Politics in the Cloud: A Review of Cloud Technology Applications in the Domain of Politics

Abstract

The cloud computing field has seen many applications in the domains of banking, education, media, gaming, health, and other industries. However, cloud applications are not so popular in the field of politics. This paper attempts to show that the cloud is equally useful for politics. It includes a literature review on an introduction to cloud technology, the advantages of cloud technology, and the common domains where cloud is applied. It also discusses the nature of politics and how politics differs from governance, and then it mentions some problems in the political world. A keyword search for “cloud computing” and “politics” on Google scholar and other research database search engines returned few results, and a perusal of the products and services of the top cloud providers revealed the absence of applications meant for politics. Further searches revealed some cloud applications for politics including Microsoft TownHall and Google Moderator. The paper discusses that despite the paucity of cloud applications meant for politics, the cloud has certain strategic features which are particularly suited to the political domain. It then concludes with suggested cloud applications that could be built for the political world.