Lack of Accountability for Negative Externalities

Heard that title phase at a lunch lecture that I attended on Friday about the Economic Impacts of Information and Communications Technology. This is a good thing to try to understand. Look under the hood and really try to understand or model in some way the pervasive and multiple impacts. "Green IT" is very hot. There are a number of things to consider:

1. First order effects is the energy consumption.
2. Second order is that ICT can help control manufacturing plants etc.
3. Third order is that ICT can be used to do research in medicine or oil& gas exploration

One Green theme being explored is locating data centres at Green, carbon zero sites.

"Follow the sun" compute.

The famous Canadian economist John Kenneth Galbraith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith may be relevant here.