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Cloud Computing Project Announces Two New Publications

The Berkman Center is pleased to announce two new publications on cloud computing.  These publications build upon a series of events, workshops, conversations, and research conducted over the last several years with collaborators from government, academia, and the private sector.

Governments and Cloud Computing: Role, Approaches, and Policy Considerations,” written by Executive Director Urs Gasser and David O'Brien, explores how several governments have assumed different “roles” with respect to their policy initiatives and regulatory in response to the emergence of cloud computing.  This paper explores each of these roles in detail using examples from governmental strategies and shares high-level observations about the roles and the contexts in which they arise.  The paper concludes with a set of considerations for policymakers to take into account when developing approaches to the rapidly evolving cloud computing technologies and industry.  This paper is available for download on SSRN.

In “Cloud Innovation and the Law: Issues, Approaches, and Interplay,” Executive Director Urs Gasser uses cloud computing as a lens to distill high-level insights about the regulation of emerging technologies in digitally networked environments.  The paper starts by introducing and framing cloud computing as both a technological innovation and innovation-enabling technology – in short: cloud innovation. The paper then explores how the legal and regulatory system interacts with cloud computing by identifying, clustering, and analyzing reactions from the legal and regulatory systems in response to the emergence of cloud computing. It ends with general observations regarding the design of interfaces  –  technical, organizational, and human  –  between innovative and innovation-enabling technologies, like cloud computing, and the legal and regulatory system.  This paper is available for download on SSRN.

About the Cloud Computing Project

Since 2010, the Berkman Center has engaged in research and activities focused on understanding emerging issues and trends related to cloud computing.  Led by Executive Director and Harvard Law School Professor of Practice Urs Gasser in collaboration with Berkman faculty colleagues, fellows, and staff members, as well as his international partners, this initiative seeks to identify and evaluate the challenges and opportunities associated with cloud computing, with a particular focus on the technological, social, legal, and market contexts that shape it.

More information can be found on the project website.

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Projects & Tools 01

Cloud Computing

Led by Executive Director and Harvard Law School Professor of Practice, Urs Gasser, the Berkman Center's cloud computing initiative seeks to identify and evaluate the challenges…


Publications 02

Mar 17, 2014

Cloud Innovation and the Law: Issues, Approaches, and Interplay

“Cloud Innovation and the Law: Issues, Approaches, and Interplay,” authored by Berkman Center Executive Director and Harvard Law School Professor of Practice Urs Gasser, draws…

Mar 17, 2014

Governments and Cloud Computing: Roles, Approaches, and Policy Considerations

In this paper, Urs Gasser and David O'Brien synthesize findings from a multi-year cloud computing research initiative led by the Berkman Center in close collaboration with the…