Hosted by Eleanor Darragh and Kerry McInerney Good robot is a podcast that explores the many complex intersections between gender, feminism, and technology.
The Battle Over Data Centers with Tara Merk
How can communities regain control of the digital infrastructure that supports daily life? In this episode, Eleanor Darragh talks with Tara Merck about how community-owned data centers can transform digital ownership and challenge the dominance of Big Tech.
The conversation explores alternative models of Internet infrastructure that prioritize local empowerment, sustainability, and collaborative governance at the expense of corporate control. Drawing on examples from Germany’s renewable energy sector and community-led initiatives, Merck considers how decentralized ownership models can create fairer and more environmentally responsible technology systems. The episode also examines what it means to design digital infrastructure around collective needs rather than profit, and to reimagine the Internet as a shared public resource.
Watch the episode here:
Tara Merk He is a researcher and advocate focusing on digital infrastructure, sustainability and community-led technology systems. Her work explores how collaborative and locally managed models can reshape the ownership and operation of data infrastructure, with particular attention to environmental responsibility, democratic governance, and digital equity.
You can find the episode’s reading list and transcript here.
About the Good Robot Podcast
Dr. Eleanor Darragh and Dr. Kerry McInerney They are associate researchers at the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence, where they work on the Mercator-Stiflung-funded project on desirable digitalisation. Previously, they were Christina Zhao Postdoctoral Researchers in Gender and Technology at the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge. During the COVID-19 pandemic they decided to co-found Good Robot Podcast To explore the many complex intersections between gender, feminism and technology.
Good Robot Podcast
