Short Abstract

What if local communities would own data centers? How would that work and be governed, and would it be sustainable? On this roundtable we discuss the idea of collectively-owned data centers, informed by historical learnings, present attempts and future imaginaries with a focus on practical strategy.

Description

Data centers consume a lot of energy, materials and water. They produce excessive heat and noise pollution, are intransparent and their revenue primarily benefits an handful of powerful tech companies. Yet, the modern internet as we know and love it today, needs data centers to render many of our favourite platforms, apps, games and chatbots – mainstream as well as independent. In addition, recent developments in machine learning (e.g. generative artificial intelligence), which require even more computational resources, have spurred the growth of the data center industry which is now building hyper-scalers further intensifying negative externalities.

In this roundtable we explore approaches to imagining, conceptually grasping, and practically realising the idea of community-owned data centers. Drawing parallels to community-owned residential buildings, grocery cooperatives, community-run internet services or community-supported agriculture we ask, how can such data center be built, governed, and cared for. We furthermore ask, who should be the customers, what should be the business model, how to deal with personal data, how to relate to governmental actors or other cooperatives, and how to distribute benefits.

Based on our insights from several workshops, interviews and literature researches we also want to discuss already existing projects who would losely fit into the concept and inquire what they are doing differently and why.

In order to redistribute power in the digital constellation, strife for sustainability, benefit local communities as well as users and businesses we want to further co-develop the concept of community-owned data centers, informed by historical learnings, present attempts and future imaginaries with a focus on practical strategies and alliances.