Hosting is a core function supporting data ownership, as intimated in the section on architecture.
Personal storage
One’s personal digital estate comprises items that are part of identity (who we are, what we do, etc.) and also what we own or possess. The physical requirements for the storage of social networking activities, particularly if of metadata rather than objects, is very portable, typically amenable to memory sticks; potentially much of one’s online life can be stored in an item of personal jewellery. However, space requirements are considerably greater for storage of digital possessions, especially multimedia, and very fine-grained event logs.
In the Cloud
As with any data, there is a requirement for dependable backup. Practical considerations of fire and other risks motivate off-site storage. Nowadays the technical problem of reliable and scalable hosting has a robust solution in the form of cloud-based services, as amply demonstrated by large enterprises such as Google and Amazon, both of which offer enterprise-level cloud hosting solutions such as Amazon EC2. None are perfect, but they are good enough to be regarded by most users as generally dependable.
What is less clear, though, is the question of where sites should be hosted and the respective legal jurisdictions. Large companies from the West have experienced difficulties in delivering their services in parts of the world where the culture is markedly different. Sigala should aspire to improve on their track record by virtue of taking better account of cultural variation, societal structures and so forth. Perhaps the key question is whether we can be sure of maintaining the integrity of the data (that it really is always under the control of individuals).