The Steve Rubel Stream

first, BOO for this headline. boo. boo. bool. second, ask them "how do you feel about having access to all your data from any connected device anytime?" and i bet the answer is different

better yet, i bet half these people are using "cloud" services already. someone should tell them that gmail and hotmail are in the "cloud"

Sounds about right, Steve. One of the problems is that we're surrounded by the minority. While the vast majority of people you know may have no problems storing their email in the cloud, I'm guessing that a vast majority of people have no idea what the cloud is - so they can't/don't understand the questions posed in the survey.

I think your observations are accurate. I know that my parents would instantly respond that they're uncomfortable with their data being in the cloud, but at the same time they're using web-based email services.

Yeah, I bet if you asked people if they preferred what they have now versus having their email hosted in the cloud, they'd select what they have now.

Have to agree with @baratunde. This question is very flawed and sets up the person being surveyed to fear the proposal.

I agree that the question is flawed but I'm not sure having email in a cloud is the same as what people fear about having in the cloud -- i.e. financial information, personal information, collections, etc. The recent T-Mobile fiasco certainly won't help with raising that comfort level either. Telling someone to store their digital family photo collection in the cloud and having it disappear because of a 3rd party tech problem is a scary prospect for a lot of people.

Like with anything new people are always worried about security. When ecommerce became big, people were worried about performing tracsactions online. Like you say most people already have cloud computing email with Yahoo or Hotmail. Security will tighten up and more people will be converted.