Upload and manage your media more efficiently

The Issues

Let's face it. Uploading and organizing media is hard, time-consuming, and tedious. Chances are you have media scattered in many places. And once you locate the media you want to share or display, then you have to learn one upload and organize method for one site that handles only photos and a different one for another site that handles only video. Sound familiar?

Share on Ovi Solution

Share on Ovi makes uploading and organizing your media as easy as capturing it.

• Support for more than 100 types of files
• Upload from email, from the site or even directly from your camera phone, either one file at a time or in batches
• Enrich your media with descriptions, tags, and even geolocation information
• Reuse the same media again and again by creating "channels" (think of them as folders or containers for your media) with different themes or for different audiences
• Free with unlimited storage and unlimited uploads
• No software to download and no spam
• And your media is never trapped - you can download the original at any time

Show me how

Here are some short-cuts for making things go even faster.

• Channels vs. My Media
  Every member has their own "My Media." You can think of it as a sort of media library, storage area, or repository. You are the only one who can see it, and all media from all your channels are stored there. "Channels" are the primary way you organize your media for sharing. You can create channels for types of media, specific topics, or any other classification system you can dream up. Think of them like music playlists: channels are simply different views of the media that resides in your My Media repository. You can upload you media directly to a channel (each channel has its own email address) or first to you're My Media repository - and then organize your media into channels
• Resizing photos before uploading
  Uploading full-resolution photos takes a long time. So if you really don't need to share the full-resolution file, downsize your photos using the resize option on the "multi drag drop upload" page (Tip: 1024 pixels does a great 4x6 photo)
• Converting videos
  Even a 30-second video clip directly from your digital camera will require tens of megabytes and many, many minutes to upload to Share on Ovi. And since Share on Ovi ultimately compresses your videos to make the online viewing experience better, there's really no benefit in uploading full-resolution video clips. It's best to convert your videos to smaller files prior to uploading to save time and bandwidth consumption using a tool like those listed here

Make sharing via email really work

The Issues

Tired of your friends emailing you huge photo or video attachments? Getting a little frustrated when your co-worker emails you another 85-slide PowerPoint presentation? And what about you? Are you clogging up everyone else's inboxes by sending big email attachments?

Share on Ovi Solution

There's no denying that email is a great communication tool, but it's a pretty lousy way to share media. Share on Ovi can help.

• Simply compose your email and attach your files as usual (we support more than 100 types of files)
• Address the email to your account and include your recipient's email address in the body of the message. Share on Ovi will upload and store the attached files in your secure account and then forward a lightweight graphical preview email to your recipient(s).
• This preview email will download quickly in your friend's inbox, take up little if any of their email storage limit, give them a quick glance of all the files you've sent, and let them click and view in detail only the files they want - with no sign-up required for them to view your media
• Plus all the files you've sent to each recipient are securely archived, so they can easily go back and review anything you've sent them in the past - no more, "Can you resend that file to me?"

Show me how

1. Compose an email and attach the files you wish to share, just as you would normally do.
2. Find your "upload email address" by going to your My Media page, which is the repository for all of your media. Click on "Upload media" in the "Actions for this page" section on the right. You will be taken to your Basic Upload page where you will see an email address listed under "Upload from email" - this is your "upload email address." This goes in the To: line of your email
.
3. Begin the body of the email message with a ".s" (for "share") followed by the email addresses of the people you'd like to share the attached files with. It would look like this:
   
   .s bill34@hotmail.com sallj@msn.com
4. Add the rest of your message to the body of the email with a ".m" followed by your message. Now you are ready to send the email.

This tells Share on Ovi to upload and store the attached files in your secure account. We will also automatically send a lightweight "share email" on your behalf to the recipients with thumbnail images that link back to your media.

Here's a more advanced tip for email: you can unbury media lost in your email inbox with a simple forwarding email to Share on Ovi. Just forward any email with a media file attached to that same custom email address, and the file will be automatically uploaded. Rescue and rediscover your media!

Share media privately with family or friends

The Issues

You used to be in a bind if you wanted to share your media privately with a limited group of people. You had the old photo album-style sites designed for private sharing, but many lack the latest Web functionality to make things fun (like tags and comments) or efficient (like batch uploading and subscriptions). At the other end of the spectrum are the newer, more social media-sharing sites which have a lot of great technology but favor public sharing and may not even allow you to share your media privately.

Share on Ovi Solution

Now Share on Ovi covers all the bases.

• Precisely control the settings for your sharing "channel," which is simply a container for your media with a theme that you define (e.g., "Jim's Trip to Italy Channel")
• Determine who can add comments or tags or have access to the original hi-resolution media
• Share with anyone who has an email address, and there is no sign-up required to view your media
• Each person can participate in whatever way they feel comfortable - they can even contribute media (at your discretion) without signing up
• People can stay current by subscribing to your channel, which means they get an automatic email notification whenever new media or new comments have been added to it

Show me how

1. Create a private channel for your media. You control who can add comments or tags and who has access to the original hi-resolution versions of your images.
2. Upload your media from the site, from email or even directly from your camera phone. Upload one file at a time or in batches. (Learn more about uploading and organizing.)
3. Share this channel by entering everyone's email address or User ID (if they're already a member). This gives them access to your private channel. You can also decide if each person can contribute their own media. (Learn more about bringing everyone's media together for a group or event.)

Share on Ovi automatically sends out an email - that you can customize - inviting everyone to this new, shared channel. We'll include nice thumbnails of your media in your email, too.

Display your media to the world

The Issues

Wouldn't it be great to have a place where you could display all of your media for the world to enjoy and discuss? And have your media be displayed alongside other fun but sophisticated content so that you'd be comfortable inviting your friends and family?

