Thursday - Apr 26, 2012
In light of the observance of Preservation Week, I want to shift gears a bit for this week’s post and talk briefly about a topic dear to me: saving your data.
The Internet age has brought with it many changes to how we use and share information. Rather than writing information in notebooks and letters, we now write digital books and e-mails. Additionally, media like music, photos, and videos are commonplace in the digital realm, replacing shoeboxes of photos and cabinets of VHS tapes and CDs.
What gets forgotten at times, however, is not only how easy it is to lose digital data, but also how quickly media formats change. With this digital revolution of information comes the need for a “preservation revolution,” one that allows us to easily and quickly store and convert digital media so it may live on as part of our rich digital culture.
That said, here are four groups of Internet services that are key to helping you save your digital data.
Online data storage
Relying solely on the hard drive of your computing device to securely save your data isn’t the best idea. Hard drives fail and data can become corrupted. Thus, a better storage plan is necessary to minimize the chances of losing your data. External hard drives and flash drives make for useful backup options. Another viable option is online data storage. Enter services such as Carbonite , CrashPlan, and DropBox.
The main idea behind these services is to allow you to upload your files and sync them to your computing devices. Say, for example, changes to a file on your home desktop are uploaded to one of these services. You then can go somewhere else with Internet access and access the file, update it, and have the file on your desktop at home also be automatically updated.
All three services have similar features, with some imposing different limits on file size and file type depending on what kind of account (free or paid) you have. I recommend comparing the prices and features of the services to find the one that suits your needs best. Having the peace of mind your files are backed up in an additional location is worth the effort.
Online profiles
Whether you’re new to the Internet and share information like hugs, or you’re a grizzled veteran of the online world and consciously limit your sharing habits, you’re likely to leave a digital “fingerprint” on the Web. That fingerprint may come in the form of shared photos, videos, and blog posts, or it may take the shape of anonymous posts on a private forum. And with the surge in number of social media tools, information sharing is occurring in ways previously not thought possible. Tweets shared on Twitter, conversations had on Facebook, contacts made on LinkedIn, and blog entries posted via WordPress: these all are examples of data you may wish to preserve.
Several catch-all options exist for collecting your online data from social media and e-mail accounts. Backupify allows users to back up and retrieve information via two separate plans: one for social media accounts (as well as Gmail) and another for Google Apps accounts. The social media plan has a free option for up to three accounts and one gigabyte of information, as well as several paid account options. The Google Apps option starts out at $3 per month, per user. Both plans allow users to back up their accounts on a weekly basis, browse archived content, and even download it for personal use. In some cases, data can also be restored. A competing service BackupMy offers similar services, though it’s not clear if they also allow you to download the archived information. BackupMy also adds blog and photo archiving services to the mix, with a free trial to all backup services.
Images and videos
When it comes to backing up your images and videos online — while also allowing them to be shared with the rest of the world — Flickr remains a strong option. The site is constantly evolving, allowing users to share and store their media in new ways with whom they wish. Yet even more sophisticated options exist in the form of 1000memories and LiveOn. Both sites are designed to allow users to archive their digital photos for family, friends, and future generations.
What makes 1000memories stand out is its “shoebox” feature, which allows users to group photos into definable themes, all for the low cost of free. Its downside for now seems to be that video uploads aren’t an option. As for LiveOn, in addition to free photo and video uploads, it gives users the option to create a “timeline” on their account, allowing for a more chronological categorization of content. However, I’m a little skeptical of how often they state they’ll guard your information “forever.” Nothing lasts forever, including businesses.
Legacy information
Speaking of things not lasting forever, we humans tend to have this habit of ceasing to be, sometimes without much warning. Enter online services which preserve and pass on your vital “information assets” to one or more beneficiaries. Usernames and passwords, financial information, and digital documents are all options for storing, not only for now, but also for a future when you may not be around. This also aids others who may need to tend to your online accounts after you die.
Two major online entities for these services are Legacy Locker and SecureSafe. Both have similar features and offer a free version as well as paid options. Legacy Locker seems to be somewhat less expensive though perhaps less comprehensive than SecureSafe. One interesting feature that seems to be exclusive to Legacy Locker is the “legacy letter,” one or more prepared letters or videos which can be sent to assigned recipients upon your passing. SecureSafe seems more formal, though it boasts iPad and iPhone support.
Photo via woodleywonderworks, Flickr Creative Commons
Thursday - Apr 7, 2011
William Cronon is a respected author, president-elect of the American Historical Association, and a distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin. He’s also under attack by the Wisconsin Republican Party, which has filed a Freedom of Information request to see all of Professor Cronon’s email that contain any of these twenty keywords: Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell.
Why is he under attack? You can probably guess from the above terms.
Professor Cronon writes a personal blog, “Scholar as Citizen.” A few weeks ago he wrote a post about a conservative organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which drafts and circulates proposed legislation to Republican legislators. Cronon alleged that ALEC played a role in the union-busting legislation championed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
The post went viral, garnering over 500,000 hits in two days. And two days after Cronon’s post, the Wisconsin Republican Party filed its request with the university.
Professor Cronon and many others have charged that this is a shameless attempt to intimidate him and stifle academic freedom. He claims that the Wisconsin GOP wants to discredit him by showing that he misused state email resources.
Regardless of the motive, my takeaway from this story is that you should always keep your professional and personal correspondence separate. The first rule of email is to have two accounts. (By the way, there’s no indication that Professor Cronon did anything wrong.)
Your business email may be subject to discovery pending on the laws in your state or country. Gaining access to your private Gmail or Yahoo! account, for instance, is a whole other matter. While it may be faster to just dash off a quick note to a friend from your business account, resist the urge. You never know how it may come back to bite you.
Wednesday - Jan 26, 2011
My cousin, let’s call her Susan, told me am amusing story the other day. Her teenage son, Eric (not his real name either), wanted to borrow the car, but his dad refused. (It might have been due to the 3 foot snow drifts.) Eric texted his friend that he couldn’t get the car, because, as he put it, ”my dad is an a-hole.” Unfortunately for Eric, he inadvertently sent the message to his dad, who, as you might expect, went ballistic.
Susan, however, saw the humor in the situation. She regarded her son’s faux pas as a teaching moment, an opportunity to remind him that all his electronic communications are on the record and don’t go away. How many celebrities, politicians and now even nations have been embarrassed by their own words?
While it’s worth considering what you text or email and the consequences should your message land in the wrong Inbox, here’s the problem: If you weigh every word too carefully and then censor yourself, it makes communication bland and ineffective. You either have to express yourself honestly, like Eric did, or force the recipient to read between the lines. But what if Eric had texted that “my dad is being unreasonable”. Same outcome–no car–but a good cover for a slip of the finger.
Should we all lower the volume? What do you think?
