The commoditization (sp?) of
your data is what the walled gardens are all about. So it's in the interest of companies like Apple, Google, Yahoo, Dropbox, Microsoft and so on to remove as many of your files from your control as they can get away and to package them in a non-file metaphor so they can sell you your own data back, either directly through access fees or indirectly by selling you advertising right along your own data.
I wished more people would see the endgame in situations like these: you're going to be paying through the nose for something that was already yours. Hosting your own data is trivial, the only case where I can see your data moving to the cloud is for backup purposes, off-site is better than on-site in case of disaster recovery.
So, have a good and long look at that firewall that protects you from the big bad cyber terrorists out there. That same firewall that stops the bad guys from coming in (and your ISP by blocking access to port 80 and a couple of others) are what keeps the peer-to-peer potential of the web from being realized.
So when VCs start trumpeting the 'end of files' make sure you realize what you're giving up.
I wished more people would see the endgame in situations like these: you're going to be paying through the nose for something that was already yours. Hosting your own data is trivial, the only case where I can see your data moving to the cloud is for backup purposes, off-site is better than on-site in case of disaster recovery.
So, have a good and long look at that firewall that protects you from the big bad cyber terrorists out there. That same firewall that stops the bad guys from coming in (and your ISP by blocking access to port 80 and a couple of others) are what keeps the peer-to-peer potential of the web from being realized.
So when VCs start trumpeting the 'end of files' make sure you realize what you're giving up.