You know I think the cloud is great. I've been preaching the advantages of everyone having their own outpost on the web forever. The dream goes back, for me, to the early 80s. I wanted Compuserve to host my apps. They said I was crazy.  

So I started a BBS on an Apple II running in my living room. Wrote the software myself.  

Ten years later I had a server on the Internet, fumbling my way around, trying to recreate the virtual world we had on Compuserve.  

Now I'm creating shrinkwrap software for Amazon and Rackspace's clouds. I love the idea of people running their own servers. And we're going to get some of them to do it, for sure. But there are ominous storm clouds looming over the horizon, and in those clouds are the seeds of the next revolution. Which is coming into focus... 

Tech is just a loop. First we organize, then we disrupt, then it gets organized again, then that gets disrupted. 

The benefits of all of us pooling our resources are great. But BigCo's form and make money from controlling the use of the pooled resources. Pretty soon they start upgrading your computer when they feel like it. Pretty soon you can't take data off the network. Pretty soon they control what gets said. Then someone invents a personal computer, one that you, the user, controls. The freedom is wonderful! I know because the PC was born when I was coming of age.  

That's what comes after the cloud.