April, 2009

In championing the idea of netbooks, Clive Thompson of Wired magazine (17.03 – Mar 2009 edition) speaks of his experience in cloud computing:

“I wrote this story on a netbook, and if you had peeked over my shoulder, you would have seen precisely two icons on my desktop: the Firefox browser and a trash can. Nothing else.

It turns out that about 95 percent of what I do on a computer can now be accomplished through a browser. I use it for updating Twitter and Facebook and for blogging. Meebo.com lets me log into several instant-messaging accounts simultaneously. Last.fm gives me tunes, and webmail does the email. I use Google Docs for word processing, and if I need to record video, I can do it directly from webcam to YouTube. Come to think of it, because none of my documents reside on the netbook, I’m not sure I even need the trash can.”

Welcome to the world of netbooks: Wired March 09

I am pretty sure the idea of cloud computing did not eventuate as a result of the advent of netbooks; in fact it predates that – but as Thompson points out, they do complement each other quite well. Neither of the above had anything to do with my decision to own a netbook; but that’s another story.

This story here today is about cloud computing and Stoodle. Yes, I am still at that stage of parenthood where there isn’t much else I am able to talk about but my new offspring. (I am told this affliction may last for quite a while, and in the case of human offspring, may last for over 30 years). But that aside, cloud computing has seeped through our existence without our quite realising it; and it isn’t until you think about it that you realise you are the tea ladies of the revolution.

Essentially cloud computing refers to the use of web-based resources for day-to-day computing purposes; where in the past such resources resided on our hard drives. Applications are provided over the Internet, and software and data are stored on remote servers, accessed via the World Wide Web. So in a sense, you are doing your computing ‘in the clouds’.

Given the geographical locations of the members of the StoodleTeam – Mimi is based in Bangi, while I am a few time zones away in the UK – not to mention the vast time difference, we have had to find a way to communicate and collate ideas and records without frequent to-and-fro-ing of attachments via email. There was a need for us to simultaneously view a document while editing it – a virtual edition of standing behind a colleague’s shoulder. Google Docs solved this for us somewhat, with the added plus point of not having said colleague being privy to what else was on one’s computer screen. (I wanted to say, there is nothing more embarrassing than to have a minimised window on the taskbar that reads ‘Facebook’, but ever since we started Stoodle, Facebook has become work, really).

So on Google Docs we keep track of our orders and create a discussion repository for brainstorming for future ideas of products; although information such as addresses and a/c numbers are not stored there. Our to-do list is still email based; but once my Easter break is over and I am less able to work on Stoodle during the daytime, we will perhaps shift our to-do list here as well. Which brings us to the other impediment – time. I wake up way after Mimi has had her lunch, and by the time I call it a day at work, she has succumbed to the sandman. Having a presence in the clouds allow us to communicate in real time as well as offline.

For the most part Google Docs has allowed us to replicate Word and Excel functions on the Interweb; and Google Calendar allows us to track the Stoorist on her travels. There are still functions on Excel that I wish I could program into the spreadsheet on Google Docs, but hey, we can still live with that limitation at the moment.

We are, in fact, rather loyal advocates of the Google goodies. Gtalk is our preferred medium of discussion, because it automatically saves our chats in Gmail (our preferred email client) which allows random brainstorming to be ‘searched’ if we forget to take notes earlier on. Plus we like its minimalised look – Gtalk is a lot less ’busy’ than YM or MSN. We don’t quite do Skype – in fact we don’t do phone conversations much beyond “Aku kat luar rumah kau”.

Gmail, in itself, has interesting functions which increases productivity (read: fits well with our inherent laziness). For instance, there is an ‘add associated email’ function which lets us access emails from the stoodleteam email account from our personal email account (this explains why sometimes emails from the stoodleteam are mistakenly sent from our personal accounts : we forgot to change the ‘Sent From’ information). And then there are the features of the labs: a mail merge function lovingly named ‘Canned Reponses’ for err… well, we’ll leave you to guess that one. Needless to say these functions may well be available on other web-based emails, but the fact that they can be integrated with other Google apps we are using helps tremendously.

Away from Google and Stoodle, there are other interesting applications of cloud computing. Last.fm, for instance, allows you to upload information about songs you play on iTunes or Winamp, and turns this into a streaming radio station. Depending on how much you send up to last.fm, you can now take your play list to wherever you are able to login. Interestingly enough, most of my uploads to last.fm were during a particularly slit wrist era in my musical tastes (oh who I am kidding, I am still there) so there is a zeitgeist effect, almost. I mean, when was the last time you listened to Emiliana Torrini, right? (You, yes you, don’t have to answer this).

There are, of course, security and control issues inherent with this (hence our decision not to certain information online). Storing information on-site (or off-site in data warehouses) allow some physical control over its security; keeping the more sensitive information offline would allow an even more secure environment. Having data in the clouds relinquishes some control – you can have all the passwords in the world, but remote server crashes are completely unforeseenm (as are local server crashes, come to think of it) ; and ultimate security of the data is out of your hands. To that end I backup the data (when I remember to) but to be realistic we aren’t actually dealing with top-security data of any interest to spies from Russia (I think).

Talk about Web 2.0 has been in circulation for a few years now (a lifetime, perhaps, in Interweb years) but a major shift towards cloud computing has yet to emerge. Perhaps the advent – and the affordability – of netbooks may reinvograte a platform that some may see as one that is not moving rapidly enough. Or maybe not. But at Stoodle – we reckon it’s all good!

*Random DidYouKnow: Netbooks owe their roots to the One Laptop per Child project – a charity dedicated to bringing affordable computing to children in developing nations.