Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo; Flickr, Picassa, Droplr; YouTube, Daily Motion, Vimeo; Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive, Amazon Cloud Drive, iCloud; Facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn, App.Net, Instagram, Pinterest, Orkut; Whatsapp, Hangouts, Messengers, iMessages; WordPress, Tumblr, Typepad, Blogger – some of the services we use daily on the net. The internet is connected to our life in ways we couldn’t have imagined ten years ago. But, the nature of internet is changing from an ‘accessing information’ model to a ‘content creation’ & ‘content sharing’ model. I doubt even Steve Jobs imagined that his introduction of the iPhone would usher-in the post PC era. We are no more tethered to the desk, glowing rectangles in our hands – always connected to the internet – have pushed us into a ‘mobile computing’ era. If launching the iPhone & App Store was the first move towards mobile computing, the concept of ‘Cloud’ services is making the transition seamless. The future belongs to the cloud (Google Chromebook anyone?), and as more and more life goes digital, it has become extremely important to know how to manage our data across these various clouds, services and applications.
How many email accounts should you have? How many social media services should you use? Do you need your own platform? Should you migrate to the cloud? Do we even think about these questions? Only recently did I start formulating an online strategy, when I realized some of my pictures were on Facebook, some in Picassa, some in Instagram; important documents in Gmail; job listings in Yahoo; chats in Orkut; one blog on Blogger, one on WordPress and one self hosted – My data was spread across various services and applications. Many face the same situation albeit in various degrees. If one file/photo is available in one, it is not in other. Then shouldn’t dumping all our data in one service/app be the most logical solution? But, what’s the guarantee that the service is going to be around ten years down the lane (Tumblr purchased by Yahoo; Instagram purchased by Facebook, Posterous is shutdown)? What about privacy issues? What about safety?
I do not have a time tested strategy of managing online life. But, I do have some ideas:
Email – Bifurcate – Use one for work, one for personal information, one for hobbies & one for miscellaneous – these days you need an email id even to download wallpapers. Another way to handle is to have one email id and manage everything in it with tags & folders. But, if you decide to manage all from one Id, you need to be very diligent in staying on top of the inbox, or it’ll quickly disintegrate into chaos before your eyes. And, getting your data out will become a pain in the wrong place. But, if you configure multiple email Ids, then use an application like Mail.app on Mac or Outlook on Windows to manage all of them in one place. And, use a password manager to manage all your accounts.
Social Media – Where are majority of your friends? That should be your first question you need to ask when opening an account in a social media service – what’s the point otherwise? It is always advisable to stick to one network which hosts majority of your friends, than to jump around, unless you have friends equally distributed across services, which then warrants and justifies multiple accounts.
But, remember, there are no ways to move data from one network to the other, nor is there a way to do a backup. Ex: It is not possible to move your data from Orkut to Google+ even though they are both owned by Google. You can’t share pictures you uploaded to Facebook on Google+. Given this scenario which is the best way to manage data on a social network?
- Photos: Should you upload directly to the service (Facebook or Google+)? Or upload to one central repository and share it from there? I suggest the latter path. By doing so, we avoid the unnecessary headaches of exporting all our pictures when the service goes down. ’Cause we already have a backup of all of them. I need to test this strategy. I’ll be using the newly revamped Flickr to share photos to Facebook/Twitter/Google+
- Data: Use IFTTT service to backup your status updates & likes to an app of your choice. (I use Evernote for this). Unfortunately, Twitter does not allow the use of IFTTT. In such cases, you can use applications like Drafts on the iOS which after posting the tweet, save it to Evernote. (For more information on this, click here).
- Twitter – I see it more as an information gathering & dispensing tool than a social network. If you’d like to follow someone, their updates, or share information to folks who’d like to hear from you, this is the best tool.
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Pages – Brands, businesses, organizations share their stories and connect with people on social networks via ‘Pages’. So, if you have a business or a product, it is good to have a presence in every major social media network to share updates and build a loyal customer base.
Cloud Storage: For file storage, I prefer Dropbox (free space of only 2 GB). It still sets the industry standards for all the other players in the field. Accessible on all platforms, it is the best place to store any files. But, should you upload all of your data? I never found it necessary to do so. However, uploading files/documents you access frequently and those you need in times of need is the best way to utilize cloud services. But, if there are any documents that need to editing, then SkyDrive is the best option. (Here, I’m assuming you fall into the category (read majority population) which uses Microsoft Office Suite). Office Web Apps make it a breeze to edit & save documents on the web itself. iCloud on the other hand is best used with Apple apps. It is not possible to edit files stored on iCloud without the apps that created it. I use Amazon Cloud Drive for the extra storage space to accommodate files, if my Dropbox is full.
Word of Caution: I used ‘Google Drive’ previously to store pictures. But, when I accidentally goggled my name, I could find these pictures reflecting in the search also – accessible to the public. So, I immediately deleted all of them. I’d give Google drive another go, but, only after I completely understand its privacy terms. I advise the same to anyone who’d like to try this service.
Instant Messengers: First of all, there are no straight forward ways to download your chat history in any app, other than ‘Hangouts’ (as it saves your chat history in your Gmail account). Second, there are no ways to move messages data from one platform to the other. And, I’m afraid, you’ll need to manual copy, paste the conversation in case you want to save it. It’s a very fractured field awaiting salvation. The only strategy is to stick to a platform where your most friends are.
Blogging: If you are not serious or committed to blogging, starting a WordPress.com or Blogspot.com makes the most sense. But, once you are committed, it is always better to move to a self hosted blog ’cause only then do you own your content. You can export and import your content when you are moving among platforms. Once you setup a new blog, it is better to close the old site once the transition is made and enough notice is given to your readers. But, if your old blog has higher google ranking, and ’are afraid you’ll lose traffic, then you can use any combinations of features like ‘site redirect’ and ‘permalink redirect plugins’ to help divert the traffic to the new blog. Over time, google will update it’s index and old links will fall out of the search results.
Net Etiquette: Remember, the internet is written in ink. Whatever you’ve done is recorded there permanently. So, be careful. Even information like whatever you’ve searched in the past (I’m looking at you – NSFW), your comments, your activity can be made public. Do not do anything you’ll be ashamed off to tell your kids. Avoid trolling. While commenting or giving feedback, do not be rude, do not say anything, you wouldn’t say if that discussion was happening face to face.
Overall, while formulating your digital strategy, ask yourself: Will this service be around 10 years ( very long time in tech parlance) from now? Can I move my data easily in and out of it? Are there any privacy concerns – Is it accessible to all, or does it have appropriate controls? Does it compromise you in any way? Do I have to share my files on every website, or, is there an independent service which acts as central repository with sharing options? Is it necessary to upload all of your sensitive information onto the cloud? If not, what do you need at beck and call? Once you have answers to these chart out the services which meet your need. And, stick to as few services as possible. The more you have to deal with, the more fragmented your data will become, and the more chaotic it will be to work with.
But, what if the cloud breaks? No matter your trust, it is always better to have an offline backup.
Remember, the future is digital.
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