Gerry McGovern
"The Nordic states are letting go of values and infrastructure resources that are dear to the welfare state – from shared access to public resources to democratic values and universal access to communication and electricity – while intensifying digitalization and dependencies on Silicon Valley companies."
The public values of openness, affordability of connection and universal access to infrastructure are under threat by Big Tech.
Gerry McGovern
In Skåne, Microsoft booked so much electricity that the local Swedish bread company Pågen could no longer build a bread baking factory in the area and had to expand elsewhere.
In Sörmland, Amazon has reserved 1/4 of the grid. It is preventing more job-intense industries establishing. AWS is the largest consumer of electricity in the region, followed – and not closely — by the largest chicken slaughter house in Sweden that slaughters 200 000 chicken per day.
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/reimagining-public-values-in-algorithmic-futures/whats-new/dismantling-public-values-one-data-center-at-the-time
lazydev
@gustav @gerrymcgovern Facebooks datacenter in Sweden gave 56 jobs, not 30 000 as calculated. https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-1493739
Gustav Lindqvist 🇸🇪
@gerrymcgovern and the jobs will end up being temporary during construction and after that end up only being a few janitors with technical staff being flown in when needed.
Gerry McGovern
Big jobs announcement from Google in Norway. Its new data center in Skien will deliver a whopping 100 jobs. And for those amazing 100 jobs, all Google is asking for is 5% of the total electricity Norway consumes. “What an amazing deal,” a local politician was quoted as saying. “Even if it will mean higher electricity prices for local people, we are so proud to have Google come to little old Skien.”
Aral Balkan
@gerrymcgovern @amaditalks That local politician is a fool. *smdh*
Gerry McGovern
When politicians in the Nordics welcomed Big Tech, they hoped that Googles, Microsofts, Amazons would bring jobs, wealth and brand value to struggling municipalities. Instead, the Nordics are turning into a Big Cheap processing place for the global digital economies. If China remains the place of cheap labor for Silicon Valley innovations, the Nordic countries are today the source of cheap land and cheap renewable electricity Silicon Valley data processing and AI.
Nico Rikken
@gerrymcgovern
Good opinion piece from the university of Helsinki. We have similar trend and discussion in the Netherlands. "Are we ready to lose local companies, businesses, and non-digital industries in favour of providing storage space and substantial parts of the available electricity to Big Tech giants?" https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/reimagining-public-values-in-algorithmic-futures/whats-new/dismantling-public-values-one-data-center-at-the-time
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