What is the Personal Cloud?
The Personal Cloud is a popular concept these days. Like everything “cloud” it has a rather fuzzy meaning, or at least one that is very changing, depending on the context.
- it might be an online datastore, where people are able to store arbitrary data: images, documents, videos…
- it may refer to the idea of some private instance of a social network (ala buddypress), collaboration tools (zimbra), etc… where the software runs in the cloud but on a privately owned server
- finally, the most widely accepted definition is probably that of the aggregated personal data that a user has gathered online with all the different “free” services she uses: facebook, gmail, flickr…
The fundamental difference between all these definitions is probably the degree of isolation with other people’s data. The so-called social web is somehow blurring the notion of a digital identity, as people tend to define themselves more and more through the different social networks they are being part of. I.e. you are not anymore this mister so-and-so with a given profession and, possibly, a certain number of political/philosophical/artistic views; you are instead a member of a certain number of communities, and you are in constant interaction with their members on multiple subjects.
It is those interactions that, considered en masse, are creating the value of the social web. They are the driving force behind the enthusiasm for cloud computing, and for a good reason: intelligence gathered from the interactions of millions and millions of users is an incredibly powerful marketing tool.
In my opinion, the Personal Cloud is this elusive notion that, in addition to your being part of a certain number of online communities, you are your own personal individual, too; one particular person with their own tastes, feelings and aspirations that need not necessarily belong to a marketable and outbound community.
I am convinced that there is a need for everyone of us to reflect on the complex interactions we entertain with cyberspace. It is as we are learning to breathe and we need to understand how to inhale.
The Personal Cloud is yet to be invented.