Oddly though, the developing ideas behind the memi militate against this in a subtle manner. They raise the question: where should my stuff be stored, and who should have primary access to it? Or, to put it another way: do I want to outsource my life-data to Microsoft, Google, Yahoo or anyone else?

In an ideal world a fully fledged memi would be a hardware/software amalgam that would be both a server and a client when it was online. In that kind of world my life-data would travel with me, and I would have primary access to it. This is not yet an ideal world, and my life-data is currently parked at GoDaddy although, officially, I am still the one with the primary access, even though I have never seen the physical server on which the data sleeps.

I have been thinking about this issue a lot recently, and today I discovered ThinkFree, a Word-compatible office suite that comes in an interesting assortment of flavours. It comes as a free online service ( similar to Writely); an offline java-based suite of applications; and a server-based online/offline combo. The last option costs $30 per user per year, and is the one that interests me.

In principle, this would provide me with a decentralised and personalised service for a realistic cost – and if I am reading the information correctly I could also use the offline tools to work on boats and planes and trains.

I shall think this over and test it out.

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