Dropbox: Convenient Sharing

If you haven't checked out Dropbox you should really take a look. Watch the Common Craft video on their home page which explains how Dropbox is a "magic pocket". It allows you to share documents seamlessly between all of your computers (Mac or PC) and mobile devices (Blackberry, iPhone, iPad or Android). You can also share any file within your Dropbox with anyone providing them with a simple URL rather than e-mailing attachments around.

How does it work? Setup an account (free for 2GB of storage, $10/month for 50GB & $20/month for 100GB) and then install Dropbox onto all of your devices (in my case, this was: home desktop, work desktop, laptop, iPhone & iPad). Obviously, to grab the iPhone/iPad apps just visit the App Store.

What do I use it for?

Here are a couple of the scenarios where Dropbox saved me a lot of time and effort recently:

• Getting photos from my iPhone directly onto my iPad and desktop/laptop - open Dropbox on the iPhone, upload the photos, they instantly appear ready for use on the iPad and all the other devices
• Saving my itinerary for upcoming trips - I save the PDFs into my Dropbox and then when I'm at the airport I can pull them up instantly on my iPhone
• Work in progress: for brainstorming on Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, etc. I used to use Google Docs for this, but I find uploading/downloading/synchronizing documents with Google docs to be inefficient - Dropbox is a much better tool for this
• Saving some quick notes - there are other apps that do this (Evernote, Simplenote, etc.) but I find that for quickly writing down a couple of to do items, etc. creating a simple text document works great (for example, due to my addiction to purchasing iPhone/iPad apps I have a perpetual note there to remind me what a good app comes out that I'd like to purchase when I have time).

What don't I use it for?

I'm skeptical of the overall security of the platform. Like many free-spirited, cloud-based applications I am not comfortable putting sensitive data in Dropbox. Therefore, it's safe to say financials, strategic plans, sensitive personnel documents, etc. will never make their way in there. I also don't feel that the platform is suitable (or designed) for business use. It's great for use by individuals within companies, however, the growing concern of course is the osmosis of sensitive information into the cloud without corporate approval. In fact, it's probably the kind of application I'd be likely to block as the owner of a business - but until my IT guys figure it out, I'll have some fun with it!