Do You Know Where Your Data Is?

I was volunteering at St. Anthony Foundation last weekend teaching a workshop on creating a free Web site. The tool I have been using was Weebly because it makes building a Web site extremely easy and it is completely free if you don’t mind their name in your URL and a line of text at to bottom of each page.

As I was introducing the tool to the class and explaining that it was free I found myself saying that it may not be around forever. Just a week ago I received an email alerting me that MyQuire, another online tool I’ve used, was purchased and will no longer be in operation after January 1, 2009.

Relying on online applications may not be a good idea for mission critical tasks. Here’s a good article that explains the issue.

Does this mean I’ll stop using online applications? Heck no! These tools are amazing and give access to those who previously couldn’t afford something comparable. I will just be more mindful of how the content I create should also be exported and saved locally in a format that can be used later, and that losing certain data won’t cripple my organization.