So here’s an updated diagram showing the links between the Real World and cldwrld. There are three – the electricity that goes to power cldwrld, the identity that we have in the Real World carried over to cldwrld and the money that flows between the Real World and cldwrld.

Real World / cldwrld links

When log onto a social network (like Facebook or Buzz) or another application (like Flickr) that asks us to become a Digital Inhabitant we are effectively establishing a residence on a place I call cldwrld (cloudworld), in a particular digital country-in-the-making. Once there we can interact with other Digital Inhabitants in that country. But not, at the moment, other countries, which is interesting.

It’s Cloud-based, meaning, essentially, that those applications and associated data are not stored on my computer but somewhere else on computers connected to the Internet and I don’t know exactly where (but see the details section for a more detailed explanation of how I understand it.)

For more details see the rest of the blog …

p.s. A conference took place at UC Berkeley yesterday, put on by the UC Berkeley Schools of Information and Law. It was called Emerging Law & Policy Issues In Cloud Computing and here’s the link.