Cloud Computing Your Self

We are getting used more and more to applications in the cloud, and we are getting more and more comfortable storing even private data on servers over which we have absolutely no control. It's quite risky on one hand, but on the other it offers enormous convenience.

We use web sites for all sorts of services, and more often than not this is done with no significant risk to our identity. I have successfully changed my address at the DMV site, paid the registration to my car, gotten a copy of my birth certificate online (from Italy, no less), and filed taxes. It's really amazing.

One thing that I find strangely missing, though, is a virtualization of my self. Of course, I don't mean the flesh thing that is hacking at the keyboard right now. I mean my preferences and personal data.

I am a computer junkie. I have more computing devices at home right now than you'll find at the nearest Fry's, and each one of them has to be configured over and over again. Pretty much any computer I get is immediately repartitioned, Kubuntu installed on it, and then I start the laborious process of moving my user preferences on it.

I went through a ton of different options, and ended up linking all the configuration files I need into a directory. The directory then is under version control, and to create the new environment I check out that directory and run a linking script in it.

That's great, but there is no provision for changes in format. When I switched from Pidgin to Kopete, for instance, I lost all my log files. Same would be true switching from one music player (Amarok) to another (Rhythmbox). Then there are the different formats for address books, etc.

Strangely, though, the one issue that most people seem to agree upon is the need to synchronize bookmarks. While the companies and projects that sync calendars and address books do both a crappy job and are fairly rare, the projects that offer automatic syncing of bookmarks are plentiful and outstandingly stable.

It's been a while, now, that these projects have started including online storage. The first one I've used was XMarks, a Firefox extension that has been meanwhile ported to other browsers, as well. XMarks allows you to synchronize your bookmarks and (optionally) your browsing data (including stored passwords) to the XMarks server. The data is protected using a passphrase (and one hopes the XMarks folks do as they claim and encrypt the data on their servers and do not store the passphrase).

I recently switched from XMarks to Weave, the corresponding Mozilla project. Like all Mozilla projects, it's open source, which means (a) I can read the code and determine whether it does as I think it should, and (b) I can run my own copy of the server software if I don't like the idea of Mozilla having access to my personal data.

Now, I recently got a new computer - a "gaming" laptop that I use to run intensive compilation runs. Well, I installed Firefox, installed Weave, entered my user info and - voilá! - the new Firefox looked like the old one on this computer. Miracles.

Of course you think, now, that it's something that never happens to you. Well, you are wrong: your personal info is something you typically enter into every new phone that you buy. As a matter of fact, I know people that stick with old phones just because they don't want to go through the pain of moving their phone book over.

Some phones (like Windows Mobile or the iPhone) make the transition easier. The cheaper phones typically don't. But there is absolutely no reason for it, and it should go without saying that your entire virtual persona is available online for you to download whenever you get a new phone.

Why is that so important? Because if you have no barrier to switching phones, you will be more likely to buy a phone that suits your needs of the moment. You could rent a phone more easily if you knew your information is on it, you would switch phones more easily if there was no pain involved. You would stop looking at your phone as a treasure trove and investment and more as what it is: a communication device.