Cloud Storage

Institutions and corporations provide space within their own networks to share data and to maintain security for their own intellectual property. Access is available to users dependant on their predefined authorities; and can be gained from within our without the corporate network, dependant again on the controlled access as defined by the institution.

The preservation of intellectual property requires constant backup across media and in separate geographical locations. This is a component of administration that requires as much of a clearly defined management programme as sales, operations and accounts but is often pushed to the side as a secondary consideration. Without a clearly defined process for the preservation of intellectual property in the face of catastrophe, an institution can be brought to it’s knees.

 I have been unfortunate enough to have worked in a business that suffered the total destruction of it’s offices through fire. Every physical invoice and purchase order record , everybody’s personal work area and associated document storage, everybody’s PC and most devastatingly the server room itself were all destroyed.  The most recent local backup had not been performed for several weeks. Fortunately the order and the email system were located in another place, and the fire did not reach the inventory, so it was possible to continue trading – but only just. The destruction of intellectual property will destroy an institution. Few businesses can survive such an event.

Curiously enough at that time I found myself in the position where the files that were located on the hard drive of my own laptop, which was not destroyed because it was off site were among some of the only current records available for me to do my job. Whilst the merits of digital storage are obvious, it is also worthwhile to point out that local physical storage is not redundant and should not be discounted.

Google Docs.

Being suspicious of Google and the means by which it accesses it’s clients as information consumers, I approach the storage of any information on their site with a fair degree of scepticism. They quite plainly declare as a term and of usage that they will use the data that you store as a means of measuring you as a consumer, and therefore pinpointing which advertising will be most likely to be effective. Beyond this there is the potential to analyse your data as a means of refining their own corporate strategies. You become an unpaid contributor to their marketing programme.

Google Docs use a couple of applications that are modifications of existing Microsoft based formats. Therefore the capacity of the medium as backup and/ or file exchange system are limited. Having said all of that I am impressed by the testimony of teachers who are building worldwide curriculum programmes through the medium. The capacity of a popular site such as Google to transcend local intranets is obvious.

I have agreed with some fellow students to use Google Docs as a means of sharing documents in a Group exercise that is being undertaken in another subject. I will report on this as we progress through this assignment in the coming weeks.

Drop Box

Drop Box makes claims about it’s capacity to provide real time syncing for files. I found that across separate computers this is true: ie I attempted modifying files on my Mac, which updated the file online and was visible on my work PC Based laptop, both computers having had Drop Box installed. As the updates are performed a bubble pops up for a few seconds advising of changes, and giving reversion opportunities.

Frustration set in however when I saved a file from my PC to drop box, then modified it locally and replaced it to Drop Box in the same session from the PC. The modifications were not carried across. I found that the only way that I could successfully update the file to Drop Box in this manner was to delete it there and then replace it with the modified file.

Further to this new files and modified files that were saved to a folder from the PC and then replaced to Drop Box via the folder were not being replaced to the backup folders that already existed in Drop Box, that had been saved thence from the PC in the same session. Changes from the MAC were however being updated to Drop Box in this manner in real time. Bubbles pop up for a few seconds advising you of the change.

I conclude from this that the real time updating is limited to the extent that you cannot expect to transfer files that already exist in Drop Box in the same session on the same computer. This is contrary to the notion of this Cloud Storage tool as a real time updating system. If you are using it as a kind of network medium between systems this is OK, however it does not appear to be smart enough to pick up changes in the same session. I am happy to be corrected if I am wrong....

A history of sorts is provided by Drop Box of changes, and opportunities are presented to revert these changes, however the full history of changes is not available on the Drop Box interface.  This makes it a bit incomplete as a point of editorial reference.

The conclusion that I draw is that if you have finished your file for the moment then Drop Box is useful both as a backup and as an intermediary. Thus I have chosen to use it only for finished works, or works that are for the present finished and may require a network intermediary.

For the moment I’m sticking to my hard drive, the USB Drive and the network for complete record backup of works that are in progress. They seam more reliable and less fraught with potential pitfalls for the unwary.

Microblogging

The front page of twitter rolls selected tweets. A BBC World report on the Japanese disaster, commentary on the cricket World Cup, advertisements for iphone apps, teen angst, pop personality controversies. 

Conceived in 2006 originally with SMS in mind, by means of clever marketing the site grew exponentially within a period of months. The Twitter site is owned by a private corporate entity and employs a similar revenue model to Google: sponsored links enjoy search ranking priority.

The site operates along typical social media lines: You can follow favourites, are offerred suggestions over pages to visit that are based on your search history, you can communicate directly with other users.

I joined Twitter last year under the guise of @Anticraft. I did this as an add on to viewing Q&A. I found that the attempt to follow the discussion on the program was confused by the constant stream of commentary, sometimes concise, often insipid. A couple of weeks later the program started broadcasting selected tweets. Until enrolling in Information Management this was the extent of my micoblogging career. I have now reinstated myself in the medium and look forward to hearing from all of you.

Indeed Twitter as a medium of political message is highly effective. Social media forums such as this and Facebook are atttributed as major contributors to the recent Middle Eastern uprising. Other political phonemena that have been attributed include Kevin07 and Barak Obama. Twitter is powerful as a means of conveying a political message because there are millions of users worldwide and the constraint of 140 characters or less lends itself well to the simplification of a political message. 

Twitter and other microblogging sites provide for a point of concise focus. My local library service  has several articles on its website, but the Twitter feed for the same is communicating about one project in particular. Also highly popular is the deployment of a short comment and then a URL. Thus microblogging sites are a great place to place a banner that can lead to a more elaborated place on the web.

