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Data Centers Have a New PR Plan: Your Kid’s Field Trip

Save this storySave this storyWelcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season’s biggest issue: data centers. They’re out this week, so Caroline Haskins is reporting for duty. If you’ve got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Caroline an email at [email protected] or reach her securely on Signal at carolinehaskins.61.

欢迎回到“权力游戏”（Power Play）！每周，资深撰稿人莫莉·塔夫特（Molly Taft）都会探讨中期选举季最热门的话题：数据中心。本周她休假，由卡罗琳·哈斯金斯（Caroline Haskins）代班报道。如果您对本专栏有任何疑问或想法，欢迎发送电子邮件至 [email protected]，或通过 Signal 安全联系她：carolinehaskins.61。

The nonprofit 7x24 Exchange International wants to promote data centers, which they believe are “mission critical” infrastructure. As part of this work, the group recommends a children’s story, “What is a Data Center?,” which follows a honey badger named Honey who gets a guided tour of a data center from a worker named Oliver. Oliver explains that the job of data center employees is to make sure that the “functions supported by the data center” are available to anybody, “no matter what time it is.”

非营利组织“7x24国际交流”（7x24 Exchange International）致力于推广数据中心，他们认为这是“任务关键型”基础设施。作为工作的一部分，该组织推荐了一本名为《什么是数据中心？》（What is a Data Center?）的儿童读物。故事讲述了一只名叫“蜂蜜”（Honey）的蜜獾，在一名叫奥利弗（Oliver）的工作人员带领下参观数据中心。奥利弗解释说，数据中心员工的工作是确保“数据中心支持的功能”能够随时随地提供给任何人。

“Like when my mom shops online late at night because my dad is sleeping and won’t know about it?” Honey asks. The story is part of a broader pattern across the data center industry. In addition to lobbying, job creation programs, tax breaks, companies and interest groups are trying something a bit more creative: winning over the youth. As pushback to massive data center build-outs and energy-guzzling campuses intensifies, the industry is apparently taking a softer approach to community building using a tactic other industries with a public relations problem have tried.

“就像我妈妈在深夜趁我爸爸睡觉不知道的时候上网购物那样吗？”蜂蜜问道。这个故事是整个数据中心行业更广泛趋势的一部分。除了游说、创造就业计划和税收减免外，各公司和利益集团正在尝试一种更具创意的方法：赢得年轻一代的支持。随着针对大规模数据中心建设和高耗能园区的抵制声浪日益高涨，该行业显然正在采取一种更温和的社区建设方式，使用了其他面临公关危机的行业曾尝试过的策略。

Alex Molnar, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and the director of the National Education Policy Center, tells WIRED that, for over a century, industries with an image problem—fast food, tobacco, oil and gas—have brought their messaging to schools. “A very, very big reason why corporations get involved in the schools is, quite simply, corporate propaganda—for the purpose not necessarily of selling a product, but of telling their ‘story,’” Molnar says.

科罗拉多大学博尔德分校研究教授兼国家教育政策中心主任亚历克斯·莫尔纳（Alex Molnar）告诉《连线》（WIRED），一个多世纪以来，那些形象受损的行业——如快餐、烟草、石油和天然气——一直将他们的宣传带入校园。“企业介入学校的一个非常、非常重要的原因，简单来说就是企业宣传——其目的不一定是为了销售产品，而是为了讲述他们的‘故事’，”莫尔纳说。

In May, the Potomac chapter of the Association for Computer Operations Management (AFCOM), a trade group for the data center industry, sponsored Memorial Day-themed flag-making kits to be distributed to 3,100 first graders across 37 schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, also known as Data Center Alley. In addition to the flag kits, kids received an informational card with statistics about “the positive impact” that the data center industry has on the local economy.

今年5月，数据中心行业贸易组织“计算机运营管理协会”（AFCOM）的波托马克分会赞助了以阵亡将士纪念日为主题的旗帜制作工具包，分发给弗吉尼亚州劳登县（被称为“数据中心巷”）37所学校的3100名一年级学生。除了旗帜工具包外，孩子们还收到了一张信息卡，上面列有关于数据中心行业对当地经济“积极影响”的统计数据。

Besides promoting heartwarming tales about how women can shop, 7x24 Exchange is also the brains behind a holiday it calls “International Data Center Day,” which is “designed to create awareness of the data center industry and inspire the next generation of talent.” The nonprofit encourages people to pitch the holiday to school administrators. For participating high schools, it offers a celebratory crossword puzzle and information about data center training programs.

除了推广关于女性如何购物的温馨故事外，“7x24国际交流”还是一个被称为“国际数据中心日”节日的幕后推手，该节日“旨在提高人们对数据中心行业的认识，并激励下一代人才”。该非营利组织鼓励人们向学校管理人员推介这个节日。对于参与的高中，他们提供庆祝性的填字游戏以及有关数据中心培训项目的信息。

For elementary schools, it offers data center-themed coloring pages, instructions for an evaporation-themed science project, and print-out activities like “Draw a picture of the cloud” and “Draw a data superhero.” It also promotes several data center-themed books for young readers, including one in which two sisters visit a data center and meet a robot named JB and another that features two brothers who visit a “vibrant digital world” and save the internet. Then there’s “Polly Packet’s Precious Payload,” which follows a mother who teaches her daughter about data centers.

