Friday, September 28, 2007

Sharing Something Large

My last task today is to send out a few audios to various clients. The biggest issue with audios is that they are typically larger files than most email programs can handle. And even if you can keep them under the 10MB that most programs allow, these files can really bog down email.

I have found a solution (other than burning a disk, printing a label, printing a mail label, figuring out postage and sending). It is a file sharing site that can handle files up to 500MB, and has free storage for up to 2GB (a jiffy back-up system if you do not have one for your computer). The site is called Driveway.com and they offer a variety of services that are pretty handy (most for free). Sadly, since I am a Mac user, I cannot utilize the plug-in as it is for Windows and such, but if they ever do a Mac version (hint, hint, hint), it would be terribly useful. Basically, you can click a few things and it uploads the file without registering, etc. There is also a desktop widget available for various Microsoft programs, as well. This means that others can directly edit data stored on driveway via browser using standard Microsoft Office applications.

So why do I bother, you wonder? Ah, simple. They have web widgets that work on web sites and such. All I have to do is give a particular URL to my clients and presto, they can download the file. This is great for generic audios. Otherwise, you share files through a browser interface.

Driveway.com also makes collaboration on large projects possible. There are options to "Send Files for Read" or "Send Files for Edit." This is valuable when you are dealing with others on things like manuscripts, marketing campaigns, and who knows what else.

But use it wisely. With great power comes great responsibility (okay, I will stop with the movie puns).

And that's is that. I am spent. See you tomorrow.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

YouSendIt.com (www.yousendit.com) is another file sharing service people may consider looking into. I've used it with nary a negative since its inception a few years back.

The free accounts are limited to 100MB or so, but it's quick and convenient and sometimes it seems as if the majority of files are actually under that limit.

I use it with clients that send me podcasts that I do post-production audio processing on (clear up noise, make the voice more ambient, etc) and this is the service I've asked them to you. Get an email about a file, click a link, download it, done.

Great stuff, and there are many others like YouSendIt and Driveway.

Have fun, always...
Paul

The Transparent Hypnotist said...

Most excellent! Thanks, Paul.