The Cloud Ate My Homework 305
Posted
by
timothy
from the low-hanging-clouds-are-fog dept.
from the low-hanging-clouds-are-fog dept.
theodp writes "Over at CNET, James Urquhart sings the praises of cloud computing, encouraging folks to 'really listen to what is being said, understand how the cloud is being used, and seriously evaluate how this disruptive model will change your projects, your organization, and even your career.' Fair enough. Over at the Google Docs Help Forum, some perplexed cloud computing users spent the month of November unsuccessfully trying to figure out why they've been zinged for inappropriate content. Among the items deemed inappropriate and unshareable include notes on Henry David Thoreau ('the published version of this item cannot be shared until a Google review finds that the content is appropriate'), homework assignments, high school yearbook plans, wishlists, documents containing botanical names for plants, a list of websites for an ecommerce class, and a list of companies that rent motorcycles in Canada. When it comes to support in the cloud, it kind of looks like you might get what you pay for."
Worrying, but not terrible (Score:4, Informative)
This is a concern, but remember we're talking about the free service here. Google's free services are great while everything works, but if you need a human being's attention, you're likely to be waiting a long time. I've had bad experiences with YouTube publishing glitches.
I'd hope that the paid Google Apps service has much better support. Can anyone confirm?
Meanwhile, in these cases, all that these people were unable to do was make their docs public. They could continue to edit them. They could presumably share them with specific contacts.
I think there needs to be a fix for this, but I don't think it's the end of the world for SaaS.
Re:Worrying, but not terrible (Score:3, Informative)
Why is google worrying about whether your content is even appropriate or not? Are they going to stop a neo-nazi publishing their beliefs? They're awful, but free speech is more important.
Tricky one. Link to their content policy: http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=148505 [google.com]
"Hate speech" is explicitly forbidden.
I think one angle is "We accept your right to free speech, but we won't be your vehicle for transmitting it."
But it's a bit of an ethical minefield, I accept.
Re:Review!? (Score:5, Informative)
But, "review" suggests somebody at Google *will* look at that content. Imagine that -- some drone at Google will be looking at your private work
This part is certainly a big, big concern. I can understand why Google feels the need to do it -- they want to avoid facilitating a paedophile ring or whatever -- but normal users should expect that their data is not ordinarily looked at.
OTOH I'm sure there's something in the Google TOS about this. Ah here we go:
- 8.3 Google reserves the right (but shall have no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse or remove any or all Content from any Service.
IMO just the possibility of this happening at all makes the whole thing suspect, and could bite you in the ass right in the worst moment. "Sorry boss, I can't share that report because Google thinks there's porn in it. We'll have to wait until somebody at Google looks at it". I'm sure that would make for an interesting day.
To be fair, you can always save-as HTML/RTF/DOC/etc. and send your boss that.
Re:"disruptive" (Score:4, Informative)
By definition, a "disruptive" technology is a technology that is going to be laying down a little of the old Schumpeterian creative destruction on somebody's business model and/or existing capital base. For the incumbents, "disruptive"=bad.
However, for everybody else, the incumbents are a bunch of sluggish, reactionary, rent-seeking parasites. Hurting them is an important aspect of progress.
Re:That cloud word again (Score:5, Informative)
Wiki?
Isn't this sort of the whole point of the wiki platform?
I'm not really into the "collaboration" stuff (never ended up in a situation where it applied - always had someone who 'owned' a doc and handled changes).
I don't buy into the cloud for the same reason that I bought a microcomputer in the first place. I wanted my stuff to be my stuff. Not under the control of anyone but me. At work we have always used shared folders and such - but I can't be the only one where everyone has their own annotated version of their docs?
Re:That cloud word again (Score:3, Informative)
Google Docs, despite its weak formatting tools and apparently censorship issues (which I've never run into myself in my heavy usage) is fantastic for sharing and collaborating on one document, and making sure everyone can edit it and has the right version.
Re:"disruptive" (Score:3, Informative)
Re:That cloud word again (Score:3, Informative)
I've still to hear a cogent explanation of how running your own servers can bring you the main "cloud" benefit, i.e. only paying for the resources that you actually need.
It only works if you're big enough.
Re:That cloud word again (Score:3, Informative)
You don't see it?
As the number of users increases, the probability of them all hitting the service at once decreases. So you get a better ratio of hardware to users. Still, you need masses of servers for masses of users, so you get economies of scale (bulk buy discounts etc.).
Build a server room for one user -> bad VFM.
Build a server room for 100 users -> potentially worthwhile
Build a server room for 1000 users -> getting there.
A server facility for a million users -> cheap
If you're IBM, you can run your own cloud for your own employees.
If you're a two man startup, you're better off outsourcing it.
Re:Yeah (Score:1, Informative)
A laptop is low-tech?
The answer is to print hard-copies of everything and have them engraved onto stone tablets.
Engraved stone tablets - that's low-tech.
Re:That cloud word again (Score:3, Informative)
Re:That cloud word again (Score:3, Informative)
Google Desktop saves indexes on their servers.
No it doesn't. Ever wondered what the gigabyte of index files on your drive is?
The fact that Google Desktop runs a (local) webserver that you access from a web browser doesn't mean it's sending any data across the internet.
There may be a feature to enable this, but it's not the default.