode
of
production, namely, peer production (PP), which produces commons instead
of
commodity. In PP, producers produce commons through voluntary
participation
in distributed network-based communities of production. Each volunteer
chooses
the tasks she performs, the amount of time she devotes to the collective
production,
and the place and time of her productive activity. In terms of
distribution, the
digital commons are available for free on the net. The rights to
relatively scarce
commons are still emerging, but they might be relatively restrictive
compared with
rights to digital commons. Analysing this new mode of production, the
article
attempts to show why and how it can replace capitalism.
Keywords
Peer production, PP, knowledge, Marxian communism, 3D printing, social
struggle






>>> Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs at uti.at> 08/21/13 1:19 PM >>>
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), 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

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 CyberspCommunication and Media Research Institute
http://fuchs.uti.at, http://www.triple-c.at
@fuchschristian
+44 (0) 20 7911 5000 ext 67380

_______________________________________________
Discussion mailing list
Discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net
http://lists.icts-and-society.net/listinfo.cgi/discussion-icts-and-society.net




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.icts-and-society.net/pipermail/discussion-icts-and-society.net/attachments/20131011/b1137d23/attachment.htm>