“Method 3″

OK so I am doing this "Two Step" program so I can learn more about resources and programs on the computer. SO far I am discovering new things and love it! I never knew that there were "hosts" out there in which you could do so much so such as Google with docs and e-mail and other apps as well! I thought Google was strictly a search engine! It will be very helpful and beneficial for me to use hosts like google to do my work and access it from various computers. I have had the problem of programs such as Microsoft office or publisher not being current or the same on two computers that I use. This is a problem because my document or work that I need to access is not accessible or workable on a different computer! Frustrating! It would be great to have it be the exact same regardless of the computer in which I am trying to retrieve it! I am not ready to use the cloud to put all of my information on (especially items that I do not want to share with the world). I have concerns with if the "cloud" goes bust in one way or another, what happens to all of my information? Am I exposed to everyone? How easy is it to hack my saved information?
Now as for using the cloud for our library patrons..........not too sure or confident in that. We are a small basically rural library. We have a staff of 6. Very difficult to train all staff in the new computer technologies and have them help, train, or assist our library patrons as well. This would be very time consuming and staff consuming. Some of our patrons are barely getting by on their understanding of e-mail, "cloud" usage or dependability on it would be very far-off if at all. HOWEVER....google docs would be very beneficial to those patrons comfortable with e-mail. For example a patron uses the computer......they spend an hour typing a document.....they do not pay attention to their time count down and the computer kicks them off. What happens to their work they just spent an hour on? Irretrievable. They did not save it....they definitely did not save it and e-mail it to themselves which takes several steps.....they cannot log back on because they already used up their time for the day and cannot be extended since they are not logged on (in-house library issue, sorry)......and even if they had saved it to their desktop they cannot retrieve it the next day because our computers wipe clean over night. With google docs, none of this would have happened.
Just my thoughts and opinions. Back to learning.........