Having my own place in cyberspace

By John Pavlik Special to CNN Interactive April 25, 2000 Web posted at: 1:15 p.m. EDT (1715 GMT) This news analysis was written for CNN Interactive.

In this story: Some component how-to's Papers, papers electronically everywhere Some digital domain dangers RELATED STORIES, SITES

(CNN) -- I call it a "digital personal information space." It is my own place in cyberspace.

It is a set of password-protected areas online where I save my files, send and receive faxes and e-mail, and post my address book and calendar.

I think it is great, mostly. Let me show you around, and you can see what you think.

When my students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism want to meet with me, they look up my schedule posted at Visto.com/guests.

After entering a password, they look at my guest calendar to see when I am free and e-mail me directly from the site to book an appointment. This reduces time spent "playing tag" by voice mail and e-mail that is frequently associated with making an appointment.

I can access my Visto.com account with a Web browser from anywhere in the world. If I am in the United States, I can also call a toll-free number and have my calendar entries read to me via speech synthesis.

I can synchronize my calendar and update my address book with my Visto account, Palm Pilot and desktop computer. I put my Palm into its desktop cradle that's connected to my computer and touch the "synchronize" button. Then I log onto my Visto account, click on the "import/synch" button and update my calendar in both places, all at once. (You can do this with other hand-held devices, such as the Visor; there are other Web services similar to Visto, including via Netscape.com.)

All this creates a digital personal information space that lets me access my calendar, address book and e-mail instantly, anywhere in the world.

It is possible my students would prefer to talk to my human office assistant, and there might be advantages to this, such as attaching priorities to appointments.

The only problem is, I do not have a human assistant. My staff budget ($0) does not quite have room for one, so having a digital alternative is a win for my students and me both.

I am a mobile (sometimes seemingly nomadic) person, constantly traveling from coast-to-coast and abroad. But accessing my documents on the road is no longer a problem. In fact, it has never been easier.

When I create a document, whether text or multimedia, I not only save it on the hard drive of my PC and a floppy or Jaz disk, but also I back it up on my password-protected, free online hard drive at driveway.com, DocSpace.com or freedrive.com.

These sites provide me with many megabits of free storage. I can keep files on them of any size (as long as they do not exceed the entire online hard drive). Then I can access those files from anywhere by using a browser.

I can also create "public" folders in which I can put files I would like to share. Other people can log on and access files such as photos and papers.

So when I travel I do not have to bring every document or disk I might conceivably need. I can just find a PC with Web access to get to my stored stuff. Moreover, should my PC crash, or should I misplace a floppy or Jaz disk, or if the building's network crashes or my office catches fire, I still have the files backed up somewhere.

(It has been my experience that you can never have too many backup copies. I have never told this publicly, but I accidentally deleted my doctoral dissertation three days before it was due and I spent the whole weekend retyping it. This was during the Stone Age when neither the Web nor DocSpace.com existed, tragically for my fingers.)

Receiving faxes online means I do not have to wade through the dozens that pile up in the mailroom on the journalism school's shared fax machine.

When someone wants to send me a fax, I give him or her my number at www.efax.com, which automatically sends the document as an attachment to my Yahoo e-mail account. I can print the efax or keep it in digital format, accessible globally via the Web. (Similar services include www.fax4free.com.)

I can also send faxes via the Internet to just about anywhere via TPC Fax at www.tpc.int/sendfax.html. Same advantages: no wading, little waiting.

E-mail is another vital part of my digital personal information space. One basic element of this is using a Web-based e-mail account. Whether through Yahoo, Hotmail or many others, this kind of e-mail is free and globally accessible. All you need is a device that can get you online with a Web browser.

I even check and send e-mail via my new Sprint PCS phone. This came in handy the other day when I found myself in a long, slightly boring meeting. I made use of the fact I was sitting in the back of the room, and discreetly flipped open my phone, launched the mini-Web browser, got the news, and sent and received several e-mails (one to a colleague across the room who was doing the same thing).

What are the downsides to all this globally synchronized accessibility?

One problem personally is that now I am always able to be at work, whether I am 10,000 miles from my Columbia office or 10,000 meters above terra firma. I did finish editing my new book on a flight back from Japan last month. But sometimes I would like to gaze mindlessly out the window of an airplane and not feel guilty.

It is a common phenomenon, being hyper-connected. I saw a group of about 50 M.B.A. students, identifiable by red business school conference tote-bags, crossing the campus "College Walk" the other day -- and just about every one of them was busy talking into a cell phone. Sometimes you just have to disconnect, if simply to relax, regroup and reenergize your creativity.

Perhaps the biggest practical problems with building a digital personal information space are security and privacy.

All these businesses are not giving me free faxing, online hard drives and digital guest calendars just to make my life easier. They are building a business out of e-commerce -- and they are delivering targeted advertisements and tracking my online activity each time I log on.

The sites I have chosen to use all have privacy policies I was comfortable with, but I am not endorsing them for anyone else. You would be wise to review privacy policies closely before registering at any site.

Security is another concern when you begin building an online personal information space.

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Once your details are out there in cyberspace, even protected by a password, clever computer hackers may be able to unlock your file and look at -- even steal -- your personal information. They conceivably could see where I am, when and with whom, and they could read what I am working on.

But right now, I am generally happy in my global personal information space. Are the rewards worth the risks to you?

Dr. John V. Pavlik is executive director of the Center for New Media at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where he is also a professor. He writes frequently on new media technology, journalism and health communication. His latest book, "Journalism and New Media," is forthcoming in 2000 from Columbia University Press. Pavlik is married with two children; the family lives in New York.

CNN Interactive: Technology

Visto.com
Netscape.com
efax.com
Fax4Free.com
TPC.INT
Driveway
Critical Path Secure File Services (DocSpace)
FreeDrive
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

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