WHAT IS THE CLOUD? #1

or Why it's okay to lose your phone.

It would seem that to understand how Social Media and online technologies work, we must take a look behind us first. What is the internet and how does it work.

Originally, my understanding of how the internet worked was limited to the idea that your computer connects to the internet out there in cyber-space somewhere. Much like this pic here. 

This is only partly true. Fundamentally, the internet is actually your computer connecting to another computer!

I came across this great little book from Google entitled, 20 things I learned about Browsers and the Web (Quite an easy read.) Here is an extract:

" As you sit hunched over your laptop at home watching a YouTube video or using a search engine, you’re actually plugging into the collective power of thousands of computers that serve all this information to you from far-away rooms distributed around the world."

This process is what is called 'Cloud Computing'.

I think it's important to know that Social Media and online Applications (software designed for a specific purpose) run on this 'Cloud technology'.

What it means to you and me is that all the information - like important photos, documents and videos aren't stored locally (on your computer, phone or device.) But rather, remotely (on another device distributed somewhere around the world.)

The benefit of this of coarse, is that if you lose your laptop or phone you haven't lost your important info...handy.