What follows are two videos from the Web 2.0 Summit, facilitated by Tim O’Reilly. Watch and listen as industry leaders discuss and address some of the common questions around cloud computing.

The Future of the Cloud: Part 1 – (11:44 Min.)

The Future of the Cloud: Part 2 – (14:07 Min.)

Videos produced by Tim O’Reilly & TechWeb

“There is a lot of hype. We think about the cloud as the next evolution in computing,” said Cisco Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior. “It’s a way of abstracting the services and applications from the physical resources and using a more on-demand layer.”

Warrior believes that cloud computing will evolve from private and stand-alone clouds to hybrid clouds, which allow movement of applications and services between clouds, and finally to a federated “intra-cloud.”

See original post here: The future of the cloud.

How about trying some of these techniques with a voluntary group you are involved with?

The voluntary sector is largely about engagement of a community. The cloud recruiting tools, apart from being free are perfect for growing and developing networks. The voluntary sector has quickly grasped the potential of this technology and have not been slow to act.

So will recruitment move into the Cloud?

Firstly the systems that you can use to do your recruitment administration, many of them are SaaS. Where it get interesting though is that “cloud recruiting” with the Social Net begin a new focus on building and maintaining relationships.

It is far easier to build and maintain an active relationship with passive candidates who just want to stay in touch with your company, see what you are doing until they are ready to make a move.

We’ve entered the world of “cloud recruiting and job searching,” according to Michael Marlatt, recruiting consultant with Search Wizards at Microsoft.

It’s a techno-savvy world where recruiters search for candidates and job seekers find positions virtually, or in the “clouds.” It’s a world where people speak in terms of Web 2.0 (the trends toward an increasingly interactive Web) and Mobile 2.0, which is “the convergence of mobile services and Web services,” that allows people access to sending and receiving information anywhere, anytime.

This project is a few years in the making but surfaced in its current form at the recent SourceCon 2008 conference where Michael was one of the top-ranked speakers.

It became apparent after SourceCon that if Michael was to do justice to all the questions being asked about his presentation — Beyond Recruiting 2.0: The Emergence of Cloud Recruiting — and to satisfy all of the requests for more “cool stuff,” he would need a site to keep everyone happy.

More than advocating a better understanding and use of web 2.0 applications for recruiters, the site seeks to chronicle and archive important information as it relates to Cloud Recruiting. “Cloud Recruiting” is the term Michael used to describe the convergence of “cloud computing” and recruiter best-practice.

Over time the intention is for the site to serve as a research tool and reference. The blog, where relevant nuggets are posted, is intended as a forum for those who share Michael’s passion — or take a different point of view — and is as good a place as any to get started.

Enjoy!