Today, I found a particularly reticent article on good ole webmonkey. It makes sense because I’ve been thinking a lot about how the “cloud” has revolutionized the way we work, live and organize our things. Amongst my friends, Google reigns supreme. The other day, I got an email with upwards of 20 people in it and only 2 were not gmail.
Google wave has also ushered in a new way of web collaboration as well. It’s in very early beta, but I can see this becoming a great way for people in different locations to collaborate, discuss and exchange information. More and more, everyday tasks are being put out there in the cloud and we become less reliant on our hard drives. However, as I’ve been realizing this, I also realize the risk in putting all our data in one basket, so to speak.
A question I’ve posed to a few people is a question I’d like to pose to all of you: What would happen if something catastrophic happened to Google data centers? Obviously, there is probably an insane amount of redundancy and backup with Google, but it at least outlines an important point: many of us would be screwed. ALL of my email is out there. If I couldn’t get to it, I couldn’t access a lot of important information. Hell, Google even manages my contacts and calendars for me. If that goes down, no more contacts in my phone and no more events in my calendar.
So this leads me to the wonderful little post and interview on Webmonkey. WM interviews the creator of Google’s Data Liberation Front and goes into a little detail about why they’ve introduced the DLF. Basically, DLF is a movement by some Google engineers to make their data more available to the public. Not Google’s data per se, but rather, an individual’s data. Google has claimed that by making this they are allowing users to make a choice. They don’t want user’s to be locked in and I think it’s a good move.
Personally, I like it because I can get all my stuff moved onto my local drive. Even if it’s just for backup, it’s nice to have the data in the event of something bad happening. I think it’s also good to note that they are giving the customer a choice. If one doesn’t like gmail, it’s easy enough to get your information to another place. Same goes for many of the Google applications. Obviously, this cloud is not exclusive to Google, but they are definitely one of the major players and it’s nice to see a fresh take on allowing multiple ways of accessing one’s data.
So in light of my recent paranoia, I’m definitely going to be using some of the new DLF tools. I’m excited to see the ability to download all my Google docs in a nice .zip format, but it seems I have to wait for that. Until then, I’ll be backing up and using these tools. I’m hoping to have some impressions coming up in the near future. So, keep a look out for that and carefully consider just how much data you put on the cloud.
Also, my nerd and geography side only has one link for today:
Alert: 4:33pm Central Time. All Google sites are down. Matty, look what you've done.
nrojb
If google goes down I'm stealing so many modern household appliances. The people will marvel at my toaster/blender combo and elect me their new google.
Monday Thoughts: Leaving the Cloud?
Today, I found a particularly reticent article on good ole webmonkey. It makes sense because I’ve been thinking a lot about how the “cloud” has revolutionized the way we work, live and organize our things. Amongst my friends, Google reigns supreme. The other day, I got an email with upwards of 20 people in it and only 2 were not gmail.
Google wave has also ushered in a new way of web collaboration as well. It’s in very early beta, but I can see this becoming a great way for people in different locations to collaborate, discuss and exchange information. More and more, everyday tasks are being put out there in the cloud and we become less reliant on our hard drives. However, as I’ve been realizing this, I also realize the risk in putting all our data in one basket, so to speak.
A question I’ve posed to a few people is a question I’d like to pose to all of you: What would happen if something catastrophic happened to Google data centers? Obviously, there is probably an insane amount of redundancy and backup with Google, but it at least outlines an important point: many of us would be screwed. ALL of my email is out there. If I couldn’t get to it, I couldn’t access a lot of important information. Hell, Google even manages my contacts and calendars for me. If that goes down, no more contacts in my phone and no more events in my calendar.
Personally, I like it because I can get all my stuff moved onto my local drive. Even if it’s just for backup, it’s nice to have the data in the event of something bad happening. I think it’s also good to note that they are giving the customer a choice. If one doesn’t like gmail, it’s easy enough to get your information to another place. Same goes for many of the Google applications. Obviously, this cloud is not exclusive to Google, but they are definitely one of the major players and it’s nice to see a fresh take on allowing multiple ways of accessing one’s data.
So in light of my recent paranoia, I’m definitely going to be using some of the new DLF tools. I’m excited to see the ability to download all my Google docs in a nice .zip format, but it seems I have to wait for that. Until then, I’ll be backing up and using these tools. I’m hoping to have some impressions coming up in the near future. So, keep a look out for that and carefully consider just how much data you put on the cloud.
Also, my nerd and geography side only has one link for today:
Wired Galleries: Huge Holes in the Earth. The story of the Berkeley Pit is very interesting.