| 14 Jun 2024 | 09:30 - 16:30 | Westminster College, Cambridge | |
- Description
Description
About the workshop
Data centres and computing infrastructures have tangible impacts on local communities, including intensive electricity and water use, and impacts on community planning.
The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy is hosting a small workshop (maximum 20 people) on data centres and the future of digital infrastructure in Europe and the UK. The event will be led by Dr Julia Rone, and will bring together academics, policymakers and environmental activists focusing on data centres and public mobilisations across the UK and Europe to explore these impacts, share perspectives across disciplines, and map ways forward.
The workshop will provide an inclusive space for discussion and sharing expertise. During the event, we will hear from activists about their experiences and policymakers’ perspectives. There will be time for questions and responses to these presentations, as well as open roundtable discussions. The workshop will conclude with a discussion on the European Commission Public Consultation on Digital Infrastructure.
Programme
09:30 – 09:45 Welcome and introductions
09:45 – 11:15 Presentations: Data Centre Mobilizations from Across Europe (Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain)
11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 12:30 Roundtable: Democratic Participation and Building Sustainable Computing Infrastructure
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:30 Policymakers’ Perspectives
14:30 – 14:45 Coffee break
14:45 – 16:15 Open discussion on the European Commission Public Consultation on Digital Infrastructure
- Key Goal 1 – Identify main concerns regarding current decision-making on digital infrastructure.
- Key Goal 2 – Identify ways forward to increase public participation in decision-making on digital infrastructure.
16:15 – 16:30 Concluding remarks and wrap-up
16:30 – END
(19:30 – Possible dinner, TBC)
About the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy
The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy is an independent team of academic researchers at the University of Cambridge who are radically rethinking the power relationships between digital technologies, society, and our planet. We are based in CRASSH (University of Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences).
