Living in the Cloud: How Using Online Services Can Let You Soar
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This document discusses how using online cloud services can provide convenient access to shared computing resources from anywhere with an internet connection. It highlights benefits like easy sharing, collaboration and storage of files without email. However, it also notes concerns around data security, privacy and reliability of cloud providers. The document provides tips on password security and choosing reputable cloud service providers.
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Living in the Cloud: How Using Online Services Can Let You Soar
- 1. Living in the Cloud How Using Online Services Can Let You Soar Sharon Liz Rea Heather Moreland Braum Northeast Kansas Library System www.nekls.org
- 3. "A model for enabling available, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)." National Institute of Standards & Technology http://goo.gl/NcpI7
- 4. Data Backup SlideShare KLOW (web hosting services) Online Office Software Flickr, Picnik Social Networking Hosted Automation Systems Meebo, Mibbit (IRC) YouTube
- 5. Share and Collaborate Easily share your photos and documents with your friends and peers, without e-mail.
- 6. www.nekls.org libraries.ne.gov libraries.ne.gov/valparaiso www.ottawalibrary.org Lots of libraries are already doing it...
- 7. Stay In Touch Use Social Networking to... handle all kinds of social situations...
- 8. … and Disasters this is at 10:57pm, May 22, 5 hours after the tornado hit This is at 12:30pm May 23, 2011, 19 hrs after the Joplin tornado, http://goo.gl/vDAed
- 9. Political Revolution Crisis Camps
- 10. No More Removable Media! Patrons will always know where their data is.
- 11. Your data lives here.
- 12. Not here.
- 13. Wherever there is Internet... You have access.
- 14. Easy to Use Interfaces are usually very similar to desktop applications, and similar to each other.
- 15. Requires Less Powerful Hardware All you need is a web browser and an Internet connection.
- 16. How will I get to the cloud? Netbooks Tablets Nettops ("Net Desktops") Mobile Devices: Smartphones (iPhone, Android), iPod Touch, eReaders ...and your regular computer.
- 17. Choose Reliable Providers The bigger the company the better. ... anything well known and heavily used.
- 18. NEKLS in the Cloud...
- 19. Concerns... "(An) important role for libraries right now is to teach users about these types of services, in no small part so that we can help them understand the potential consequences. Because if you teach a patron to use an online documents site and she puts her resume there and something goes wrong with it, that’s a very real data loss for that person." - Jenny Levine, January 2009 http://goo.gl/iNmw8
- 20. Data Security “How to Stay Safe on Public Wifi”
- 21. Password Security 500 Worst Passwords of All Time!
- 22. Privacy
- 23. What happens to your data in the event of a catastrophic failure of your cloud provider?
- 24. Failure is always a possibility. • Loss of Internet... data inaccessible • Service goes down... data inaccessible • www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com
- 25. Best Practices
- 26. You are Only as Secure as Your Password. Choose good passwords and keep them safe. Example: Myfr13nd80B
- 27. Read the Terms of Service
- 28. But How Will It Affect My... Software Purchasing? Hardware Purchasing? Software on Computers? Security Concerns?
