sets of images of floppy disks, thumb drives and clould drives google image search for floppy disk-some 20 images search of google image database for "thumb drive", some 15 images search of Google image database for "cloud drive"

Is It Time Again to Change Where You Store Your Files?

Our knowledge society is deep into a knowledge explosion that forces everyone doing digital to deal with both the size, quantity and quality of the types of our digital palette files. Data storage has become a major issue for educators exploring digital literacy along with everyone else in cyberspace. The problem with keeping up with our data extends to filing and finding our personal digital data. Though computer hard drives on our personal computers are still the primary storage place of our own data, there has always been great need for having access to data files where ever someone was located. So, personal mobile storage devices were created and have transitioned over the last 30 years from floppy diskettes to USB drives (e.g.,thumb drives) and increasingly to storing our files on a network drive (e.g., cloud storage or cloud drives). The explosion of use of highly mobile smart phones and touch tablets has further increased the need for cloud drive services.

The history of floppy diskettes began with their introduction in 1971 by IBM. How old were you when you stopped using floppy diskettes? Do you still have any? Today, it would be easier to find floppy disks used for retro-art than a computer that had a drive to insert a floppy diskette. The standard mobile file storage medium of 2011 is the USB or thumb drive, which uses a computer chip instead of a collection of motors and magnetic pulses to store data.

The rapid expansion to cloud drives raises a series of still unanswered problems. What percent of both personal or organizational data is now in the cloud(s) and how rapidly is the percent of stored data moving into cloud based systems? Is there a pattern and/or logic in this transition to USB drives that would allow us to tell how much longer we'll still be using them? Is it time to make the transition to "cloud" drives?

The image above contains three "hotspots", clickable areas of the images that are linked to other Web pages. These links reveal Google image database searches for floppy disks, thumb drives and cloud drives. The image is a collage of screen capture images merged in an image editor into a single image which was then used to create the hotspot areas. Drag the cursor over this image at the top of the page and watch the bottom of the web page border change to different Web addresses, then click through the choice to discover some of the variety of each. It is one more reminder that any digital media can contain embedded links to any other media of the digital palette.

The data explosion and the increasing use of different media of the digital palette, especially databases, video and 3D or virtual reality create tremendous pressure for increasing storage capacity and increasing speed for the transfer of this data from one computer to another.

In the last week of March, 2011, Amazon announced its Cloud Drive (Katta, 2011) which provides 5 gigabytes of web-based storage of any kind of file for free along with upgrade prices for greater storage. For example, as a promotion Amazon provided a 20 GB plan for $20 if a single music album is also purchased from Amazon's online music store.There are many competitors, many of whom may offer an even better service but not yet at Amazon's price and capacity (Katta, 2011). See the article by Katta for an analysis of several.

Amazon's low bid for our files will up the pressure on others providing cloud services to top Amazon's. If not yet using cloud drive services of some kind, now is the time to choose one and begin to master the next "new normal" for mobile file storage. Cloud drives have the added advantage of providing a free insurance policy for the loss or failure of your current thumb/USB drives. With sufficient experience with a cloud drive, you'll be in a position to decide when it is time to let your thumb drive go the way of floppy disks, one more historical passing as the result of the times of exponential change in which we live. The cloud drive competition should have long term benefits for all in education.

 

References

Katta, S. (2011, April 3). My Thoughts On Amazon's Cloud Player http://skattertech.com/2011/04/my-thoughts-on-amazons-cloud-player/

Wikipedia. (2011). Cloud computing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing