How Dropbox is Revolutionizing the Way we Share Information

I was at a seminar several months ago when the speaker opened up the laptop and wanted to pull up his presentation except he could not find it there. It was a talk outlining FBI agent requirements entitled how do you become an FBI agent. He wanted to outline the reviews on AIU online. He looked on the desktop and in his document folder; he still could not find it anywhere. He was starting to look like a deer in the headlights. So he immediately called for help and had one of his assistants go back to his room and get the backup drive with the speech on it. It took about 15 min. and he was obviously very embarrassed.

I often give talks and was determined to never let this happen to me. I start to look around to see what tools were available, such that I could always permanently and securely save all my files. More importantly I wanted my files to be accessible no matter where I was. That is when I discovered Dropbox. Dropbox is an online tool that allows you to synchronize the folders on your laptop with the Dropbox website.

So let me explain to you how this works. You go and sign up for a free Dropbox account. Then you download the Dropbox application in your computer. Once you have installed the Dropbox application you designate a folder as the Dropbox folder. Now you can save all your files that you want to stay with you at all times into that folder. The files that you saved in this Dropbox folder are automatically synchronized with the Dropbox.com website. This means that no matter where you are as long as you have Internet access, you can log into the website and retrieve your files. This is just the beginning. You can synchronize the same files on your iPhone, on your android device as well as any tablet you might have. It is irrespective of what operating system you are using, be it Mac, Windows or Linux - Dropbox has an appropriate application for that operating system. You can link all these devices to the same Dropbox ID and the application will automatically synchronize all your files and folders. So no matter where you were, no matter which device you had, you would have access to your files and folders.

As I said this is just the beginning. Not only can you synchronize all your devices. You can share folders with your friends and family as well as your colleagues with whom you might be working on a common project. Since this is an extremely secure application, you can share confidential documents without being worried about it falling in the wrong hands. This application has become so popular that it has become the de facto standard for files and folders in industry as well as academia.

Oh, did I mention that this was a free service?