CounterpointStimulating debate with the British Council

How is Cloud Culture transforming lives around the world? Counterpoint is in the running to present research into this question at SXSW interactive 2011. The research presented will challenge assumptions about the relationship between cultures and technology, highlighting the flow of ideas from the perceived global periphery to the perceived centre. Thank you to everyone who voted for or commented on our submission to the SXSW panelpicker. Maybe we'll see you in Austin!

Ivan Sigal is Executive Director of Global Voices, an important and innovative news organisation in the blogosphere. Produced by a community of some 200 bloggers who aggregate and curate the best of online citizen media from across the world, Global Voices emphasises voices that are generally not heard in the mainstream media, and in doing so aims to "amplify the global conversation online". Catherine Fieschi, Director of Counterpoint, asked Ivan his views on Cloud Culture and the future of the internet. Aptly they corresponded by email, and this is the result.

Counterpoint is launching a vital debate for our time. The rise of cloud computing is not only creating the battle for global internet control: it will soon change the very ways in which we exercise our creativity and forge relationships. In our ground-breaking report, Charles Leadbeater asks what will Cloud Culture be like? Who will own the cloud? How can we keep it open? And how can it empower the world’s poorest people?

In these three video clips from the launch of Counterpoint's Cloud Culture publication, the author delivers his thesis on the future of the internet as a space for cultural relations, the Artistic Director of the ICA is hopeful about the creative possibilities of that space, and Peter York gives his thoughts on the subject from a balcony overlooking Big Ben.

Students on the MA in Advanced Theatre Practise at the Central School of Speech and Drama are developing Whose Cloud is it Anyway? a durational performance project that takes Charles Leadbeater's critique of Cloud Culture for Counterpoint as its starting point.

A podcast of the launch of Counterpoint's publication: Cloud Culture: the future of global cultural relations, by Charles Leadbeater. Speakers on the night were Charles Leadbeater, Catherine Fieschi, Ekow Eshun (ICA), and Paul Hilder (avaaz.org).

With the publication of Charles Leadbeater's pamphlet on Cloud Culture, Counterpoint is leading a debate on the rise of Cloud computing and it's impact on social and cultural identities across the world. Here you can access and get involved in the various strands of this debate online.

Cloud computing promises a huge liberation of human creativity and communication; but can this precious space for human collaboration be kept open and free? Charles Leadbeater, leading thinker on creativity and innovation writes here about the issues he addresses in his new pamphlet published by Counterpoint on 8 February - Cloud Culture: the global future of cultural relations