About twelve years after I co-founded Ars Technica, I began asking myself: if I were starting Ars today, what would I want to cover? Would I really go in-depth on PC hardware and microprocessor architecture, or is there something else that’s as important now as the PC was in 1998?

The answer to that question came to me in the course of a conversation last year with Ping Li of Accel ventures: I’d cover the cloud stack. I’d peel the cloud stack apart, layer by layer, and I’d start translating the concepts and technologies behind it into plain English. And I’d do this because the cloud—as hyped as it is—is still in the early stages of truly and fundamentally transforming the way we live and work, just as the personal computer did in the previous three decades.

So at this past CES, when I heard that Wired was looking to launch a cloud computing blog and community dedicated to exactly this kind of in-depth exploration of the cloud, I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. The result is Cloudline, and I’m incredibly excited to announce its public debut.

What we’re about

At Cloudline, our goal is to communicate complex cloud concepts to both technical and non-technical readers in terms that they can understand. Or, to put it in personal terms again, I’ve spent most of my career (at Ars Technica and in my book) explaining the intricacies of microprocessors and PC hardware using analogies, diagrams, and plain English. What I hope to do with Cloudline is to understand and explain core cloud technologies using the same approach that I’ve taken to PC hardware and microprocessor architecture. To give a concrete example, one my most popular articles over the years is a piece called Understanding CPU caching and performance—I’d love to give memcached this same detailed treatment.

So we’re hoping that the site can be both deeply technical yet accessible and useful to non-practitioners.

How you can help

While I and my colleagues at Wired will be providing a steady stream of cloud news, commentary, and in-depth technical analysis, we’ll need your help to really make this a success. There are a few ways that you can get involved.

If you’re working on, investing in, mentoring, or otherwise involved with a company or technology that’s either a core part of the cloud stack or has a shot at becoming one, let me know. I want to Cette adresse email est protégée contre les robots des spammeurs, vous devez activer Javascript pour la voir. , and if it’s a good fit then I’ll share it with our readers.

Similarly, if you’re a practitioner in any part of the cloud ecosystem, and you’ve written a technical piece or a how-to that you’d like to share with a broader audience, I’d love to consider it for publication on Cloudline. So Cette adresse email est protégée contre les robots des spammeurs, vous devez activer Javascript pour la voir. and we’ll check it out.

Finally, while Cloudline is a blog, it’s also a community site. So sign up and connect with us and with other Cloudline readers. We want to promote posts and insights from community members on the Cloudline front page, and on the home page of Wired.com. We’re also interested in side projects that community members are working on—if you’re hacking away at some part of the cloud or on a client’s project by day, but you’re spending your spare moments on a really cool cloud app, put it in your profile and share it with us, because we’ll be looking to feature these projects on the main blog.

Take a look around, kick the tires

Before you leave, here’s a quick list of things to do:

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in the cloud!