Cloudy With A Chance Of Compassion

I'm still waiting to see what comes of the "cloud computing" idea. It's certainly the direction that most server operations are going in, but I'm not convinced the abstraction hides all of the details.

Anyways, CloudCamp is one of the more popular un-conferences on the subject, and one of my Twitter follows posted a link to CloudCamp 2010. This is a virtual conference, occuring online via GoToMeeting, with proceeds going to the Red Cross and its efforts in assisting Haitians recover from the earthquake.

When I first read "CloudCamp Haiti" I thought it was a sick joke, but after reading their page I think it's a really novel set of ideas. Cloud Computing espouses that it doesn't matter how/where the software runs as long as the service meets certain limits. That this conference shouldn't really matter where you are so long as you have a browser and a decent series of tubes is kind of amazing. I'm also imagining all sorts of cost savings: no hotel bookings, no plane tickets or jet fuel, no rented cars and gasoline.

The only topic on the agenda right now is "How Cloud Computing Can Help in a Crisis." I'm not sure how much it can help compared to the USNS Comfort, but perhaps the ideas of decentralization can help mitigate the effects of events that often cause large infrastructure failures.

No matter how it is expressed, compassion for suffering people is top-notch in my book and I'm proud of seeing the creative ways aid is being mustered.