KiteDesk Creates Integrated 'Streams' of Your Cloud Services, Including FullContact

So many clouds, so little time. A new, free personal cloud application from Kitedesk is hoping to help users integrate what it calls “cloud-flipping” between various repositories of online information.

The application, also called KiteDesk and released in public beta by a company of the same name, allows users to view messages, contacts, calendar events and documents from social media services such as Facebook and Twitter — as well as from cloud services Google Apps and Dropbox — as customized news feeds.

Integrating All Your Data Feeds

KiteDeskers can also drill down to events or other details, such as Facebook posts from a specific client, and then create new, customized streams for that particular thread of information. The beta is intended for viewing on laptops and desktops, and a mobile device-optimized version is expected to be released soon.

The app helps deal with what KiteDesk describes as a lack of integration between data feeds, disconnected user experiences and frequent context switches.

Jack Kennedy, founder and CEO of Kitedesk, said in statement that cloud-based services and public APIs are a “huge opportunity” to provide personalized access to cloud-centered information. “When I look at my calendar, I want to see more than my next event,” he said. Kennedy also wants to see emails that were sent to and from event attendees, shared files connected to the event, and more — without having to open different apps and conduct a variety of searches.

Filtered Streams Keep Information Organized

The Tampa, Florida-based company gives the use case of a freelance writer who might have both personal and a business email accounts at Gmail, uses Google Drive for submitting expense reports and has Dropbox for transferring story photos. Additionally, the writer maintains Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote her writing practice, as well as personal accounts at each of those social networking sites. KiteDesk enables the writer to extract the information from each account into project-, person- or time-related streams.

In order to facilitate person-related information, KiteDesk has integrated with FullContact, a provider of contact consolidation and management APIs. Because KiteDesk automatically links contacts’ email addresses with their social profiles, a user can click the “from” link in an email and see a stream of messages, social media postings, files and other documents or communications from that individual. Custom streams can also be created through rules and tags that filter content according to a given project or other condition.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

EU Issues Cloud Strategy, Aims to Add 2.5 Million New Jobs

The European Commission (EC) has its collective heads in the clouds — and sees millions of new jobs there — thanks to a new strategy designed to help increase the adoption of cloud computing across the continent.

The strategy,  "Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe" aims to create 2.5 million new jobs for the European Union (EU) member nations — through greater adoption of cloud computing technologies. The agency says that the increase could lead to an annual boost of EUR 10 billion, or about 1 percent of the EU GDP, by 2020.

Cloud Partnership

In order to reach that promised land in the sky, the strategy recommends several actions. These include the identification of technical standards that help cut through the current mishmash related to interoperability, data portability and reversibility.

It also calls for EU-wide certification for “trustworthy” cloud providers, development of model “safe and fair” cloud computing contracts with Service Level Agreements and the creation of what it calls a European Cloud Partnership.

The Cloud Partnership would be between EU member countries and leading companies in the industry, and it would use the public sector’s buying power to boost the European cloud market. The strategy notes that 20 percent of all IT spending in the EU runs through the public sector, and recommends that focusing this market power could “boost the chances for European cloud providers to grow to achieve a competitive scale, and deliver cheaper and better eGovernment.”

Cyber Security Next

In a statement accompanying the strategy, EU Vice President Neelie Kroes described cloud computing  as “a game changer for our economy.” Without a concerted action by the EU, she said, “we will stay stuck in national fortresses and miss out on billions in economic gains.”

The cloud strategy is part of a series of efforts by the EU to stimulate the digital economy and create a digital single market for member nations. In January, the EU proposed a comprehensive reform of the 1995 data protection rules, in order to strengthen online privacy rights and decrease the administrative costs of different privacy implementations among the 27 member states.

In the next few months, the EU is expected to propose a European Strategy for Cyber Security. In 2010, the U.S. federal government, in a move to promote cloud computing in the government, issued a “cloud-first” policy that directed its agencies to use cloud-based solutions whenever feasible.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com