The Internet today is more a way of life than an exception to the rule like it was a few years ago; everyone knows what it is and almost everyone uses it on a regular basis. While some people stop at checking their emails, using social networks to connect and interact with friends and acquaintances and playing online games, others use the web for just about their every single need. It’s their lifeline to the world around them and the world they live and work in; it’s not just a communication and management tool, but a method of continuous learning and knowledge improvement. With easy access to online tools, the Internet offers ways and means to revolutionize your life without going to too much trouble.

Online tools are great because:

• They’re cost-effective: Most organizations are moving to the cloud today where software is offered as a service rather than as a product. So you can pick and choose the services you need and pay only for them instead of having to pay for the entire product even though you’re going to use just the bare minimum of features. This makes software as a service structures both cost-effective and efficient. Also, when you outsource operations like administration or backup to the cloud using online tools, you save on infrastructural and manpower costs as well. Most online tools for basic operations like creating and editing documents, spreadsheets and pictures are free.
• They facilitate collaboration in real-time: With online tools, it’s easy for people on a project to collaborate their efforts in real-time, no matter how geographically diverse their locations are. They no longer have to wait for updates and revisions before they are able to do their part. Changes are visible as soon as they’re made, and feedback is almost instantaneous because many people can work on the same files across several computers.
• They prevent clutter and disorganization: When your software tool is online, you don’t have to waste hard disk space by installing it on your system. This translates to a huge amount of space on servers in organizations where every computer uses the tool. Also, when all files related to a project are stored in organized folders online, it becomes easier for people working on them to access and upload them quickly and efficiently. There is less clutter on each of the clients the software runs on because most of the application resides on the cloud server.
• They’re portable: With online tools, you’re not restricted to one particular computer in order to work on any project or task. You can access your files from any location as long as you’re connected to the Internet. This makes it easy to travel without a second thought and work from wherever you are with the same degree of efficiency.
• They’re customizable: And finally, online tools are great options for those who don’t use all the features of software applications because they allow you to access only the tools you need. This way, you not only reduce your expenditure, but also find it easier to navigate the tool and use just what you need. For example, instead of having to pay for the entire Office suite of programs, you could pay only to use Word and/or Excel for a certain period of time and renew your subscription with additional or less features every few months.

If you’ve never tried online tools, get started with one today – they simplify your work and personal life in more ways than one.

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This awesome guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com. If you enjoyed Anna’s post, be sure to leave a quick note in the comments letting her know and check out here site!

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Ok, so after a little title theatrics…here’s the real question. Is the rapid adoption of Cloud Computing sounding the death knell of the personal computer? I have a few definite opinions to go along with a whole litany of questions!


What is the Cloud and Why is it Appealing?
According to the complete compendium of human knowledge (aka Wikipedia), Cloud Computing is a concept that uses the Internet as delivery platform for applications and services hosted online. Probably the oldest example of the concept (although it was never called that back in the day) is Yahoo! Mail. The app resides on the server along with your data (email messages) and is easily accessible from any computer with a web browser (PC, Mac, Linux…doesn’t matter). Now there are countless companies offering “cloud” based services. Google is of course the biggest but hundreds of others are out there too.


The clear appeal of Cloud Computing is ease of access from anywhere and no installed software. It is the concept of no installed software that has the choir warming up for the funeral of the PC. If I can do everything I need to do from any browser, the “PC” is now just a platform for the browser…right?

Read the rest of this entry

Life In the Internet is about living and working in the connected world. Ok, well how do you DO that?

I remember back in the 80′s business Utopia was the Paperless Office! Well that didn’t work out…yet. I was sifting through my Reader feeds this morning and made my way over to a couple of new blogs (well, new for me) that inspired me. First I found Skellie over at AnyWired.com. She had 30 Ideas to Help You Start Working Through the Web that I thought were very fab!! (Check out her article, you’ll notice some of her ideas as I move through this series) Thanks Skellie! While I was browsing her site, I found a 125 ad for Stephen over at Productivity in Context. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not even in the same league with Stephen when it comes to organization, but don’t let that stop you from checking out his blog.

Anyway, these two kinda got me thinking about HOW I do what I do and thought it might be a good idea to showcase some of the ways I work mainly in the connected world and leave very little residue behind in the UNconnected world. Here goes.

Start With The Basics

It might be a good idea to back-up just a bit and hit a little history. I’ve had the jtrigsby.com domain for many many moons now, I don’t even remember how long I’ve had it. The web portion of the domain has gone through several iterations, most of them requiring direct access to the server, FTP access, or something of the like. What a hassle. And then there is the email monster! Yuck!

I stumbled across Google Hosted Apps almost a year ago. Like a lot of things (like blogging) it took me a little while to figure out how to take advantage of this fab tool, but I finally got it. If you missed my story about Google Apps (The Latest Killer App!), Google Apps is a hosted application (meaning its all on-line, nothing on your computer) developed by Google. It provides users with email, calendar, web hosting, docs, spreadsheets, and presentations. And the best part is…IT IS FREE!

Needless to say, free is good!

So I signed up! Now, you are not required to have (or buy) your own domain name, it will work just fine using a Google sub-domain, but since I already had jtrigsby.com, I redirected it over to Google Hosted Apps and the rest was easy. I now get to use a private branded Google Mail app for all the mail sent to jtrigsby.com, have my own calendar, and my own document repository. All on-line, all free. What? You don’t see the big deal? Well let me tell you. My email, calendar, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations are now available from any computer with Internet access and I don’t have to deal with or manage server, connectivity, spam, or backup issues! In fact, I’ve got the world’s single largest hosted apps company doing all that for me…FOR FREE! Wow.

Now Google Apps has a web hosting feature, they even have a pretty slick little on-line web page editor. And yes, it is on-line so I could access it from anywhere, and did. I started my WebMoney series on the old site. I spent lots of time writing and editing the pages, saving drafts, etc, etc. Then the blogging light bulb clicked on (finally)! I spent weeks working on the traditional web site and it only took a couple of hours to move all that data over to Blogger…and that includes getting the blog setup and the domain name redirected!

So now I have email, calendar, docs, and a blog/website. The basics of my Internet Empire are in place. With this array of applications, all on-line and web based, I’m mobile and don’t have to carry anything with me to stay connected. As long as I can borrow a computer (dare I say even a Mac!) I can stay in touch, answer emails, and get a little work done. This is something that’s really important to me since I’m on the road a lot and away from my desk. It’s also pretty cool that I can setup a user account (the first 100 are FREE) for Vickie and share my calendar with her so she can see what I’ve got going on, where and when. How cool is that?!?

What tools do you use to stay connected? Are you still using a pc based email client like Outlook? Any tips? Be sure to leave a comment below and share all that you know with the rest of us.

Next time…Keeping Up A Social Life, Online!

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