The internet, our relationship with it, and our culture are about to undergo a change as profound and unsettling as the development of web 2.0 in the last decade, which made social media and search – Google and YouTube, Facebook and Twitter – mass, global phenomena. The rise of “cloud computing” will trigger a battle for control over a digital landscape that is only just coming into view.

The internet we have grown up with is a decentralised network of separate computers, with their own software and data. Cloud computing may look like an extension of this network-centric logic but, in fact, it is quite different.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/22/protect-open-cloud-computing

Before our digital lives disappear too far into ‘the cloud’, we must wrest it from corporate and governmental control

Now that you’re finally backing up your computer to protect yourself from data disasters, here’s another doomsday scenario to populate your nightmares.

Let’s imagine you’re using one of any number of popular web-based services for blogging, sharing photos, writing documents or communicating with friends.

Perhaps you store all of your photos at Flickr, labeling them with captions and tags.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/12/even_with_cloud_computing_serv.html

I’m gradually moving toward using “cloud” services for everything from spreadsheets to e-mail. Think of all the things that can go wrong with your own computer. Theft. Fire. Your own stupid mistakes. I tend to think a company like Google might do a better job than I would at keeping my data safe.

On Wednesday, August 26, the All Points Blog reported on a poll (Take this week’s poll! in the daily newsletter) conducted by Directions Magazine: “Cloud computing is the latest ‘buzz word’ in information technology, but an understanding of what the phrase means remains elusive.” This was based on the results of the survey in which readers picked from a list of choices asking if cloud computing is just another way of describing Web services, SaaS, virtualization or remotely managed services. Readers had two other choices as well: “can’t be defined just yet” and “I don’t know what cloud computing is.”

Another choice should have been offered: “a bit of all the choices,” as cloud computing is not any one of the offered selections. We need a bit more background on cloud computing and what it will mean for the GIS industry because it appears that many of the survey participants, presumably all GIS savvy, did not know what cloud computing is. Yet that All Points Blog post also referenced an InformationWeek article which stated many IT managers are budgeting for cloud computing.

http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=3323

“based on the results of the survey in which readers picked from a list of choices asking if cloud computing is just another way of describing Web services, SaaS, virtualization or remotely managed services. Readers had two other choices as well: “can’t be defined just yet” and “I don’t know what cloud computing is.”

A reader sends in a link to this recent post by law professor Orin Kerr, on a ruling about how 4th Amendment protections against “unreasonable search and seizure” apply to email. The central question is whether the government needs to inform individual email users when their messages are seized and read — or whether it is sufficient to notify their internet service provider or mail service, like Google or Yahoo. According to the logic of the ruling, by the sheer act of sending email, a user has transferred custody of the messages to a third party. Thus notifying the third party — Google, Yahoo, et al — is enough, with the sender left in the dark.

As that post describes, the legal comparison-drawing goes in many directions. Is “giving” an email to Yahoo like putting a package in a public storage locker? Is it like putting an envelope in a regular mailbox? Does it matter if the message is encrypted? Etc. But the reader’s point is less about the ins and outs of this ruling than about the broader legal/privacy implications of storing information “in the cloud.” When you’re working in Google Docs, as opposed to using a spreadsheet or document that lives on your computer, have you essentially surrendered custody and control of that information? What if you rely on online “cloud” systems –

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/11/are_we_naked_in_the.php

“My concern about such matters is one big reason I do not rely much on “cloud” services of which you are so fond. It’s not that I have much about myself that is all that interesting to third parties”

The Digital Britain report promotes a ‘G-cloud’ as a way of contributing to the £7.2bn of savings in back-office and IT services identified in the Treasury’s Operational Efficiency Review, but what is it? To understand the G-cloud you need to get behind some of the jargon – bear with me.

One way of reducing IT costs is through hosting. Instead of operating your own IT installation, you can choose to house your systems in somebody else’s data centre. You will usually pay a fixed monthly fee to a commercial company or partner that will provide the computing capacity, backup, staffing and buildings and pay the utility bills.

http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2009/10/silver-linings/

The ‘G-cloud’ could help achieve the £7.2bn back-office savings required by ministers – but what is it?