I have always kept a database for my files, something my father taught me long ago. We number the files, name the files and write a line or two describing what is in each numbered file. That way our paper files have always been searchable. Those file descriptions are the first exercise in tagging I ever had. And this has been a completely reliable way to manage our stuff for the past 30 years or so. Except that… I can’t find my stuff. I’m missing Very Important Papers, ones I stored in a special place, the location of which has sifted through my holey brain. Fixable, but frustrating. How did my system fail me? How did I fail my system? What else is lost? And of course I pawed and gnawed my way through the wall of paper files trying to find those documents, and failing, wasting hours. I deeply envy Gordon Bell, whose entirely digitized and search-indexed life would never allow him to lose either his deeds or his wits, both of which I lost the other night. I began to envy people just starting out who don’t have such enormous paper trails for their lives. I remember when I took on the job of reconciling my father’s files, turning his own wall of collected paper into two small boxes of documents that described the scope of this wonderful man’s life and interests. Is it enough to educate his grandchildren? Is it too much to carry and pass along? Am I keeping the right information? For whom? For how long?  And since my life has become digital, I ask myself constantly — what is worth keeping, and finding? And how? Over the past year or two, People Design has adopted online applications for timekeeping, mail, calendars, project management, client communications, lead management, and more, all of which I can access from my work computer, my PDA, my laptop, or the home computer that now sits in my livingroom. Also I can call these apps up from the public library in Stonington, Maine, and an internet cafe in Galway, and from my daughter’s computer at her house, and from the reading room at my dad’s nursing home, and from your computer, too. Do any of us really need computers of our own anymore? Spending half of last year working on this project, really had me pining to ready myself for my digital life. My life with all of my most important data stored in the cloud and accessible from everywhere, and by the people I have loved, always. Which has me opening an account at box.net, firing up my scanner, reconciling my google docs, and finding all sorts of cool ways to synchronize the important bits and bytes. The first documents to save are the oldest, family photos and files going as far back as we have them, which isn’t that far, in the scheme of things. I have no idea if what I am saving will have value for my family in the future, but I do know it won’t be quite as hard to search through, man-handle, or pass along.
I’m no where near this guy in figuring it out, but on my way. Are you learning to live in the clouds? If you’ve got good hints or tips, we wish you’d share…