Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheries
How did the 3.5-inch Winchester hard disk drive become the fundamental building block of the modern data center? In attempting to answer this question, I theorize the concept of "data peripheries" to attend to the awkward, uneven, and unintended outsides of data infrastructures. I explore...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2021-08-01
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| Series: | Big Data & Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211015430 |
| _version_ | 1818726090426810368 |
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| author | Zane Griffin Talley Cooper |
| author_facet | Zane Griffin Talley Cooper |
| author_sort | Zane Griffin Talley Cooper |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | How did the 3.5-inch Winchester hard disk drive become the fundamental building block of the modern data center? In attempting to answer this question, I theorize the concept of "data peripheries" to attend to the awkward, uneven, and unintended outsides of data infrastructures. I explore the concept of data peripheries by first situating Big Data in one of its many unintended outsides—an unassuming dog kennel in Indiana housed in a former permanent magnet manufacturing plant. From the perspective of this dog kennel, I then build a history of the 3.5-inch Winchester hard disk drive, and weave this hard drive history through the industrial histories of rare earth mining and permanent magnet manufacturing, focusing principally on Magnequench, a former General Motors subsidiary, and its sale and movement of operations from Indiana to China in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. I then discuss how mobilities of rare earths, both as materials and political discourse, shape Big Data futures, and conclude by speculating on how using the situated lenses of data peripheries (such as this Indiana dog kennel) can open up new methods for studying the material entanglements of Big Data writ large. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T21:52:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-51d3204a22b44c99a415715bc75cdb95 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-9517 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T21:52:41Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Big Data & Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-51d3204a22b44c99a415715bc75cdb952022-12-21T21:31:13ZengSAGE PublishingBig Data & Society2053-95172021-08-01810.1177/20539517211015430Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheriesZane Griffin Talley CooperHow did the 3.5-inch Winchester hard disk drive become the fundamental building block of the modern data center? In attempting to answer this question, I theorize the concept of "data peripheries" to attend to the awkward, uneven, and unintended outsides of data infrastructures. I explore the concept of data peripheries by first situating Big Data in one of its many unintended outsides—an unassuming dog kennel in Indiana housed in a former permanent magnet manufacturing plant. From the perspective of this dog kennel, I then build a history of the 3.5-inch Winchester hard disk drive, and weave this hard drive history through the industrial histories of rare earth mining and permanent magnet manufacturing, focusing principally on Magnequench, a former General Motors subsidiary, and its sale and movement of operations from Indiana to China in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. I then discuss how mobilities of rare earths, both as materials and political discourse, shape Big Data futures, and conclude by speculating on how using the situated lenses of data peripheries (such as this Indiana dog kennel) can open up new methods for studying the material entanglements of Big Data writ large.https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211015430 |
| spellingShingle | Zane Griffin Talley Cooper Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheries Big Data & Society |
| title | Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheries |
| title_full | Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheries |
| title_fullStr | Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheries |
| title_full_unstemmed | Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheries |
| title_short | Of dog kennels, magnets, and hard drives: Dealing with Big Data peripheries |
| title_sort | of dog kennels magnets and hard drives dealing with big data peripheries |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211015430 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zanegriffintalleycooper ofdogkennelsmagnetsandharddrivesdealingwithbigdataperipheries |