- 29. QUESTIONS? Links: http://goo.gl/zml13 Cloud Computing Sites: http://goo.gl/mibOF Photo Credits: http://goo.gl/0eCbd Slides: www.slideshare.net/nekls E-mail, IM, Twitter (we like friends): Heather Braum - hbraum@nekls.org - @hbraum Sharon Moreland - smoreland@nekls.org - @lybrarian Liz Rea - lrea@nekls.org - @wizzyrea
Editor's Notes
- FYI: If you miss any links or sites we mention during this presentation, there will be a link to the list of links at the end of these slides. \n
- So what is "the cloud"? \n
- Definitions of Cloud Computing. Official definition is on the slide. This describes the platform that enables what we the end user see when using cloud computing services. We'll mostly be talking today about the end user's side of cloud computing -- not the technical platform that makes it possible. A couple of other definitions. \n\n"With your stuff in the cloud, it's not a catastrophe to lose your laptop, any more than losing your glasses would permanently destroy your vision. In addition, as more and more of our information is gathered from and shared with others -- through Facebook, MySpace or Twitter -- having it all online can make a lot of sense." --Jonathan Zittrain, NY Times, July 20, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/opinion/20zittrain.html\n\nChrome OS devices & Chromium OS\n
- General examples of cloud computing services. These can be library system intrefaces, your email, social networks, online data storage, website editing interfaces, photo editing, document editing, etc. \n\nLike with everything there are benefits and concerns about cloud computing, we'll cover the benefits first (with some help from our lolcat friends along the way). \n
- Highlight/demonstrate google apps sharing, collaborative editing.\n\nShare documents, presentations, chat rooms, etc. with people around the country (and globe)\n\nGoogle Chat and Voice/Video Chat\n\nUsed w/ Koha migration teams across the globe to share data mapping tables and project timeline.\n\nGoogle calendar - invite, view, edit calendars\n
- Another example of sharing and collaboration is library websites online, like the kansas libraries on the web (klow) project or the nebraska libraries on the web project that was just started. You can update your site from anywhere, at anytime if you have Internet connectivity. No more HTML or one person who does your website! \n
- Social Networking... Facebook, Twitter\n\nKeeping up to date using these tools, personally and professionally.\n\nShare links to articles and sites of interest.\n\nShare blog posts.\n\nJust stay in touch with retired State librarians and librarians, for example.\n\nCommiserate and rejoice with them, too! \n
- This website was put up about five hours after the tornado hit Joplin Sunday night. No hardware had to purchased or installed, no software was necessary, no electricity, no bandwidth, or much technical knowledge required. All the person who built this had to do was go to crowdmap.com, set up the necessary information and the site was life, aggregating live information and needs through social network and maps and the rescue efforts and recovery began. \n
- More on crowdmap. \n\nWe've seen these sites spring up after earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, tornadoes -- and during politcal revolution (Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya). Facebook and Twitter are also heavily used by themselves -- through hashtags, Pages, and Groups. \n\nEven when a barrier to information is in place (no electricity or Internet, political crackdown), news and information still gets out through cell phones posting to these sites. None of this would have been possible without cloud computing. \n\nIf you're interested in more information on the impact of social networks during revolution, Clay Shirky has written and spoken extensively. See his work in Foreign Affairs journal, http://goo.gl/4NSf1 & his TEDTalk from 2009: http://goo.gl/56H98.\n
- They don't have to remember their flash drive, or buy a CD/Floppy disk from you to save their work.\n\nAll work is saved in the cloud, on a remote server farm.\n\nPatrons and staff are already doing this if they have ever emailed a document to themselves!\n
- Server farms throughout the world - also called data centers or server clusters. Cheap electricity, bandwidth. \n\nKC Star article May 08, "Server Farms becoming a cash crop in the midwest" tells of Google farms in Pryor OK and Council Bluffs IA - cheap electricity 4-5.5 cents versus 9 cents in CA.”\n\n"Diversifying locations makes Google's network more stable as sabotage or natural disaster in a single location will have less impact."\n\nComputing = next utility\n"in the same way it would be inefficient for each home to have its own electrical generator, it can make sense for consumers and businesses to farm out their computing needs."\n\nAll quotes from: -http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1374175/server_farms_becoming_a_cash_crop_in_the_midwest/\n
- Software lives on the Interent - google apps, screencasting, photo sharing. Picnik. \n\nAviary Tools: http://www.aviary.com/tools Image Editor, Screen CaPture, Music Creator, Audio Editor, and others. \n\nPandora/Groovershark. Music Streaming. Netflix. Reading Social Networks\n
- If you have internet/cell network connection:  can log in from anywhere with an internet connection.\n \nBandwidth - key to success.\nMore terms:\n* Cloud applications - web apps like wordpress, software services like Google apps.\n* Cloud infrastructure - Amazon S3 storage or Grid computing in the SETI@home and a protein folding\n* Cloud Services - products, services solutions delivered and consumed in real-time over the Internet.  payments, mapping, search, games, live chat.\n \n \n
