I usually start my work day with a cup of coffee and a leisurely perusal of WordPress’ Freshly Pressed page. Today, The Hannibal Blog caught my eye. It seems the author, Andreas Kluth, had a malfunctioning laptop and, in the ways of many great customer service providers lately, Apple was taking some time to return it. During the time without his laptop, Mr. Kluth discovered that he was not without work or productivity because he has been working in “the Cloud” and could continue to do so.
Most of us do at least part of our work in the Cloud, or the Internet. If we are communicating via e-mail, social networking sites, blog sites, and chat rooms, we are in the Cloud. Google Docs takes this one step further and provides a place where we can place our work — contracts, budget forecasts, etc. — on the Internet, as well. We are, essentially, free of the need to store our work on hard drives with a questionable lifespan. We are also free of the predictable and confusing world of Microsoft updates. We can work and communicate at any terminal. Commercial retailers have already jumped on this growing trend. Even in the Land of Oz, otherwise known as Kansas, computer cafes are opening up where, for a small fee, a user can work on a computer terminal, usually while enjoying a cup of their favorite beverage.
As a freelance writer with a laptop that shows all the signs of suffering from a terminal illness, I should be ecstatic that I no longer require hardware of my own to write. It isn’t as if I’m not already working in the Cloud, as it were. This blog exists there, as do my Twitter posts and Facebook ramblings. I don’t worry about the words disintegrating like so much invisible ink. The transitory nature of those writings relieves me of much of the concern I would otherwise feel. But … my book? My baby? The blood, sweat and time I’ve put into one lone project? Trust that to something as ephemeral as a cloud? The very thought terrified me. As I mentioned in my comment to Mr. Klaus’ blog, if my hard drive can malfunction and lose my work, what’s to keep Google’s servers from doing the same?
Which made me stop and think. I take precautions against such hardware malfunctions by backing up my work. I use my flash drive more than discs because it’s more convenient and portable. What keeps me from continuing to do that? Nothing. With a new sense of adventure, I opened a Google Doc and piled my NaNoWriMo work there. An amazing thing happened: I felt less stressed and concerned that my work would disappear than I had when I was relying solely on my laptop. Now, I can work anywhere there is a terminal without lugging my laptop and its full complement of accessories everywhere I go.
I’m not throwing the laptop out; I still do much of my work from home. And there is a learning curve. I haven’t found an application on Google Docs which allows me to create brochures, etc. like Microsoft’s Publisher (If someone knows where it exists, share the wealth in a comment below). Most of my work, however, is basic word processing, which I find Google does quite well. The long road to freedom just became shorter. Thank you, Mr. Klaus!
Anyone else out there working solely in the Cloud? What are your experiences? Drop a line and let me know!
