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Video: Box.net Eases File Sharing For Normal Folks

Sometimes in our rush to embrace the latest and greatest, us early adopters forget that it's not about cutting-edginess, it's about utility. As in, can normal people accomplish tasks they couldn't otherwise do if they were working with, say, index cards? That's why Box.net is so valuable. It's a way to share massive files without having to fumble with ftp. To learn more, check out the short video I shot with Box.net's Jim Herbold.

As Jim explains, Box.net offers both individual accounts as well as an enterprise-oriented service. The latter corrals multiple users -- each with their own, personal log-ins -- under one umbrella, and links them to an administrator console. This makes it easy for a whole team to collaborate, and also to keep things from getting out of hand, file-management-wise.

The reason I think Box.net is so cool is not because it does anything earthshakingly new, but because it makes it really easy for people to do something they need to do quite frequently. Namely, share humungous files. That's a task for which e-mail is ill-suited. As for ftp, sure, you and I may be able to use it, but try explaining file-transfer protocol uploads over the phone to non-computer science types.

For users, there are flexible options for accessing the service, including free usage. You can get more storage for a fairly reasonable fee. Most recently, Box.net has begun offering access on the iPhone.

Anyway, so check out my chat with Jim, who's Box.net's enterprise general manager.

How do you share large files? Let me know, by leaving a comment below or e-mailing me directly at alex@alexwolfe.net.

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