- The interface is similar to desktop applications, and it is always the same, regardless of the platform of computer you are on:  For example, Google docs looks and acts the same regardless of what Operating System (Linux, Mac, PC) or Browser (IE, Safari, Chrome, Firefox) \n\nContinuity\n\nInterface similiarites, for example with uploading a photo - browse, find file, click upload - same for flickr, wordpress, facebook, etc., etc.\n
- Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth.\n
- Gadget show and tell here.\n\nnetbooks: Tiny, affordable notebook computers, long battery life\n \nNettops: Thin or especially small affordable desktop computers based on Netbook hardware.\n\nTablets. Ipad. Samsung Galaxy. Color Nook. Future tablets.\n \n
- Google provides \nspreadsheets\nword-type documents\npowerpoint type presentation software \nemail (gmail)\nand video and picture storage\nYouTube and Picasa\n\nAmazon provides hosting services for many small businesses on a "pay as you go" type of model. You pay for the bandwidth/CPU you use. This is the other definition of "cloud computing:" renting a piece of a large corporation's infrastructure to relieve your library/company from having to manage the servers yourself.\n\nYahoo! provides photo storage, link management, and chat, among many other things\nOther cloud providers of note:\nmeebo (chat)\nMibbit (IRC chat)\nFacebook (Social Networking)\nSlideshare (online presentations)\n
- Liz Rea audio clip here: http://www.nekls.org/wp-content/uploads/cc-howneklsuses.wav \n
- Stress the importance of teaching about what it means to be in the cloud. It is very tempting to just do it without thinking.\n\nIs a very good set of technologies, but does have some caveats.\n\nTeach best practices.\n
- Facebook hacking, Sony Playstation network hacking (twice now), Twitter hacking, Email hacking. \n\nhttp://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/librarydevelopments/?p=7827 & http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/things-to-know-when-using-a-wifi-hotspot-or-a-public-pc/ \n
- http://www.whatsmypass.com/the-top-500-worst-passwords-of-all-time\n
- Data Mining\n\nWho owns data?\n\nLegal definitions of Privacy\n\nLaw can't keep up with technology\n\nPatriot act & law enforcement \nmining data -- warrants to search physical premises -- what about digital premises? \n\nSelling of information \n\nFacebook photos in ads on friends profiles, anyone?\n\nAmazon Kindle & Orwell books\n
- Patrons need to know!!!\n\nThe Terms of Service should cover this.\n\nFind out about recovery and viability - what happens to data if company goes under?\n
- Downforeveryoneorjustme.com can be your friend when you’re not sure if your favorite site is down, if your Internet is problematic, or it’s your coputer.\n\nLiz Rea audio clip here: Failures: http://www.nekls.org/wp-content/uploads/cc-failures.wav\n\nShould be noted: these conditions are usually TEMPORARY. Extended outages from a major provider are thankfully (so far) rare.\n\nloss of internet = local internet access, i.e. your cable modem or your library's provider.\n\nService goes down = problem further down the pipe, either a problem at the datacenter where the service is hosted or with the software running the service.\n\nExample - Cox disruption in OK lead to statewide DNS problems 2 weeks ago (only Kanren libraries - can depend on ISP) 1/2 hour at most. \n\nAmazon EC2 downtime: http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/21/technology/amazon_server_outage/index.htm\n
- Cloud services are never 100% reliable. Keep backups (print copies, or additional digital copies) just like you would if you were working on your own computer.\n\nmozy.com or dropbox for example. \n
- So important, we mention it again. \n\nStress the importance of good passwords.\n\nRecommendation: \n\nat least 6 to 8 character password with numbers, capital letters, and punctuation (if they will let you)\n\nExample: Myfr13nd80B\n\nAlways register for services with a legitimate e-mail address that you can check, just in case you lose your password.\n
- Make sure you know how your data is going to be used.\n\nTalk perhaps about the ongoing flaps over terms of service.\n\nIt's boring, but to know everything about how your data might be used, what happens in the event of an (unlikely) subpoena of  your data, where the data is hosted, and what happens in the event of a catastrophe, read the privacy policy and terms of use for any service you plan on using heavily.\n\nDeep packet inspection - ATT, Google and Yahoo in the news for this.  For ex., opt out of the Google toolbar Web History program to keep your browsing private.\n
- \nSoftware Purchasing: You may not have to purchase as many licenses for software (thinking Microsoft Office).  You may be able to get by on cloud computing apps and OpenOffice. You will probably want to maintain at least one computer in your library with the latest version of office. (?)\n\nHardware Purchasing: You may not need to refresh your stations as often, depending on the usage patterns of your patrons, or you may be able to explore alternative, cheaper platforms such as Linux or nettop computers.\n\nSoftware Browsers: Firefox & Google Chrome is usually better at handling cloud applications, but any browser should work; \n \nYou will likely want the following plugins: Flash; Shockwave; QuickTime; PDF Reader (adobe), Java, Silverlight\n\nSecurity: Read the terms of service, have good passwords, remind folks of the possibility of data inaccessibility, and remind people to not forego backups.\n
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