With over a month’s time since the conclusion of the 2009 Ars Electronica Symposium on Cloud Intelligence we can now look back at the day’s discussions – both online and in Linz – and examine what conclusions were reached, and what points of contention remain.
All of the talks and roundtable discussions have been posted on the blog. You can subscribe to the video podcast on iTunes, or via our RSS feed.
Among the questions to which we sought answers:
- Does cloud computing represent a significant shift in infrastructure, or is it merely the latest fashionable name for the same old internet?
- What is the intellectual history of collective intelligence, and does cloud computing re-shape our understanding of it?
- Are cloud technologies forging a global, cosmopolitan society, or are we mistakenly lured into believing that a space without geography must be a space without social boundaries?
- Does online activism using server-based tools lead to offline social change, or to increased apathy?
- How are activists using the cloud to influence development, environmentalism, education, creativity and culture?