I feel like there is something terribly
wrong with the term "cloud" because when I think of what the
"cloud" really is, I think of servers. I think of data
centers. I think of floor-to-ceiling racks of expensive
hardware with hard wiring. I think of land underneath a highly
air conditioned building sucking air and electricity. I think
of real property secured by real contracts.
When somebody uses the term "cloud," I feel like what they are
really saying is, "Pay no attention to that man
behind the curtain. "
There is something fundamentally deceptive about the use of
the term "cloud."
Jim Bursch
310-869-5340
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On 8/7/2012 2:49 PM, Crosbie Fitch wrote:
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Who owns or controls
the e-mail system? Is it me, you, IBM, or everyone/no-one?
The Cloud (in the pure
sense) is just like e-mail except that instead of being a
medium via which messages can be transmitted from sender to
receiver, the messages remain in the medium (limbo?). Call
these messages personal data if you like. Use encryption if
you want to. However, just like e-mail, once you hit send or
'upload to cloud' it's there, and there's nothing you can do
about it from that point on. You can't delete it. You can't
hide it. You can point others to it, or you can hope no-one
bothers to look at it. But like e-mail, this cloud isn't
personal, nor is it a corporation's walled garden, it's
simply extremely useful to everyone, and everyone
participates in making it work. It can be used and accessed
from anywhere that has Internet access and suitable client
software.
Unfortunately, like
e-mail, it's tricky for a pure cloud to be developed. Every
corporation wants to create their own cloud and persuade
everyone to use theirs, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecom_Gold
We could skip
the walled garden phase of cloud technology and jump
straight to the p2p pure version, but we'd first need to
develop a crowdfunding mechanism to enable the public to
fund such things - because they cannot benefit a private
investor to the exclusion of all others (and the state
doesn't like uncontrolled technologies, so they won't fund
it on the public's behalf either).
That's why we are trying to talk about "personal cloud" vs
"somebody else's cloud".
On Aug 6, 2012, at 23:52, Crosbie Fitch <
">
>
wrote:
'The Cloud' should connote a fully
distributed/p2p, decentralised,
no-single-entity-or-cartel-controls-it, data
storage/communications/processing system.
Unfortunately, while those may
be connotations the term is intended to
inspire, 'the cloud' is simply a marketing term
to invite the gullible to store all their
'personal data' on the service provider's
Internet-accessible data storage facilities,
which may even be distributed to some extent,
but not in the above sense.
Ask "Who does the cloud belong to?
Who controls it?" If the answer is "Google",
"Microsoft", or "IBM", etc. then it's not safe.
I'd wait until the answer is
"No-one/everyone!"
The cloud as it is,
is in fact unsuited for personal data management
since most layers & functions are not
controlled by the individual. More work needs to
be done on this and on cloud portability.
L.
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