Entries tagged with “lock-in” from Tools of Change for Publishing
Palm's webOS Represents Major Shift for Syncing and Data
Peter Brantley
January 12, 2009
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In an article covering the Palm Pre mobile device, Ars Technica makes a very important point about how devices utilize network connectivity, and what the assumptions are underlying their models of data storage and access:
Users just make changes to their data (contacts, calendar, mail, etc.), and Palm's webOS handles committing those changes to whatever canonical data source it is accessing in the cloud. And herein lies the most important difference between the webOS and Apple's iPhone OS: the iPhone was originally designed under the assumption that the canonical source of a user's data (contacts, calendar, music, tasks, etc.) is a Mac. Palm's webOS, in contrast, presumes that cloud-based services are the canonical source for your data (with the possible exception of media, which we don't know about yet) ...
Palm's webOS does not presume any sort of tether at all. The company has totally ditched the idea that you will use this phone in conjunction with a specific "main PC" that contains the canonical, authoritative repository of your data. Instead, webOS draws seamlessly on a variety of data services--not data repositories, but cloud-based services that actively feed the device both data and critical context.
This is a deep, fundamental break with both the iPhone and previous, repository-based smartphone usage models, and it's important enough that other smartphones are bound to follow.
Getting Some Perspective on Cloud Computing
Mac Slocum
October 2, 2008
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Richard Stallman, creator of the GNU operating system and founder of the Free Software foundation, is no fan of cloud computing. From The Guardian:
"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," Stallman said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program."
Stallman's comments have inspired a host of counter arguments, including some nice publishing-centric analysis from Adam Hodgkin at Exact Editions:
This obsession with self-sufficiency and self-reliance, veers in the direction of paranoia. You don't necessarily lose control if you outsource a service, especially if there is competition between various service providers. I am sure that there are dangers with a model of cloud computing in which only one company provides a platform for published books (that company would at the moment look like being Google) but there is really no reason why only one company should host and serve print in the cloud.
Stallman took a provocative route to an important caveat: a wholesale transfer to the cloud could bring unwanted repercussions, such as lock in or -- if things go horribly awry -- lock out. But, to Hodgkin's point, publishers who carefully consider their needs may find significant value in cloud toolsets. Dismissing the cloud outright is just as egregious as blindly committing.
Charting the Pitfalls of DRM
Mac Slocum
April 28, 2008
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In the wake of MSN Music's authorization decision, Steve O'Hear from last100 looks at five DRM-based businesses that left customers high and dry. From the article:
Any digital store that sells or loans you content in a copy-protected format makes you a hostage to that store or format's commercial success.
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