Version 3 of ownCloud, the open source, cloud application that enables you to run your own cloud server from your computer, has been released. This comes roughly 47 days before the launch of a commercial entity that would provide products and services for ownCloud.

These days, everybody is talking about cloud computing, and many people use it in one form or the other. But popular cloud computing services are provided by a third party, which means that you store you data on a server somewhere, so that you can access it any time, from anywhere. But there are cloud applications that any person can use to host their own private cloud, from their home.

ownCloud is free and open source solution for a central place where you can store your files and documents. You don´t have to upload your personal data to central closed services like Google Docs, Dropbox or Ubuntu One. All the data is under your own control. You can access your files via WebDAV without a special client.

Owncloud News is an RSS news reader for Owncloud, self hosting cloud service. That comes right at the time Google Reader is bound to see its end soon.

I've read a bit of angst about cloud lock-in, a lot of weed pulling in the form of interoperability standards for the cloud, and a manifesto or two about 'Open Cloud'. And in between, I've seen lots of interesting new tools for cloud computing, and lots of narratives about how the tools, combined with the formalization of use cases, pave the way for open clouds.

The Meta Cloud is one step closer to meta-reality. Last week, at OSCON, a San Jose startup known as Cloudkick unveiled an open source project that hopes to provide a single programming interface for a host of so-called infrastructure clouds, including Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud Servers, Slicehost, and GoGrid.

This document describes how to install and set up ownCloud on CentOS 6.2 on an nginx web server and php-fpm with postgreSQL database as backend. For other distributions there might be minor changes as to the software prerequisites installation procedures. This guide will not only help install the product, but also understand why certain points are done the way they are done.

If you don't want to lose control of your data, yet enjoy all the benefits of an always-available and synchronized online repository, you can turn to ownCloud, an application that lets users share and sync files within the confines of your enterprise firewall on servers you control.

ownCloud Version 3 introduces online editing, photo gallery, PDF viewer, application store and improvements to existing functionality. Available for download now, ownCloud Version 3 enables users to share files and folders with others from their privately controlled infrastructure.