Thing #6, Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

https://www.dropbox.com/ is a website that... (taken directly from the Web 2.0 Awards Top 100 Webware winners description of the site):

Dropbox is a file storage service that syncs up files between multiple machines. Once installed, you gain access to a virtual folder that will stay synced up and pass along any new additions, deletions, or changes. All the while, the service keeps snapshots of every version of a file that's been changed, which means you can go back and retrieve older iterations.

Dropbox also lets users create shared versions of these folders, so multiple users can contribute or make changes to a collection of group files and make sure everyone is using the most up-to-date versions.

Dropbox has both a Web and desktop component. The desktop software lets you forget worries about re-uploading while you make changes, and feels just like a native folder on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. And Dropbox's site lets you get at all your files, no matter where you are.

I can see this working on group projects where each person is assigned one area.
I can't see this as a teacher who might be doing work on his home computer and then have to retrieve files on his school work computer. What I was taught long ago was this can be accomplished in 2 ways.
1. E-mail the file to yourself. I use yahoo, so I open up yahoo mail and attach a file to an e-mail I have sent myself. You can then open up the e-mail at work and download the file to your desktop.
2. Store the file in one of the folders in your yahoo mail. Start a draft e-mail, attach the file, don't send it. You can open up yahoo mail at work, go to your "Work" folder where you attached the file to a draft e-mail and simply open up the folder and save the file to your computer at work.

I have always done it this way and I am sure I will always continue to do it this way because it works for me. I don't feel the need to have another account on another website to do what I can already do on yahoo mail or my google account (which has a DOCS page that stores files on your account).

I do see the potential for this website for large corporations who constantly update huge data files that need to be retrieved and updated by all employees. It is a great concept, but then again I am sure a large corporation has dedicated servers to handle this. Why go somewhere else to do something you can do "in-house" with the tools you already have?

Thanks for reading,
John P. Collins