DIGITAL FUTURES WORKSHOP: Ruth Shillair, Michigan State University & Quello Center and William Dutton, Oxford University Via Zoom | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Governments and international organizations are focusing increasing attention on building the capacity of nations to withstand threats to the security of the Internet and related digital resources on which nearly all actors within their country increasingly depend. However, there are major questions surrounding such initiatives, such as the return on the investment in capacity building and any unintended consequences on such central issues as privacy and freedom of expression. The Oxford Global Cybersecurity Capacity Centre (GCSCC) and their partners […]

DIGITAL FUTURES WORKSHOP: Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science and W. Edward Steinmueller, University of Sussex Via Zoom | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Platform companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are the giants of the post-industrial age. They are replacing the physical artefacts of media, transforming business models and challenging bricks and mortar retail establishments. These large-scale changes have negative as well as positive consequences and they are creating challenges for policy makers. The new ordering of markets is likely a first step in the use of data these companies are accumulating about preferences, social interconnections, […]

How did China’s mass manufacturing and “copycat” production become transformed, in the global tech imagination, from something holding the nation back to one of its key assets? Prototype Nation offers a transnational analysis of how the promise of democratized innovation and entrepreneurial life has shaped China’s governance and global image. Lindtner reveals how a growing distrust in Western models of progress and development, including Silicon Valley and the tech industry after the financial crisis of 2007–8, shaped the rise of the global maker movement and the vision of China as a “new frontier” of innovation. Lindtner’s investigations draw on more […]