Welcome to my blog on “thoughtful stuff”. I know it’s silly title, but I wanted to set the tone for the blog series on personal clouds and the possibilities they hold. The problems solved in this series aren’t in themselves earth shattering; they cover everyday experiences where convenience and efficiency adds to our quality of life. But they do demonstrate the different types of problems Respect Network clouds can address in communication and collaboration, the Internet of Things, education and healthcare.
Let’s begin by defining a personal cloud within the context of the Respect Network. The other blogs in the series outline the possibilities of such architecture.
In the Respect Network, personal clouds aren’t just for file sharing and storage. Personal clouds allow businesses and consumers to take and maintain control of their digital information and online identity. With clouds, people and businesses can develop trusted relationships and share information with others in the peer-to-peer Respect Network. Think of it as your own personal computer in the cloud.
Imagine never having to buy new and expensive hardware to upgrade your personal computer with more speed, power, and storage space. That’s the vision behind personal clouds. It’s like a full, personal computer that lives in the cloud, which you access from any web browser or application. Your personal cloud has advanced properties that make it very powerful. Properties like:
- It remembers what it’s working on no matter what else is happening around it.
- It has an identity that is permanent and can never be reassigned so it can always be found.
- It’s always available on the Internet and responsive to events and queries sent in its direction.
- It can multitask and can process messages from different clouds within different contexts simultaneously and independently.
- It responds to messages by updating information, determining next steps, and/or sending new messages to other clouds.
- Its behavior is expressed in stored rules that pattern-match against incoming messages from other clouds.
- It knows where all of your data resides and manages access to it on your behalf.
Through these properties, your personal cloud becomes your agent on the Internet. As your agent, the cloud takes on increasingly sophisticated tasks ranging from automatically scheduling personal appointments to managing an “Internet of Things” smart city efficiently. It works securely 24/7 to deliver value and convenience without regard to whether you are online or offline and notifies you intelligently about what you really need to know on whatever device or app you choose.
The thing that’s really revolutionary about this is that all clouds within the Respect Network have these same properties. They can all act independently, interpreting messages and taking action based on the meaning of those messages. The Respect Network is the first truly semantic network and represents the next evolution of the Internet.
Let’s start looking at some simple ways your personal cloud might enhance your life in the next post.
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