对于小学，他们提供数据中心主题的涂色页、以蒸发为主题的科学项目说明，以及诸如“画一幅云的图画”和“画一个数据超级英雄”等打印活动。他们还推广了几本面向年轻读者的书籍，其中包括两姐妹参观数据中心并遇到机器人JB的故事，以及两兄弟访问“充满活力的数字世界”并拯救互联网的故事。此外还有《波莉·帕克特的珍贵载荷》（Polly Packet’s Precious Payload），讲述了一位母亲教导女儿了解数据中心的故事。

7x24 Exchange has also visited or organized at least a half-dozen K-12 events at schools across the country this year. In Minnesota, it brought Fridley High School students on a field trip to a local Cummins diesel power generation facility in order to learn about the “generators that power data centers worldwide.” (7x24 Exchange, Cummins, and Fridley High School did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.)

今年，“7x24国际交流”还在全国各地的学校访问或组织了至少六场K-12教育活动。在明尼苏达州，他们组织弗里德利高中（Fridley High School）的学生参观了当地的一家康明斯（Cummins）柴油发电设施，以了解“为全球数据中心供电的发电机”。（“7x24国际交流”、康明斯和弗里德利高中未回应《连线》的置评请求。）

The nonprofit is far from the only organization sponsoring school activities that are friendly to data centers. WIRED’s tally of public blogs and social media posts found that, since 2025, at least eleven companies and industry groups have hosted student field trips to local data centers. Sabey, a company that runs seven US data centers, has hosted a number of field trips for Washington-based high schoolers, including one in May for Eastmont High School students, one in January for Manson School District students, and another last October for Quincy School District students.

该非营利组织远非唯一一家赞助对数据中心友好的学校活动的机构。《连线》对公开博客和社交媒体帖子的统计发现，自2025年以来，至少有11家公司和行业团体组织了学生参观当地数据中心的活动。运营着七个美国数据中心的公司Sabey，已为华盛顿州的高中生举办了多次实地考察，包括5月份为东蒙高中（Eastmont High School）学生举办的考察，1月份为曼森学区（Manson School District）学生举办的考察，以及去年10月为昆西学区（Quincy School District）学生举办的考察。

Manson School District publicized the trip in a blog post showing what appears to be adults and students in a conference room. The image labeled us “AI-generated content,” though, and several people in the photo have missing limbs. The blog says that students learned about “the role data centers play in storing, processing, and protecting information” and “the wide range of careers” in the data center industry.

曼森学区在一篇博客文章中宣传了这次考察，文章展示了一张似乎是成年人和学生在会议室的照片。然而，该图片被标记为“人工智能生成内容”，照片中几个人缺失了肢体。博客称，学生们了解了“数据中心在存储、处理和保护信息方面的作用”以及数据中心行业中“广泛的职业选择”。

Quincy School District communications coordinator Jessica Blancas tells WIRED that the district “has organized data center visits for many years” at the facilities of companies like Microsoft, Vantage, Yahoo, and Sabey. She described the latter company as a “long-standing” district partner, citing its consistent work offering “guest speakers,” “mock interviews,” and “internship opportunities.”

昆西学区通讯协调员杰西卡·布兰卡斯（Jessica Blancas）告诉《连线》，该学区“多年来一直组织学生参观”微软、Vantage、雅虎和Sabey等公司的数据中心设施。她将Sabey描述为学区的“长期”合作伙伴，并提到该公司一直提供“客座演讲”、“模拟面试”和“实习机会”。

Blancas adds that the district has organized “all-girls visits to Sabey,” as well as tours for students who intend to go into specific fields like construction or engineering. (Manson School District and Sabey did not respond for comment.) Amazon, meanwhile, hosted a field trip last February at its Arlington, Virginia, “Skills Center,” a free community space for anyone “curious about cloud computing and future job possibilities.” It was open to any high school in the DC metro area, though Jackson-Reed High School was the only one to attend.

布兰卡斯补充说，学区还组织了“全女生参观Sabey”的活动，以及为打算进入建筑或工程等特定领域的学生安排的参观。（曼森学区和Sabey未回应置评请求。）与此同时，亚马逊去年2月在其位于弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的“技能中心”（Skills Center）举办了一次实地考察，这是一个为任何“对云计算和未来就业机会感到好奇”的人提供的免费社区空间。该活动对华盛顿特区大都会区的任何高中开放，但只有杰克逊-里德高中（Jackson-Reed High School）参加了。

Molnar says he doesn’t get what’s in it for kids. “Why would a third grader be interested in a data center?” he says. “You’re going to see miles after miles of the most boring things imag

莫尔纳表示，他不明白这对孩子们有什么好处。“三年级学生为什么会对数据中心感兴趣？”他说。“你看到的将是数英里又数英里最无聊的东西，想象一下……”