Princeton University Podcasts

"Computing in the cloud" is one name for services that run in a Web browser and store information in a provider's data center — ranging from adaptations of familiar tools such as email and personal finance to new offerings such as virtual worlds and social networks. This workshop will bring together experts from computer science, law, politics and industry to explore the social and policy implications of this trend. Part 6 includes the third panel of the workshop, entitled "What's next?". What new services might develop, and how will today's services evolve? How well will cloud computing be likely to serve users, companies, investors, government, and the public over the longer run? Which social and policy problems will get worse due to cloud computing, and which will get better? Sponsored by Microsoft and Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

"Computing in the cloud" is one name for services that run in a Web browser and store information in a provider's data center — ranging from adaptations of familiar tools such as email and personal finance to new offerings such as virtual worlds and social networks. This workshop will bring together experts from computer science, law, politics and industry to explore the social and policy implications of this trend. Part 5 includes the third panel of the workshop, entitled "Civics in the cloud". How and where can cloud computing best improve public knowledge and engagement in political issues? What has been achieved so far? What is possible in the long run? What moves by private actors, and what policy changes, might do the most to harness the power of cloud computing for civic engagement? Sponsored by Microsoft and Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

"Computing in the cloud" is one name for services that run in a Web browser and store information in a provider's data center — ranging from adaptations of familiar tools such as email and personal finance to new offerings such as virtual worlds and social networks. This workshop will bring together experts from computer science, law, politics and industry to explore the social and policy implications of this trend. Part 4 includes a presentation and discussion of Princeton research. Sponsored by Microsoft and Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

"Computing in the cloud" is one name for services that run in a Web browser and store information in a provider's data center — ranging from adaptations of familiar tools such as email and personal finance to new offerings such as virtual worlds and social networks. This workshop will bring together experts from computer science, law, politics and industry to explore the social and policy implications of this trend. Part 3 includes the second panel of the workshop, entitled "Security and risk in the cloud". How does the move to centralized services affect the security and reliability of users' interactions with technology? What new threats are likely to emerge? How might provider behavior, user behavior, or government policy need to change in response to those threats? How does the "open source" ethos work in a cloud computing environment? Sponsored by Microsoft and Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

"Computing in the cloud" is one name for services that run in a Web browser and store information in a provider's data center — ranging from adaptations of familiar tools such as email and personal finance to new offerings such as virtual worlds and social networks. This workshop will bring together experts from computer science, law, politics and industry to explore the social and policy implications of this trend. Part 2 includes the first panel of the workshop, entitled "Possession and ownership of data". In cloud computing, a provider’s data center holds information that would more traditionally have been stored on the end user’s computer. How does this impact user privacy? To what extent do users “own” this data, and what obligations do the service providers have? What obligations should they have? Does moving the data to the provider’s data center improve security or endanger it? Sponsored by Microsoft and Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

"Computing in the cloud" is one name for services that run in a Web browser and store information in a provider's data center — ranging from adaptations of familiar tools such as email and personal finance to new offerings such as virtual worlds and social networks. This workshop will bring together experts from computer science, law, politics and industry to explore the social and policy implications of this trend. Part 1 includes introductory remarks by H. Vincent Poor, and a survey talk by Ed Felten. Sponsored by Microsoft and Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

The science of climate change structures the economics: risk of major damage and a global response must be at the core of an analysis of policy. History and wealth structure the ethics. The economics of climate change must, therefore, point to effective, efficient, and ethical, as well as collaborative, policy responses. This lecture will follow this analysis and describe a possible global deal or framework and how it might be built. Lord Stern is I.G. Patel Professor of Economics and Government and heads a new India Observatory within the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. He has been an adviser to the U.K. government on the economics of climate change and development, reporting to the prime minister from 2003-2007; author of the Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change; and the head of the government economic service. From 2003-2005, he was second permanent secretary to the Treasury and from 2004-2005, director of policy and research for the prime minister's commission for Africa. He has also served as World Bank chief economist and senior vice president, development economics. In addition he has been the chief economist and special counsellor to the president at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His most recent book on development, Growth and Empowerment: Making Development Happen, was published in April 2005. The Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change was published in October 2006 (http://www.sternreview.org.uk), and in printed form by Cambridge University Press in January 2007. A Walter E. Edge Lecture, cosponsored by the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy and the Princeton Environmental Institute

Until fairly recently eternity was no mere abstraction or metaphor in the Christian tradition, but rather the ultimate destination for humankind, a metaphysical conceit with practical implications as inescapable as legal obligations, or taxes, or death. Eternity was an ineffable mystery, to be sure, but of no less value in human interaction than money itself, or crowns and thrones. In our own day, however, eternity seems a purely abstract concept best left in the hands of astrophysicists, a frightfully uncertain horizon divorced from daily life. How was it that eternity emerged in the West as something more than a mere concept? How was it that it ceased to function as an organizing principle for daily life? What difference does this history make? That is the subject of these lectures. More specifically, these lectures will explore how a transcendent higher reality has been conceived in the West, and how such conceptions relate to social, political, and economic realities. Lecture 3: "From Eternity to Five-Year Plans" will focus on the ways in which the Christian West came to rid itself of eternity, and on the social, political, and economic effects of this reordering of the cosmos. In closing, some meditations will be offered on highly ironic parallels between what has been discarded and current scientific theories of time and eternity. A Spencer Trask Lecture, cosponsored by Princeton University Press.

Until fairly recently eternity was no mere abstraction or metaphor in the Christian tradition, but rather the ultimate destination for humankind, a metaphysical conceit with practical implications as inescapable as legal obligations, or taxes, or death. Eternity was an ineffable mystery, to be sure, but of no less value in human interaction than money itself, or crowns and thrones. In our own day, however, eternity seems a purely abstract concept best left in the hands of astrophysicists, a frightfully uncertain horizon divorced from daily life. How was it that eternity emerged in the West as something more than a mere concept? How was it that it ceased to function as an organizing principle for daily life? What difference does this history make? That is the subject of these lectures. More specifically, these lectures will explore how a transcendent higher reality has been conceived in the West, and how such conceptions relate to social, political, and economic realities. Lecture 2: "Protestantism and the Reformation of Eternity" will analyze how Protestants transformed Western conceptions of eternity, shifting attention from otherworldly concerns to earthly realities, reordering society and the European economy in radical ways that we now consider "modern." A Spencer Trask Lecture, cosponsored by Princeton University Press.

Until fairly recently eternity was no mere abstraction or metaphor in the Christian tradition, but rather the ultimate destination for humankind, a metaphysical conceit with practical implications as inescapable as legal obligations, or taxes, or death. Eternity was an ineffable mystery, to be sure, but of no less value in human interaction than money itself, or crowns and thrones. In our own day, however, eternity seems a purely abstract concept best left in the hands of astrophysicists, a frightfully uncertain horizon divorced from daily life. How was it that eternity emerged in the West as something more than a mere concept? How was it that it ceased to function as an organizing principle for daily life? What difference does this history make? That is the subject of these lectures. More specifically, these lectures will explore how a transcendent higher reality has been conceived in the West, and how such conceptions relate to social, political, and economic realities. Lecture 1: "The Birth of Eternity" will trace the development of the concept of eternity in the first 15 centuries of Christian history, focusing on four of the principal ways in which eternity was made manifest in concrete ways, investing daily life with an otherworldly character: ritual, monasticism, mysticism, and church-state relations. A Spencer Trask Lecture, cosponsored by Princeton University Press.