What's In The Clouds?

Flying to New England recently for my college class reunion, I noted the Continental Airlines in-flight magazine profile of Hewlett-Packard executive Russ Daniels explaining "cloud computing." (Click HERE.) (Russ Daniels is .)

The gist is that to a greater and greater degree, our use of computer applications will be less dependent on what we have INSTALLED or have stored in our own devices (PCs, handhelds, etc). Instead, we will be using more applications that reside in the Internet "cloud" and pay as we go for the services we actually use; our devices will be used merely to access and interface with the services. The economic case is made that we can spend much less money on hardware, software, services and personnel when all we really use is a fraction of each or all we really need is to use the service for a short time.

You can read more at good 'ol Wikipedia (which is itself an example of cloud computing) at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

In the meantime, here are some examples of what this is all about:

SpeakWrite

When I was a corporate public relations professional, I used to support executive interviews with journalists. As a matter of policy, every interview was taped in its entirety -- sometimes an hour or more -- so there was a record of what was said. Experienced PR folks know there is actually no such thing as "off the record," so the tape ran from the moment the reporter came into view to the moment the reporter was out of sight (and out of hearing range). The problem was that "CYA" tapes like this were rarely transcribed unless there was an issue -- it was simply too expensive and time-consuming -- so we missed opportunities to use transcripts to support journalists in developing their stories, as a learning tool for executives, as a source of information for others in the company or for any other purpose. In fact, I still have a pile of little microcassettes from Compaq executive interviews 15 years ago. Pretty worthless!

Enter Speak-Write.com (Click HERE). Today, you can use almost any cell phone or PC to make a .WAV file of any conversation (or deposition, or narrative, or seminar, etc.). You can easily transmit the .WAV file across the "cloud" to SpeakWrite and they will type it out within about 3 hours at 2 cents per word (or less) or about $7 per page. It comes back to you as a Word or WordPerfect document that you can use for any purpose.

SpeakWrite is run by Richard Jackson.

ProofreadNow

Once a document is transcribed, you can send it back through the "cloud" to ProofreadNow.com (Click HERE!), another new service that -- you guessed it -- focuses on proofreading brochure copy, direct mail, newsletters, etc. With many marketing and communications departments cutting back on their staff or resetting staff priorities these days, the number of people available for routine (but important) proofreading has diminished. Starting at $11 per page, two different, well-educated editors will read your document and report back all errors in spelling, grammar, clarity and even obvious errors of fact. For a little more money, you can get faster turnaround (as little as 60 minutes) and additional attention to tweaking the writing style.

They describe one customer who was ready to go with a 4-page mailing to 2 million customers. It was already proofread internally several times over, but someone decided to run it through ProofreadNow just in case. The proofreaders found 4 show-stopping errors that would have required a reprint of the mailing (at $400,000). Total charge: $44.

Just for the heck of it, I ran this ENTIRE edition of the Grapevine newsletter, including this article, through ProofreadNow. They made 60 suggestions to fix errors or improve readability -- items that we had not found after at least three people proofread it internally. Total charge: $119.

ProofreadNow is run by Phil Jamieson.

TripIt

Once you get all your documents typed up and proofread, it's time for a trip!

TripIt.com (Click HERE) is an interesting new service -- still in beta testing -- that helps you sort out all your travel plans... You just forward all your itinerary confirmation e-mails from your airline, car rental, hotel, etc. to one special address. TripIt interprets them, and builds out a trip itinerary that you can then share with family, friends and colleagues as you see fit.

This is an especially handy tool if you are going on a trip with many segments and destinations. You can manually add any kind of transportation, lodging or car rental, plus planned activities, meetings, restaurants, notes and articles. TripIt keeps track of your maps, the expected weather, etc. It can sync with your work and personal calendars and will work through your handheld device or a web browser.

Business travelers, frequent travelers and travel planners who support those folks will love this. It can also serve as a "dream trip" planner for those of us waiting for the economy to recover!

TripIt is run by Gregg Brockway.

What are your thoughts about cloud computing? We always enjoy feedback! Contact me at john.sweney@brookwoods.com.

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(Cloud photograph © 2004 Michael Jastremski.)