I’ve always wanted to be a meteorologist.

The forecast? Cloudy. Well, the technological forecast, anyway. The next big Internet innovation is cloud computing.

In this case, the “cloud” represents the intricacies of all of the interconnected computers on the Internet. Cloud computing is a way to store your data on the Internet and make it accessible anywhere, through any computer.

The simplest example of cloud computing is e-mail, which I believe I can safely assume we’re all familiar with. All of your data is stored online on servers, or the “cloud,” rather than your hard drive. Other Web-based services such as YouTube and Flickr use cloud computing.

There are numerous benefits to cloud computing. Due to the increasing bandwidth available online, cloud computing allows more complex programs and software to be accessed online, similar to how Google Docs operates. Also, because all data is stored in the “cloud,” you can not only use software, but also access your documents and photos that were on your desktop online. This higher degree of availability of software allows cross-platform use across Macs, Windows and Linux. It also increases the mobility of information, since you can access your software and data through any Web browser, essentially eliminating the need for ownership of multiple programs or a personal computer.

Cloud computing is important on a large scale because the Internet has created a global platform. However, only 16.5 percent of the global population has a computer, and just 23.8 percent have Internet access. Developing countries can take advantage of this technology because it removes the reliance on owning a personal computer. The process of renting applications with borrowed or cheaper computers makes computing easy and affordable. Similar to the cost benefits of renting a car, cloud computing makes computing power a pay-as-you-go enterprise and makes it available to the masses.

One particular application that stands out is Nivio, a company based in Geneva that was founded by 25-year-old Sachin Duggal. It is an online desktop program that uses cloud computing technology, allowing access to the Windows XP interface and all of your data through any computer connected to the Internet.

I believe in cloud computing and Nivio because the target audience is not people living in developed nations, but rather the developing nations. This will make computing more affordable in the future.

On a continent such as Africa, which only accounts for 3.4 percent of the online global population, a technology like Nivio could be a step toward increasing education levels and infrastructure by connecting it to the rest of the world – something that is desperately needed.

The World Economic Forum has recently awarded Nivio and Duggal the Technology Pioneer Award for 2009, an honor given to visionary companies that will have a world-changing impact on society and businesses. Nivio is in good company with past recipients of the prize: Google in 2002 and the Mozilla Corporation in 2007.

Benefits aside, there are obvious risks and stigmas involved with storing sensitive data through a third party. Especially in America, where there is a strong emphasis on privacy, ownership and personalization, cloud computing services will have to emphasize the benefits to overcome initial reluctance.

In the long run – when we trust the cloud – the personal computer will become less relevant and cheaper, which is beneficial to everyone.

On its Web site, Nivio states, “It is only a matter of time before the PC is just a browser (as) browsers are … incorporated into more consumer devices every day from TVs to game consoles.”

However, cloud computing is still in its early stages. For now, it seems that a mix of cloud and non-cloud or hard-drive computing will be the best route. We’ll see how my weather report fares.

In the spirit of the World Wide Web’s 20th birthday last Friday, I’d like to celebrate my favorite thing on the Web right now: Twitter.

On the surface, it is deceptively simple. It’s a social network and a micro-blogging tool in which you exchange 140-character updates with your “followers.” These blurbs are publicly visible by default, but can be restricted to just your friends.

Critics deride Twitter as a fad and label users as bandwagon followers, but what they fail to note is the value in its real-time search feature and extensive uses. When my Internet was deathly slow, I went on Twitter and found that Time Warner’s Los Angeles servers were down due to hacker attacks. Not even Google can match those instantaneous results yet.

The more obvious comparison is with Facebook’s status updates. With Facebook’s new design and concept curiously similar to Twitter, why should you bother with Twitter?

Despite Facebook’s new emphasis on conversation, it is still essentially a closed network, while Twitter is the opposite. What you share on Facebook is restricted only to your friends, while Twitter updates are displayed on a live public time line.

Twitter’s search feature makes use of this real-time information and enables a two-way exchange creating shared experiences of big events, such as President Barack Obama’s inauguration. It’s like a big couch for the world to watch TV on.

If the Internet is the “Global Village,” then Twitter is its coffee shop. It is an open forum that encourages the exchange of news and ideas, functioning as another channel of communication.

“On Twitter, it’s strictly about the content you put out. The emphasis is more on content and subject matter,” said Patricia Wayne, a second-year comparative literature student. “It’s about conversation now. Fast conversation.”

Twitter ensures the availability of fact and opinion. It’s another tool to broaden your network, your perspective and your ideas. It’s with these that you are able to inspire and spread your knowledge. And because Twitter is still evolving, it caters to a wide range of interests.