Share on Ovi Solution

Share on Ovi is the one place for you and your media.

• All of your media: photos, videos, audio, Microsoft Office files - over 100 types of files
• Enrich your media and make it easier to discover by adding descriptions, tags, and even geolocation information
• People who like your media can subscribe to one or more of your "channels" (containers for your media) and receive automatic email notifications when you've added something new
• They can also stay in touch by adding you or one of your channels as a "favorite"

Show me how

1. Create a public channel for your media. You control who can add comments or tags and who has access to the original hi-resolution versions of your images.
2. Upload your media from the site, from email, or even directly from your camera phone. Upload one file at a time or in batches. (Learn more about uploading and organizing.)
3. Enhance your media by adding titles, descriptions, tags, and geotags - to all files at once, in groups, or individually.
4. Optional: Your channel is available for anyone to see, by definition, because you've chosen to create a public channel. But you can still invite people by clicking on the "Share this channel" link, and they'll receive a customizable email inviting them to view your media.

Bring everyone's media together for an event or group

The Issues

Chances are that you've been to a concert, wedding, sports contest or other memorable event where several people are taking fun videos and snapping great pictures. As things wind down, you think, "Wow, wouldn't it be great to see all those videos and pictures and share them among our friends." But how? Email will be a nightmare with multiple large photo files - not to mention video. And who's going to take the time to collect all the images, and make prints or burn a CD for everyone?

Share on Ovi Solution

Let Share on Ovi do the heavy lifting and help you enhance your group or event.

• Quickly create a shared space - a "channel" - where participants can look at all the pictures and videos, and contribute their media and comments as well
• Share on Ovi supports Microsoft Office files and PDFs, so you can use your channel as a shared "knowledge base" for your group by uploading schedules, itineraries and forms
• You stay in control of the experience because you can make the channel public so that anyone can see, or private so that only the people you invite can participate
• Each person can participate in whatever way they feel comfortable - they can even contribute media without signing up

Show me how

1. Create a channel for your group or event as a place to store the photos, videos, audio and more that you are sharing.
2. Decide if you want the channel to be public or private.
3. Decide on access choices for the people you want to participate. Give non-members the ability to upload with a "guest secret word." Set up yourself as a moderator who approves any media before it's added to the channel.
4. Seed the channel by uploading your media from the site, from email or even directly from your camera phone. Upload one file at a time or in batches. (Learn more about uploading and organizing.)
5. Share this channel by entering everyone's email address or User ID (if they're already a member). If the channel is private, this gives them access. You can also decide if each person can contribute their own media.

Share on Ovi automatically sends out an email - which you can customize - inviting everyone in your group to this new, shared channel.

Republish your media in blogs, websites, and eBay auctions

The Issues

So many Web sites that need your media, but so little time. It's not easy to manage all the photos, videos and audio you've republished across your blog, your MySpace page, maybe even on CraigsList or an eBay auction. Uploading the same files again and again to different destinations, keeping track of which files are where - it can be incredibly tedious.

Share on Ovi Solution

Share on Ovi can help make republishing much more efficient - and make your media stand out in exciting ways.

• All of your media in one place: photos, videos, audio, documents, and more
• With a simple copy/paste you can insert your media anywhere you'd like on the Web
• Efficiently and dynamically update your media from one centralized location
• Take it a step further and make it really sing with Share on Ovi widgets - code snippets that make it easy to display your media as a ticker, a slideshow or a grid of images
• Automatically publish an RSS feed of any of your public channels (channels are simply a way to organize your media, like a music playlist)
• And it's all free. Unlimited storage and unlimited uploads. No software to download and no spam.

Show me how

1. Create a public channel for your media (your media has to be in a public channel to republish it). Tip: You may wish to create a channel dedicated to holding your MySpace media or your blog media.
2. Upload your media from the site, from email, or even directly from your camera phone. Upload one file at a time or in batches. (Learn more about uploading and organizing.)
3. To republish an entire channel, click on the "Embed this channel" link on your channel page. Choose from a Flash Ticker, a Flash Slideshow or a Flash Grid and copy/paste the line of code onto the site where you want your channel's media to display.
4. To republish a single piece of media, go to its media page and click the "Embed this media" link. You will then see the code for you to copy/paste.

Capture and share media with your camera phone

The Issues

Chances are your cellphone has a built-in camera. Cameras that are getting better and better with each new phone model - many phones are now able to capture good quality video, too. And almost all phones can surf the Web, and send and receive email and text messages. Sounds great in theory, but in reality it's still hard to put it all together and capture the excitement of the moment.

Share on Ovi Solution

Share on Ovi helps you capture and share those moments.

• Share photos and videos instantaneously with your friends or with the entire world right from your camera phone
• All it takes is one email to send that magic moment to a group of friends anywhere in the world - and even post it to your blog or MySpace page with that same email
• Use an extra command to tell Share on Ovi to send a lightweight "share email" to multiple friends - all via the same upload email

Show me how

1. Before doing anything on your phone, go to the site and create a channel as a place to upload your photos, videos, audio and more.
2. Every channel has its own upload email address, visible on its channel settings page. So go ahead and enter that upload email address into your phone's address book.
3. Capture a fun photo, video or sound bite with your camera phone.
4. Using your phone's built-in facility to send messages, select the email upload address and send your media to Share on Ovi.
5. Extra email magic: You can also share this piece of media via the very same email by including a ".s command" in the body of the email message, followed by the email addresses of the people you want to share it with. This automatically causes Share on Ovi to send a "share email" to the recipients that gives them access to the media you're uploading, along with a short message.