I’m going to repeat the definitions of Cloud-based apps and Cloud-stored data just one more time because I only just reconfigured them. After this I’ll refer you to the Cloud-based means? page):

Cloud-based applications and Cloud-stored data (as I use them) are applications and data I use that are not on my network-connected device but somewhere (I may or may not know exactly where) on other computing and storage devices connected to the network (in “the Cloud”) which I connect to over the network.

with which you may not agree, as I’ve said before, which would be fine with me because “Cloud-based” means different things to different people and like that. But maybe something useful could come out of this post anyway even if you don’t like the definition.

I’ve said this about digital belongings:

Now digital belongings are things I own made of bits. In the world of Cloud-based apps my digital belongings include my tweets and Facebook status updates and avatars and everything else I can create with them.

The whole notion of what a Personal Cloud is feels kind of slippery to me at the moment. It seems sensible to say that the personal information Cloud is Cloud-stored data that is about me. This could be medical records, my address, my bank information and so on.

But there are several different versions of “Personal Cloud” floating out around there. Since they are floating I am not going to go try and work them all out except to say that they include various permutations of personal information, digital content and private and public clouds. When I Google “What is the personal cloud?” all that kind of stuff comes up so I’m going to leave it all alone and just create something I can live with. (As an aside I so like this article in the MIT Technology Review called Computer in the Cloud that I am putting a link to it here. It’s dated 9/18/07).

So … from my definition of Cloud-based apps and Cloud-stored data, my Personal Cloud comprises Cloud-based apps and the Cloud-stored data that I own. Then my Personal Cloud  = my Cloud-stored digital belongings (where digital belongings are things I own made of bits; application programs, google docs, tweets, Facebook status updates etc.).

This is nice and simple. Whenever I don’t own the Cloud-based apps (typically when the “network” is the Internet) my “digital belongings” become, simply, “digital content.” Content I made (Google docs, tweets, photos) or I bought pre-made (virtual goods).

When I own my apps I can activate my Personal Cloud. When I don’t I can access it.

When the network is not the Internet, when it is a private network – even one I could run in my house – I can think of a Private Personal Cloud (based on my definitions of Cloud-based apps and Cloud-stored data) and then my Cloud-stored digital belongings could very conceivably include the applications. An example of this is, I think, Tonido, which has been around since at least April of 2009.

So that’s my go at it.

updated 3/23/10 – corrected typos