Sharing Large Files
The OpenLab was conceived as a hub for sharing information and ideas. It would be wonderful to have unlimited file storage space on the OpenLab, but unfortunately that is beyond our current scope and we must have a data limit for individual course, project, club, and portfolio sites. For those members who have reached or are nearing their data limit, this an opportunity to learn “best web practices” – an important skill in any field today. The term best practices refers to the generally accepted practice in a certain medium, field or expertise.
For example, data-heavy files, such as video and audio, are not stored in a folder on a user’s web server, but rather on YouTube, Vimeo, Sound Cloud or similar sites that are dedicated to this use. In the same vein, if you need to share large files or a large numbers of files on the OpenLab, best practice dictates that you house this data on a free, external storage solution.
Sharing Non-Web-Ready files (PDF, TIFF, PPT):
File storage solutions like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon, and others can be used to host your non-web-ready files for download, such as PDFs, TIFF, PPT or any other files you wish to share with members of the OpenLab.
Examples:
- 4.1MB PDF – linked from Google Drive
- 57MB TIFF – linked from Dropbox
- 4.1MB PDF – linked from Amazon Cloud
- 22MB PowerPoint – linked from Google Drive
Below is a PowerPoint slideshow that was uploaded to Slideshare. Slideshare files will automatically embed in your posts. All you have to do is copy and paste the slideshow URL on its own line in your post.
Sharing Web-Ready Images (jpgs, pngs, gifs):
Large numbers of web-ready files, such as jpgs, pngs, gifs, can also be embedded on your site using links from Google Drive, Dropbox, Flickr, Slideshare, and others.
Below are a few examples of files that have been linked to this WordPress site rather than uploaded and stored on the OpenLab server.
Examples:
This image is stored on Google Plus as part of an album
This image is stored on Dropbox in a Public folder: dropbox.com/home/Public
This image is housed on Flickr.
Have you gone over your data limit on your OpenLab Project, Course or Club?
Ask our Community Team for help. They will gladly show you how to link or embed files on your Site from externally hosted storage solutions.
