ArkOS has met its crowd funding goals.  Running on Raspberry Pi and with some foil saved from chewing gum wrappers you will be able to connect this to your home router and host your own internet cloud services: email, reader, music storage, etc.

My initial reaction is that I like this, except I can see problems in things like email, where part of the reason I use a cloud email service is spam filtering and virus scanning.  Not sure you can do that this way.   Anyway it still sounds cool and it might make it in under the $19.95 The Core hardware spend limit! ;-)
http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/28/raspberry-pi-based-home-cloud-project-arkos-beats-funding-goal/

Related, sorta. Though local

I've been watching this one

PirateBox is a self-contained and mobile digital collaboration and file sharing system. PirateBox utilizes Free and Open Source software to create mobile wireless communication and file sharing networks where users can chat and anonymously exchange images, video, audio, documents, and other digital content.

http://daviddarts.com/piratebox/

http://piratebox.aod-rpg.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=raspberry

<added>
https://owncloud.org/

Owncloud on rpi

http://bjurr.se/owncloud-5-server-with-lighttpd-sqlite-on-archlinux/


While we're at it
Turn your Pi into a low-cost HD surveillance cam
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/5071

I suspect that hosting your own cloud services will become common in the future for the tech inclined.

>suspect

Having just returned from an extended-family gathering where the dozen or so moms/aunts/grandmoms fairly bristled with picture-storing hardware and were melting facebook's servers trying to swap photos, I can guarantee this will be a big deal, techie or otherwise. 

<added>

>photos

When I'm having to explain iptc data and why you don't want to store tagged data outside the binary and they *GET IT* at first pass, things are getting serious.

There is mention in the original article about even hosting your own social network.  If you make it all turn key, a large part of the public will go for this.

I do not get the personal cloud. Isn't part of the clouds charm redundancy? If you are managing the hardware, of a personal dropbox, how do you have it backed up or replicated? Unless it is hosted on S3 or something too?

>redundancy

Yes, but for 'home use' the hardware they're toting around (laptop drives, lacie keys, etc) handles at least part of that.  The issue driving this, I think, is fundamental distrust in third parties.

My router firmware as a bit of cloud server built into it. Not as extensive as ArkOS, but good for files. It's handy and convenient at times. Nice to have control of all the data.

However, you lose a lot of the cloud benefits of having data stored away from you.  If I ever get tsunami'd I'd want my data elsewhere.

>handy and convenient

Really, about the only use for it that I might have for a cloud is to allow the extended family a better way of handling photos.  Am I going to jump in and take on maintenance & support just for photos? No fucking way.

>tsunami

I like programs that force a backup on logout. My most critical info is the bookkeeping data for the various entities I manage using Quickbooks, and QB can be set up to require a backup. I backup to a lacie key on my personal keyring and occasionally duplicate the entire key.  My CMS forces a backup, too, so when I'm doing sites my content is kept using the same procedure.

I could see using it for cloud services that you currently like but are not sure will be around long term. e.g.: Google Reader.  I can also see it for music streaming.

Email becomes more of a problem. Part of the reason I use Yahoo is it gives me a defacto off site backup of my email and attachments, plus antivirus, plus spam filtering.  Some web based email services add encryption.  I sure as heck don't want to have to admin all that, and should the day come where I have to host emails I think I would get Rackspace to do it.

Now hosting your own small, private social network with a tight group of friends or family, that could have legs.