If you’re a celebrity fanatic, you’ll find celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon, Snoop Dogg, and Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore active on Twitter. If celebrities are willing to divulge their thoughts, daily foibles, complete with pictures, paparazzi are basically rendered obsolete.

Two guys met Shaquille O’Neal through his Twitter. After receiving a Tweet from Shaq saying he was at a diner in Phoenix, the guys, skeptical, drove to the restaurant.

Sensing kindred spirits around, Shaq sent out a Tweet inviting anyone else in the diner to say hi. The guys did. Following the meet-up, Shaq Tweeted, “To all twitterers, … we r from twitteronia, we connect.” Thanks to Twitter, fans and a famous athlete were able to connect in the real world.

If you’re a politico, there are many members of Congress who are Twittering. Their Tweets provide a candid look at our elected representatives, allowing an unprecedented level of exchange between politicians and their constituents.

“The best part is being able to directly talk to Missourians about my day without reporters editing!” Sen. Claire McCaskill said in a Tweet.

If you’re a news junkie, you probably enjoy the constant flow of information and can appreciate the speed at which it’s delivered. David Schlesinger, the editor-in-chief of Reuters, recognizes the potential of Twitter.

In a Silicon Alley Insider post, Schlesinger wrote, “I’m using Twitter to live Tweet things that interest me and to give a more personal take on what’s going on. I think it’s important to try it. … I took great pleasure in beating the wire!”

If you’re an L.A. local, you may want to follow Kogi BBQ, a Korean barbecue taco truck that constantly Tweets its location and attracts block-long lines of customers. Earlier this week when Lebron James was on campus working out at the Wooden Center, someone spotted him and sent out a Tweet.

In the same way that coffee shops serve as a center of social interaction, Twitter is doing the same – it provides users a place to talk, read, entertain or muse to pass the time.

This column was also featured in UWire.

The information highway just got a little more crowded. There are now more than 1 billion people on the Internet, according to comScore, an Internet research firm. The Internet’s democratization of information has made a seemingly infinite amount of knowledge easily accessible. However, this also has its pitfalls.

Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet, wrote, “The notion that the world’s knowledge is literally at your fingertips is very compelling and is very beguiling.”

The question remains: Is the Internet making us stupid?

In an article in The Atlantic, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet has negatively altered our way of understanding information because of the lack of “deep thinking” that comes from “deep reading.” In effect, our attention span has hit entropy, spiraling down into uncertainty.

Carr faults the Internet for feeding our inclination to skim. But this skimming is not detrimental; it has allowed us to gather main points – and thus read – more quickly. Attention span isn’t solely based on how long you can tolerate reading nuanced articles on esoteric subjects. With all the information that’s available, trying to absorb all of it is a rather futile notion. The more important task is to become filters of essential and relevant information.

Martin Greenberger is the IBM chair in computers and information systems at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, a senior fellow at the Milken Institute and president of the Council for Technology and the Individual. Greenberger said, “The use of the Internet can serve to supplement and enhance literary reading rather than supplanting it. TV is what numbs the mind, not Google or the Internet. They are interactive and stimulative. They should encourage deeper reading, not discourage it.”

Growing up as an only child, I plowed through crosswords and word searches – maybe this is what cultivated my ease and finesse with the Internet and Google. However, I cannot wholly deny my deficit in attention span, though I’d rather call it my relentless curiosity. Some people use the Internet for purely frivolous things, but it has helped others to thrive. New skills are evolving. The Internet facilitates finding connections and understanding surrounding context, which requires a more active kind of attention.

It’s not just what you know that makes you intelligent but rather the ability to pull all of those pieces together and see the relationship. Albert Einstein didn’t invent the individual parts to E=mc2. The parts already existed; Einstein just saw them in a particular light, understood the parts and made a connection.

Using the Internet is like solving a crossword puzzle. It is an analytical activity that requires you to define the parameters of your search, choose which results best answer your query then judge the validity of the information by seeking more sources or more information. This active pursuit of information engages important cognitive circuits in the brain, based on a study by the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute and director of UCLA’s Memory and Aging Research Center, concluded, “Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”

When you look up a location via GPS or look up a word online, the context is lost. However, Web sites like Wikipedia have hyperlinks – trails of related information that preserve the lost context in a new form. When browsing an article online, hyperlinks are sprinkled across the page, linking to other related articles and pages.

Sharon Traweek, an associate professor in the UCLA department of history, elaborated. “Different Internet search engines lead us into many new kinds of links between ideas and people,” Traweek said. “Searching at YRL shows us what the Dewey Decimal System juxtaposes. Trolling the sale bins at a bookstore or scanning course reading lists can reveal other patterns. Exploring various classification systems is useful for thinking.”