Famously, stuff said on Twitter cannot be unsaid. There is no option to recall a wayward tweet. Given the open nature of the site, and the fact that what you tweet may be retweeted, much care should be taken before choosing to broadcast your many pithy phrases.

Yammer on the other hand provides the opportunity for a closed forum that can be controlled by the administrator. As an example, already on the ISYS1166 Community we have witnessed students collaborating on assignments, assisting each other with IT Functionality, and sharing topics of interest in open discussion forums. Communities such of these can be highly valuable in organisations that have a geographical disparity; ie in ISYS1166 there are online students that are studying from all parts of Australia. The establishment of this community is a fantastic way to facilitate network relationships and collaborative work practises.

Regardless of the nature of the site, the devil is in the distraction. Much time can be spent (or wasted) in communication that is useful to the few, but not all, or in communication that is gratuitous. Organisations have been grappling with these issues since the advent of email; the potential for diverting oneself from the original purpose can cause just as many problems as it solves.

Newsfeeds

My exposure to Web 2.0 through this course is indeed exponential. Indeed having set up a reader, then reporting back to it later, up of course pops up all of the recent updates, job opportunities, developments at the local library branch.. Whilst I may not become a part of the local muslim women's leadership program, or have much of a chance at being a Senior Library Services and programs officer at this point, I am given an indication of the pace at which information is transmitted and received. Now it becomes clearer why the windows of opportunity and lead times are becoming narrower. Technology is making the world a faster and a more competitive place. Current subscriptions include some likely contenders (much rage over Harper/Collins) from the suggested list of blogs to follow, buddies in the Web 2.0 Adventure and of course, the local libraries website. More will come as my knowledge of this new world expands

Wikis and Trove

Editing a Wikipedia article was indeed quite confronting. All of a sudden I am behaving as an authority and a publisher... I delayed the task for a few days until I realised that my partner was an academic! Immediately I picked a subject of interest and began to trawl for information. This provided for a modest beginning: Here can be seen the article before editing:

Here is the modest edited masterpiece

Having gained some confidence with my new found authority, off I went to the Trove to become acquainted with some history. After reading the obituary of my Great Grandmother (1948) which had translated perfectly (with the exception that the newspaper itself had misspelt my Grandfather's initials) I began searching around for some information. After trying many different subjects along my way I searched on my home town's river and found this gobbledigook:

Here is the corrected article. It's an awesome concept to outsource to the public this task of translation. It was great to be able to make this little contribution to the public knowledge base. As you search the database you can come across some really interesting facts... I found out that my local railway station began it's operations in 1929, but there has never been an official opening. Perhaps here is an opportunity for a community event!

Week 1: Web 2.0 Adventure Blog Analysis Task (About 100 words):

Helen Blower's blog site LibraryBytes observes the transition from social media to social marketing in Web 2.0. She advances a community garden approach that is focussed on empowerment and collaboration.

There is much discussion there on the impact of technology on culture, particularly children. This raised some questions about class divide and our own preconceptions about the changing expectations of the information consumer.

The challenge for community libraries appears to be engagement and empowerment for the community as well as the provision of targeted and focussed information products. These objectives drive in opposite directions and are in themselves a dichotomy.  

The purpose of all this study

So why am I here? I'm perfectly happy doing what I am doing. I suppose that nothing stays the same forever and I have been considering this post grad for several years... Possibly it is a good thing that I have waited until now, precisely because there is so much change in the world of communication, media and information. Certainly I have been seeking a lifestyle that is not reliant on the city, but my career has been built in the events industry. Beyond party hire there isn't a great amount of opportunities available

I have had a passion for communications, media and the arts all my adult life. This commenced with music and a media arts degree which was highly unacademic and hands on (it was so much fun), progressed into the events industry, led to an inventory management and procurement role, and then progressed to the business systems representative job that I currently am doing (in between the business and IT).

I want a life that is not tied to the city, and a career that is not beholden to share holders. It seems that this is leading me in the direction of public libraries, but I have no real idea what such a workplace actually is. Certainly I enjoy borrowing from my local library resource and my son is an avid reader and is generally very eager to go to the library. I can see that I can merge everything that I have done before into this new career..

Further consideration

Well this isn't necessarily true. Certainly in my profession I work in a team whose members are located in Auckland, Adelaide and Sydney. We are regularly chatting using Skype and Microsoft Communicator and also regularly meet on the Microsoft Live Meeting format. There is not a day that goes past without the necessity for using any or all of these formats in order to communicate and exchange information. Whenever I want to go anywhere these days I will vet the journey first on Google Earth; recently we were considering purchasing a new house.... Of course we eventually actually went to the property, but beforehand much time was spent viewing it and the surrounding countryside; checking the fire risks and the distance to the nearest town. Indeed the initial contact to the agent was established by means of messaging from the advertising site.
Whenever we are considering purchasing any product, before entering a store we will visit ebay to get a perspective on the market... We have bought our last two cars this way, and we found our existing house 10 years ago on the Web 1.0 Real Estate sites. The new information technology has pervaded our lives to the extent where the new ways of attaining information are actually under the surface, intangible.
There is much fear of a world in which we have very little experience or familiarity. We are both empowered and disempowered by it all. We put up barriers of resistance in order to protect ourselves and our families from the ever encroaching world. Buying a gaming console for your children is fraught with political implications. A wedge is driven between the generations, creating alienation and animosity. However to resist is to deny the opportunity to understand and to make decisions that are informed and analytical.

Loss of innocence

Well my resistance to the information revolution lasted exactly 2 hours into my Post Graduate studies. I thought that I would at least be able to wait until my 7 year old had turned 9 before it became necessary to embrace this new world order. Here am I proudly wielding a mobile phone that is nearly as old as my boy thinking that I would be able to maintain my innocence for at least another couple of years....