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My grandmother didn't know diddly about computers but she used to wax lyrical about all the changes that she had seen in her life and wonder out loud - to anyone who would listen including her cats - whether or not life had been better without those transformations. She hadn't seen a car or a plane until she was ten but it wasn't long after that she heard news about related fatalities. So much for them being safe! It was a great mistake, too, to start her on the subject of nuclear weapons - we just didn't go there unless we had an afternoon to spare. It was a really good job that she died before she woke up, like Keanu Reeves' character Neo in The Matrix, in an enclosed pod encased in vile pink stuff with a USB port stuck in the back of her head. That would have been way too much for her to take - let alone the rest of the family. Having said that, the thought of her doing slow-motion kung-fu puts a wry smile on my face.
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Digression aside, I used to wonder whether or not I would be able to measure my life against such changes - ones which had so many global repercussions. Surely the internet's next big phase will be something I can look back at but will I understand it then let alone now? When I reach her age will I be able, in the supermarket, to turn with childish glee and announce "I'm ninety three you know!" (one of her many habits in that sometimes inevitable journey of the mind back towards infancy) and then pinpoint in an obviously well-rehearsed fashion the great changes I have seen? Or even better, will I be able to word process it in to a poem (of sorts), upload it and share on a zillion social networking sites instantly, while drawing attention to my great feat of old age by zapping the store with my PDA to let everyone know it?
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Possibly, I can do some of that now and to list the changes I have witnessed in my lifetime would be noises off, as it were. One revolution (it means change, after all!) I believe I will be able to comment upon was when the Internet became The Cloud. The internet has been open to codgers for years, (and the Rise of The Silver Surfer isn't just about the sheer number of greys using the net - ahem!). But new stuff just keeps happening! What exactly is The Cloud? Find out here without receiving a withering look from a teen!
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I am preaching to the converted here, at least in terms of internet usage. You are here already. You expect it to be remote occasionally (perhaps not quite as remote as indicated in the picture above!), but some of the new terms have passed you by. However, simply by reading this now, you must have already come a certain amount of the way to being in The Cloud. You read on-line (perhaps the last time you felt the touch of a paperback was a while ago!) and you may even shop or bank online too. As for social networking, let me guess! Facebook? Bebo? MySpace? Friends Reunited? You may use wiki spaces professionally as well as socially. You may even write online - like myself - and be part of a growing an interactive community of people who think collectively and share resources on the internet.
So far, so Web 2.0. What comes next, what is pretty much here already is, so we are told, The (mysterious to many) Cloud. This is the envisioned era when all of your personal data storage needs - and any computer-based activities are carried out online. In fact, hold it right there - takes those words ‘computer based' out of the sentence and you are even closer to what The Cloud may mean. OK, breathing, sleeping, eating and going to see a man about a dog many never be online activities (until we become Ghosts in the Machine for real?) but what else are we talking about? Pretty much everything, to be sure!
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If you are younger than twenty you may well have stopped reading this now, because you already know what is coming. That's because you are already doing most of it. As you get older and have your own children they will take what you have learned and add upon it. However, this article isn't really for you members of Generation C - you are living it already. If, though, you want it defined or need something easy to digest, then maybe read on!
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Perhaps you should make a little tick list to begin with. How many of the following do you already do online? Do you work, spend and invest on line? Do you gamble, meet new friends and listen to music online? Do you watch the TV, movies and read newspapers and books online? Do you take pictures, upload them and view them online? Well, perhaps you already have your head in The Cloud as these are exactly the sort of experiences that it will encompass. You may already be living in the clouds!