Wherever you begin, hyperlinks allow exploration to more information, building on your knowledge base.

In this way, there are endless opportunities to learn in a Web 2.0 generation. Small also notes, “Brains are developing circuitry for online social networking and are adapting to a new multitasking technology culture.” The premium put on engagement and participation allows a new way of contributing and learning. The more minds that are exposed to new and great works, the more inspiration and ideas are bred and discovered.

Just ask yourself: How many Wikipedia pages have you read for fun, and how many different newspapers from across the world are you reading? This diversity and wealth of information and opinion has made us more knowledgeable and about a variety of things – successfully turning us into “cultural omnivores,” a term used by Tak Wing Chan and John Goldthorpe, two researchers from Oxford University.

The Internet has become an extension of ourselves. While every individual may not be getting smarter, collectively, we are.

A billion down, 5 billion to go.

This column was also featured in UWire.

Don’t be evil – as the Google mantra goes. Or at least, be a little evil for the greater good.

Immediately after Google’s introduction of their new project, Google Flu Trends, the Cassandra cries roared from privacy groups. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, yet cursed so that no one would believe her predictions. This is no Cassandra, though; and there is certainly no privacy infringement disaster on the horizon.

Google Flu Trends takes aggregated search queries such as “flu-like symptoms” and graphs them on a map showing areas where those queries are high, hopefully giving early warning of possible outbreaks. While Google Flu Trends isn’t able to give us specific information like the number of outbreaks or which strain is circulating, it is unmatched in its speed and accuracy. The information is current and updated on a daily basis; whereas the US Centers for Disease Control can take up to two weeks to collate official information. Google compared its collected statistics against five years of figures from the CDC, which has a network of 1,500 doctors across the nation who provide weekly reports on the statistics of patients complaining of flu-like symptoms.

The project’s positives far outweigh the petty privacy concerns. However, shortly after the release of Google Flu Trends a week ago, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, as well as other privacy groups, issued statements of concern for individuals’ privacy.

In analyzing the general public’s reaction to Google Flu Trends, two distinct groups emerge: one that feels that this will only create more hysteria and fear, and one that embraces the information and views it as an opportunity to prevent the spread of an infectious disease. The former promotes individual privacy above information for the community and ignorance above information. Any tool can be misused, but that doesn’t mean we should excuse it completely.

Maybe EPIC isn’t the Cassandra in this story, but Google is. To predict looming catastrophes for preventative measures is not to create fear and set the disaster in motion. Alan Atkisson, in his book “Believing Cassandra,” writes, “too often we watch helplessly, as Cassandra did, while the soldiers emerge from the Trojan horse just as foreseen and wreak their predicted havoc. Worse, Cassandra’s dilemma has seemed to grow more inescapable even as the chorus of Cassandras has grown larger.” The chorus of privacy groups is beyond the pale. Collective intelligence may be impalpable now, but Google’s collaboration with health and the Internet is progress, evil or not.

It was these same privacy advocacy groups that prompted Google to link its privacy policy on its homepage this past July where Google clearly outlines how it “anonymizes” and collects the aggregated data. Google makes logs anonymous by changing bits in a stored IP address while keeping the cookie. This process makes it less likely that the IP address can be linked back to the cookie. Because it relies on these methods of “anonymizing” and aggregated data, information cannot be used to identify individual users. In fact, individual data would be useless because data like this are only meaningful across large populations of Google search users. But this collection of aggregated search queries is nothing new. Google Trends is another feature of Google that collects top search queries daily and ranks them. If you were to look at the popular search queries on Nov. 4, you will find terms such as “McCain’s concession speech” or “Did Prop 8 pass?”

There is always an unwritten exchange when we make the decision to use Google. Of course they collect our data – this process is one of the founding pillars of Google. Earlier this month, the company took further steps to protect user privacy by shortening its previous 18-month IP address retention policy to nine months, while still retaining utility of the data and being mindful of user privacy.

However, if you are still concerned about privacy and worry that your search queries will brand you with a scarlet “F” – there are alternatives. Use a public computer. On a public computer, your IP address and cookie are irrelevant. If you would like to search at home, there is a Firefox extension called NoScript that will block Google Analytics from collecting your data. However, at home when you generally do not have control over your IP, deleting cookies routinely will break the link between your information and your IP address.

This alarmist reaction to Google Flu Trends, which aims at informing the public and more effectively using our resources, seems paltry compared to the bevy of civil liberties that have been violated in the name of fighting terrorism. I’d much rather EPIC investigate the Patriot Act than Google.

This column was also featured in UWire and UC Davis’ The Aggie (PDF).