If you find yourself working at home, in your office, and then on the road and you don't use the same computer every time, Dropbox.com is for you. Dropbox is free and cross-platform. Not to mention it's simple to set-up and use. There are a few things I should clarify. First, the free account is 2 gigs of storage and you can earn up to 4 gigs by inviting friends. You can also buy more storage for a monthly fee. Second, Dropbox works with the assumption you have an Internet connection. If you are not connected, no syncing will happen until you have access to the Internet.
The set-up is easy. You basically need to download the Dropbox application and install it on your computer. Dropbox is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and even iPhone. When you install the application, you'll select a location for the Dropbox folder. The default location is on your desktop. I decided to put my Dropbox folder in my Documents folder so it will be backed up automatically when I do my regular backups. I know, that's overkill, but it just makes me feel better. So I've installed Dropbox on my laptop and on my office iMac. What this means is if I put something in my Dropbox folder on my iMac, it is synced with my laptop. Additionally, the file is available to me at the Dropbox.com website.
So here is how I use Dropbox. Obviously, 2-4 gigs isn't enough to store all my info. However, the I don't need to store all my information in Dropbox. I store files that I'm working on in Dropbox. I keep the files for the courses I'm teaching, committee information, and the websites I'm working on in Dropbox. For the past year, this has worked out really well for me. I can walk into a classroom, jump on the Dropbox website and login. From there I have all the files I might need for that class.
There are a couple of things to think about though. Security should always be a concern when you are storing your information and someone else is responsible for the maintenance and security of your data. I would strongly suggest that you be very careful and thoughtful about storing important or sensitive data on any online service.
The other thing that I want to address is a result of confusion experienced by some of my students. My students saw the utility of Dropbox, but were confused about using the web interface. When you are on your computer with the Dropbox folder, you simply open a file, work on it, and then save it. Dropbox does the work and syncs it with your other computers. When you use the web interface, you have to download the file, open it, work on it, save it, and then upload it into the web version of Dropbox. Some folks didn't really understand this and ended up making changes but not uploading the file again then not having the change when they got back to their personal computer.
Overall, I love using Dropbox. It's a real time saver. I seldom ever take my laptop to my office now, I just know that Dropbox has me covered.
