Policy, legislation and ethics in the cloud

[James Firth]

I was invited to Google's London HQ.  The conversation centred around
politics, ethics, legislation and policy for a commercially available
computing fabric which transcends national borders.

I added information gleaned from my visit to a blog post I've been brewing.
It might be of interest for some on this list.

The elastic jurisdiction
http://www.slightlyrightofcentre.com/2010/11/elastic-jurisdiction.html

(Short URL: http://ejf.me/aZ )


"But in a domain where the fittest - and largest - survive, who's left
batting for the consumer? And importantly, who's funding the organisation
batting for the consumer?"

...

"Putting fear, terrorism and copyright controls aside, we are now firmly in
an era characterised by the fluidity of data, yet our laws still defer to
national boundaries."

...

"But I believe at least one company - Google - has developed a genuine cloud
computer.  Perhaps the world's first true globally-distributed
"gigacomputer" (my tagline).  A processing fabric acting to all intents and
purposes as a single computer would, but whose physical processing and
storage is genuinely abstracted from the programmer or end user, and
distributed around the world.  "


James Firth