Wednesday, September 12

Transfer BIG Files (Virtual Headache Cure!)

URL: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/

"File Sharing the Easy Way: Upload and Send Large Files for Free"

WHAT?
TransferBigFiles is the easiest way to share a bunch of files with (your Students), friends, family or everybody in the world. There's no registration required to use the website. You can just go to the home page and start uploading some files. But to make the process even easier, we've created a Windows System Tray tool that allows users to drag-and-drop files to the site...

LIMIT?
TransferBigFiles does not limit the amount of space your account can use on our servers, the only storage limit we have is that your files may not be larger then two (2) gigabytes.

STORAGE PERIOD?
For a minimum of 5 days or up to 30-days if you upload through a registered DropZone account. DropZone users can also manage there files and expire them prior to 30-days.

WISDOM?
As the site grows in popularity, they expect to make money from advertising to cover the costs and then some. In the meantime, Axosoft LLC is covering all the costs.

REFLECTION TIME!
If you are a lecturer (or teacher) that often gets headaches when you need to send large files (e.g. videos, podcasts, PowerPoint slides, PDFs, etc.) to your students, this tool might just be the virtual headache cure (unless the file is above 2 GB for now). In other words, your University's L(C)MS an E-mail sending/storage limitations is no longer a barrier to your online knowledge sharing ability. Also, I like the fact that you can add a message and set a password to protect the access to your uploaded file(s).

For example, instead of actually entering the e-mail addresses to all your students on the TransferBigFiles site, you should perhaps send the file (or message with the URL to the file) to yourself, and then copy/paste the URL (to the file) to your course announcement page (hopefully with automated e-mail notification), personal blog, group e-mail message, forum or wherever the student can easily access/find it. If the tool could actually provide us directly the URL to the file (as an option), it would simply be wonderful. Area for improvement!

On the negative side, I don't like the unpredictable storage period (5 to 30 days), and the fact you need to register and download the DropZone tool to ensure that the file(s) is/are stored a bit longer (marketing strategy!). I hope when they get a bit more funding (I am sure they will!), we can have our files stored for a longer period. When we can store our files for a longer period, then I believe this tool can transform the way we share files in the teaching (or faciliting) and learning world. Hmm, unless some whiz kid out there comes up with an easier and more efficient method! :)

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