New Media

Welcome to cloud computing. A world so vast and infinite in its possibilities that I can barely contain my excitement to buy one of these:



What you see above does not have a cd or dvd drive. The RAM is laughable and the hard drive within is not even a hard drive at all; it's flash. This computer does 2 things on its own, and does them well. This computer:

- Surfs the internet
-And plays music

All within the cozy confines of Windows XP. This computer costs $400, but it is possible to get one for cheaper.

It's backwards, it's small, it's cheap, it's the future. It won't be long before this computer can do everything my $2000 can do.

In comes CLOUD computing, otherwise known as the full flex of the muscle we call the internet. The cloud is the internet. The internet is the cloud.

You see, it wont be long before everything we do will be outsourced to the internet. The computer above, on it's own, cannot handle photoshop or any other system heavy operation, but it can run the internet. Now, if you use Photoshop online within a self contained web-application, this computer then has officially outsourced the job of processing the software to a bunch of servers in, say, Japan, or Monaco. I don't know. You'll never have to install heavy software again (unless you're a graphic designer, of course).

Think of watching a movie in a theatre. The Movie has already been filmed, processed, and put on a reel to project on the screen for us. Behind the theatre, there is no set where the actors act out every scene verbatim every single night. No, no, no, that would be ridiculous, and a lot of work!

Wasn't long ago I paid $400 dollars for a graphic card so I could run the game Deus Ex on my small PC. But what if we outsourced that job to a server farm that solely ran Deus Ex continually, streaming it to any piece of technology with a screen, with you only relaying the vector points to control the game over the internet.

Here are some web apps that are pioneering the new wave of cloud computing:

http://www.pixlr.com/
http://docs.google.com/
http://www.zoho.com/
http://www.me.com/
http://www.acrobat.com/
http://www.jooce.com/
http://www.evernote.com/
http://www.blist.com/
http://www.photoshop.com/express
http://g.ho.st/

And windows is working on an operating system that is based solely in the Cloud. What does that mean? It means you can access your computer from any and everywhere. Cause it's on the internet.

You'll never need a jump drive again!

So what does this have to do with advertising? YOU TELL ME!