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OctopusNote - online mind map with notes database
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Posted by jaslar
May 4, 2016 at 08:40 PM
Kind of off-topic, but in my new job I’m tracking a lot of international privacy issues. An increasing number of companies refuse to do business with American cloud-based businesses. Why? Because the U.S.government can issue a subpoena under the PATRIOT Act, and slap a gag order on it. So not only would information be compromised, but the “owner” would never even know about it.
Posted by Dr Andus
May 4, 2016 at 11:31 PM
I can understand that some people and organisations may need to avoid online apps and cloud services for privacy and security reasons (though it’s increasingly difficult or even impossible?) or because they don’t have reliable internet access.
But at the same time there is a revolution taking place out there. There are huge advantages to living and working in a browser. You are no longer tied to a specific machine, or a specific location. It’s a lot easier to collaborate. And so on. And backing up your data online might be more secure in some situations than being locally exposed to theft and the elements (fire, flood, accidents etc.).
There are all kinds of benefits to adopting a thin client model such as the Chromebook way, for instance. Schools in the US have been converting to Chromebooks in a massive way, and the next wave is going to be Chromebooks for Work (Dell, HP and Acer have just launched or are about to launch Chromebooks for business use). Once these kids grow up, it’s unlikely they’ll be demanding a Windows PC or even a Mac, once they’ve experienced the speed of Chromebooks and the convenience of the cloud.
I suspect that we will be seeing more and more development in the online space, and possibly less in the traditional, locally installed software market.
Posted by MadaboutDana
May 5, 2016 at 09:56 AM
I totally agree, Dr. Andus, but doesn’t that just highlight the need to think hard about the international privacy issues raised by Jaslar?
I already use quite a lot of Cloud services: our business uses a Dropbox-a-like service called Soonr (file syncing, but with Cloud repository in Norway, although they’ve just been taken over by a US company).
Personally, I use Dropbox, OneCloud and iCloud (mainly for less confidential items). And they’re all amazingly convenient. Indeed, to get the most out of an Apple-based ecosystem, you more or less have to use such services to shunt stuff around between various Mac/iOS devices. But it’s precisely Apple’s ongoing fight with the Fed (and indeed with the Chinese authorities, who have started being difficult precisely because of the US-based fight, I suspect) that has spotlighted the importance of sorting out international privacy issues as soon as possible.
Interestingly, the current media interest in privacy has failed almost entirely to mention the other major group at risk from these proposed government backdoors etc.: the business community (especially SMEs, given that many enterprises will have their own encryption arrangements - at least in theory. In practice, they’re often as vulnerable as smaller companies).
And then there’s the entirely separate issue of smaller providers. Like OmniGroup, for example, whose Cloud service I use (occasionally) for OmniFocus and OmniOutliner. Not to mention Workflowy, Gingko etc. What guarantees do they offer (apart from all the liability waivers)? In these cases, privacy isn’t so much at threat from sinister government agencies as from incompetence (insecure systems), mortality (e.g. bankruptcy, business failure) or veniality (selling your details on to third parties). How do you prevent that? Unless you’re absolutely sure that your data is being (properly) encrypted at source?
It’s a Big Bad World out there. But interesting!
Posted by MadaboutDana
May 5, 2016 at 10:05 AM
The nice developer of OctopusNote informs me that after perfecting the Web app, he’s going to roll out separate apps for multiple platforms (including Mac, Windows, iOS, Android). Yippee!
He’s planning to use his own servers, because efficient real-time synchronisation is an issue with Dropbox/iCloud etc., but might be persuaded to include e.g. Dropbox or iCloud support if there’s demand for it.
No timeframe available as yet…
Posted by yosemite
May 5, 2016 at 03:39 PM
OctopusNote looks very interesting to me, especially if there will be a Windows desktop version.