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"The cloud has long been thought of as that bit of magical server space that is normally reserved for businesses and tech-savvy early adopters. In reality, the cloud can also offer busy families a variety of helpful and time-saving resources that are easy to employ and quick to update. \nFor example, it\u2019s a great way to store, share, and collaborate. If you're new to the concept of a cloud-connected home and wondering how to make it work for your family, here are seven tips for how to get started.\n1. Keep Copies of Important Documents\nWhen you\u2019re in a bind and nowhere near important documents, it can feel endlessly frustrating. Thankfully, cloud services in conjunction with mobile access can provide important details in a snap.\nSo what should you add to the cloud for emergency situations? The written emergency contact sheet posted on your fridge is a good start. It's a helpful backup in case an important contact \u2014 like a doctor's office phone number or the email of your back-up babysitter \u2014 is missing from your phone. You should also include other commonly misplaced information, such as a copy of a medical insurance card, a short medical history (including a list of pertinent medications), and special items, like your AAA automobile card. Just make sure sensitive goods are stored in a password-secure, limited or locked file.\n2. Make it a Long-Distance Update System\nWhen you have a new member of the family or a core set of relatives far away, there are few choices available to share important family updates in a safe and shareable way. It's a natural inclination to turn to Facebook in order to post photos and videos of your family, but there are a host of concerns. Not everyone is on Facebook, you may not want to post all images online, and then there's just plain Facebook overload.\nA great way to safely and rapidly share with your family is to set up a cloud system among them. Dropbox is a great tool for this exact purpose. The free system has a simple desktop client that can automatically sync certain files once they are updated with no extra steps. Simply share the file in an email to all family members and begin updating away. You can also automatically sync your smartphone's photos with Dropbox, meaning that you can slide already-stored mobile photos to a shared file in no time. \nIf this share center sounds appealing to you, here's an extra special tip: For every person you invite who installs Dropbox, both parties get an extra 500MB of bonus space. In total, you can earn an extra 16GB through referrals. That amounts to quite a few photos for your happy family. \n3. Keep a Family To-do List\nSmart cloud computing can take the pain out of family coordination with a few simple clicks in Google Docs. Just connect the family to a single spreadsheet and invite everyone to edit. The document can be utilized for things like important dates, grocery lists, and drop-off schedules. These are the things that often need to be changed on the fly or overseen by a few family members.\nWith a cooperative to-do list, you can make sure everyone is involved with the household planning while maintaining an open discussion throughout the house. What\u2019s nice is that it comes without sacrificing extra time for a family meeting or separate sit-down talk.\n4. Use it as a Homework Inbox\nLet's face it: Kids lose homework. Luckily, document storage is what the cloud does best, and if your child has access to a computer lab, missed or lost assignments can become a thing of the past. \nSimply set your child up with their own cloud storage file and encourage them to save all homework in the cloud before printing. That way, if a mishap occurs, the work is easily accessible. The process is much more reliable than carrying around a USB port and much faster than an early morning self-emailing ritual. \nIn short, investing in the cloud for educational purposes is a great way for a child to stay organized and keep a fail-safe option at hand.\n5. Optimize it for Entertainment\nThe cloud isn't just for work. It's for play, too. The benefit of a connected house means that your entire multimedia library can be easily cataloged and stored in the cloud, making access easier.\nFor example, multimedia storage is right in the wheelhouse of the iCloud. Users can subscribe to iTunes match, a program which stores up to 25,000 mp3s in the cloud for use across devices anywhere, for a mere $24.99 per year. Combined with airplay speakers, this means that an entire house can be connected to play music from your library using an Apple PC or any other device, including Apple TV. The iCloud can also store videos and photos. This makes it super simple to share slideshows or play movies right from a remote device. \n6. Use it as a Vacation Helper\nIf there's one thing about planning vacations, it's that it's very detail oriented. From the flights to the packing lists, there are a lot of factors that go into making a trip successful. So when disaster strikes, especially while you're away, the cloud can back you up every step of the way.\nStart by creating a folder for your trip and place all relevant documents in one easily accessible spot. It's much simpler than rooting through an inbox for multiple confirmations, and its offline sync abilities mean that all documents can be opened even without an internet connection handy. Those more tech-savvy should also seek the organizational power of TripIt, an online application that skims inboxes for trip confirmations and rolls them all into one full plan, complete with a working calendar. TripIt can sync with mobile calendars such as Outlook, gCal or iCal. Each entry includes time, airline, ticket numbers and that ever-important confirmation number.\nIn case of a true nightmare abroad, it's also advisable to take advantage of the cloud and keep a safe copy of all passports. \n7. Make it a Digital Recordkeeper\nLast but not least, it's imperative to remember that the cloud is one of the best places to store keepsakes from your family's digital life. \nFor example, if your computer's hard-drive is wiped, either via hardware error or through hacking, the chances of retrieving the information on it can be incredibly low. And, while it's still a best practice to back everything up via hard-drive, having a hardware-based system could prove invaluable during a home invasion or break-in. It never hurts to be thorough, and investing in the cloud for protecting your digital information is important.\nThere are also added benefits to making the cloud your digital storage unit. For one, the cloud's sync with other media devices means that home videos or pictures shot via mobile phone can be easily displayed throughout the house or watched via a TV system such as Roku or AppleTV. And, you can port your cloud photos into scrapbooks or DVDs for friends and family. \nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, monkeybusinessimages"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/08/22/cloud-tips-family/>