Advice on simple solution to auto upload video for sharing

[Damian Heffernan]

Hi Guys,
I'vw been researching this for a while but have run into a dead end and so I wondered if anyone else had looked at a solution for this.

I have a requirement tp give cameras to staff (pretty low tech staff) for shooting video and stills and then uploading them to share. Ideally they could just plug the camera or card into a computer and the files would automatically upload to some sort of web album andnbe visible to staff back at head office.

The closest I can get is with a camera like a bloggie with an eye-fi card. This will allow them to shoot and then when the eye-fi card finds their computer over wi-fi itnwill upload to picasa or flickr. Problem is that they need to setup the eye-fi card and then use the eye-fi software on their computer. Since it's a hardware and software solution you may as well use something like a bloggie with the sony bloggie software and then when you plug it in the software will open and you can select the video to "share" and it will upload. It seems to be the same sort of thing for most sharing.

One big issue is that these cameras will be given out to various staff, not neccesarily the same staff each time and so then we'll have to install and configure the software on each computer each time which will be painful.

Anyone else had something like this?

[Jim Michael]

Sounds like a good waste of a lot of folks' time. A lower tech solution would be to buy a couple of cards for each user and have them hand the full cards off (or mail it, whatever) to an assistant who handles the uploads. Create a little app for the admin if needed. Put a code on each card so you know who it came from.

[Chris Soucy]

Hi, Damian.................

You don't say just how geographically widespread this network is, how many users or how many computers are involved, so, not a lot to go on.

With a bit of pretty basic training, it seems that Picasa 3.9 and Google+ could be the easiest solution (not to say cheapest), unless the people concerned are completely computer illiterate in which case you've got a pretty major problem, without going the centralised load point solution Jim mentioned.

Picasa can already be configured to download from a camera automatically, after which you just need to hit the "Share" key and login, not exactly rocket science.

Having absolutely no idea what a "bloggie" or "eye - fi" card are, I'm lost with your ideas, maybe I should stop living under that rock.


CS

[Damian Heffernan]

thanks for the replies. I take on board your suggestion about the central admin idea and it would certainly overcome the different levels of skills and training burden for all the distributed staff. I'll be putting it forward as an option but I think they are going to want to have each camera op deal with their own stuff. Interestingly there's no real option that exists that fully automates such a process. The flip live camera which was shown off but canned just before cisco shut down the company was the closest we've got.

Picasa is probably it. How do you get it to automatically upload? Is this by using the desktop app?

edit: BTW the staff are all over Australia in about 10-12 locations.

[Chris Soucy]

As far as I'm aware, simply plug in the camera and it'll offer a "download now" box (unless something else beats it to the punch - you never know what's loaded on some PC's. I've got at least 5 different apps that will fight over any camera plugged in to do downloads!)

Download it, Picasa will grab it, index it, and you're ready to rock and roll.

Training is pretty basic and shouldn't break the bank.

Investigate Google+ and see just how that suits you're purposes, Picasa and Google+ are engineered for one another, so the easiest way to go if it does the job.

The problem with any of this stuff is that the more options they offer, the more decisions it asks the user to make, the more decisions, the more intimidating it can be.

Make it totally option free and it's so simple a Zombie can use it, but then there's zero user control.

If you cannot establish a base user training level with anything commercially (or freely) available, it will not work.

Concentrate your training on just one person at each site, so they have a full grasp of the applications abilities and can hand hold users through it if need be, and see how you go.

Remote help desks are no substitute for someone on the ground who can show you how to do stuff.

[Help Desk Drone Mode = OFF; PC Support Mode = OFF; You Probably Know This Already Mode = ON]


CS