In layman’s terms, cloud computing is the technology which allows people like you and I to access an online service or product which resides on the internet. Instead of it being housed in a hard drive you have in your home or workplace, it’s conveniently stored on “the cloud”, available at anytime and using any device that has access to the internet.
What constitutes Cloud Computing? Here are some simple examples:
A good number of everyday internet users only realized what the ‘cloud’ was when Dropbox came out (if you don’t have an account, make sure you check it out!). Soon enough many more services would emphasize the use of the cloud later on. Something you’ve probably used forever on the internet – email – is essentially a picture of the cloud! You can access it anywhere, from any device and any changes you make on one device will take effect on all of them.
How does Cloud Computing even begin to affect eLearning? Let’s begin with the essentials – we are able to create eLearning platforms because of the cloud. Software engineers have the ability to work from anywhere with the use of the internet. Most importantly a platform was created that can be used from anywhere. You don’t have to be in a class, and you don’t have to be there at any particular time. It’s a service we want you to use because you have a clear view of its benefits and because you want to! We know that people being forced to do things they don’t want to do will result in one of the following two scenarios:
1) You do it, and you do it poorly OR
2) You don’t do it at all.
So, when we decided to embark on this trip of enabling people to share knowledge we had three things in mind:
- Make it available to everyone, thus make it affordable, even free.
- Make it easy to use, thus make a user-friendly, hassle-free interface most beginners will understand.
- Make it accessible and available on a wide scale with no platform restrictions – on the Internet; on the cloud!
We have largely succeeded in delivering what we believe is a product people will feel proud of using when sharing knowledge with others. Our approach has always been to meet people’s demands after a good amount of market research, creativity and gathering feedback – and this usually yields satisfactory results.
And it has! Epignosis, parent company of TalentLMS and eFront has been invited to participate in the CloudBeat 2013 conference which will take place in San Francisco on the 9th and 10th of September.
What does this mean? Participating in a world-renowned event like CloudBeat means that our efforts have been fruitful. We are being recognized alongside companies like Pivotal, Optimizely and others that have largely contributed to the development of Cloud Computing the way it is today. We will also have an opportunity to share the stage with iconic figures from enterprises like IBM, LinkedIn, Dropbox and others!
Dimitris Tsigos, our co-founder, will participate in a panel discussion entitled “Learning gets Cloud Powered” and he will be joined by other influential figures in the eLearning world to discuss how cloud-based technologies are changing education, and the tools that are now available to make it more accessible, connected and impactful.
Why is that important for you? Our growth can mostly be attributed to the feedback from our users who helped us to create a better and more personalized product. Being at the forefront of the Cloud Computing evolution is a huge step towards becoming an even bigger player in the eLearning industry, and that says one thing: you have helped us to get where we are, and we are committed to becoming everything you signed up for.
So… if you happen to be in San Francisco on September 9th join us at CloudBeat!
Full event details can be found here, and you can save 20% here.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Original post by Dimitris Kaplanis on the TalentLMS blog: http://blog.talentlms.com/elearning-surfs-the-cloud-how-we-got-invited-to-venturebeats-cloudbeat-2013/
