The i-Sho software you use on your PC allows you to share photos, files, music and videos - in fact virtually anything you have on your PC - with friends, family or colleagues. For this i-Sho has a central server we call the 'Hub' which users can connect to via the internet.
Not only can you share things with friends and colleagues but by uploading them to the 'Hub' you create a second (backup) copy which means that if anything happens to your PC at home or the office you will always have a copy of those files on the Hub.
You and your friends and colleagues have access to files on the 'Hub' through i-Sho 24/7, regardless of where you are. Even better you don't have to leave the source computer turned on and connected {unlike some peer to peer models).
Sounds great so far! What else can I do on The Hub?
Hmm.. how about TV, Movies, Hobbies, Holidays, Shopping, Cars, Sport, Lifestyle, Property, Fishing, News, Food, Bikes, Clothes, Boats, Computers….. what you store in channels and make available to others is up to you.
Think of The Hub as a centre of discovery… We envisage a day when you can subscribe to Channels with Big Brother choose the episode, the day, the hour, the argument, the eviction.
How about East Enders, week by week, go back to July, 1988, Dot, The Queen Vic, see it as it was. These are hypothetical ideas, but who knows....!
Find others with similar interests, Hobbies, Passions. Whatever floats your boat you can discover and share with Hub channels.
Build small (or large) communities, no website’s, no blogs, no podcasts, no nonsense. Create your own channel or join someone else’s.
If you like Football why not build a scrapbook diary with all your friends, fill it with photos, video, match reports, diary entries, then link up with website fanzines, clothing stores, blogs etc.
Once you have started using i-Sho for organising your pictures and documents, you may want to share some of those memories and letters with friends and other members of your family.
i-Sho has been designed so that you don’t need to be technical in any way to do this easily and quickly.
The i-Sho Hub is a central computer which we keep safe so that you can store things on it. You can use it to keep a second (backup) copy of files, or you can use it to show and share things with friends. So how you use the Hub is up to you.
To use the Hub, simply create a Channel (or select an existing one) select ‘Publish’ and you’ve done it. It really is that easy. You can have as many Hub Channels as you want and you can choose whether or not anyone else can see your ‘Hub Channel’. It’s a really easy way to share family photo’s for instance, because you decide who can add pictures, and which members of the family can see them so its completely private. At the same time everyone’s family photo’s are backed up, should anything happen to the originals.
There are no daily upload limits or bandwidth restrictions.
Lets look at just some of the ways you might want to use The Hub.
Sharing. You’ve just come back from a great weekend. You’ve taken lots of pictures with your camera and so did other people. Wouldn’t it be great if you could all put your pictures together so you can compare and share them. So using i-Sho just create a New Channel, call it The Weekend, put your pictures in the channel and then select, Channel, Publish to Hub. Now you can choose who you want to share with. If your friends are already using i-Sho then let them see your channel by switching them on in ‘Permissions’ (under Channel again). If not just invite them to check it out by using the ‘Tell a Friend’ button under ‘My Account’. They will need to download the software and let you know their i-Sho username.
Collaborating. Perhaps you have a project that requires 4 friends to work together but from different places. Using i-Sho and the Hub you can create a Channel for the project give it a name and then Publish it. Choose which friends are to be involved and start using the new channel to pool your resources. Now, all of you have access to the shared information anytime, anywhere.
Back Up. We all know we should but how often do we do it. Backing up precious documents and pictures is just one of those jobs that nag us until disaster happens. We all think we can live without a lot of the stuff on our PC’s until we think about the pictures…..pictures are a different story. These are our memories, our record of life with children, grand children and friends. By storing files in Hub channels your pictures are safe and remember if you and other members of your family are all contributing pictures then everyone’s pictures are stored safely.
i-Sho is a really unique piece of software, its simplicity belies some very complex operations that occur under the covers. From a business users point of view there are significant advantages to using our central Hub as a means to store or backup sensitive and valuable data. However it’s also a great way to give your clients or suppliers access to files and data that would otherwise need a large web site or some very expensive portal software.
Here at i-Sho we have used the software as the main project collaboration tool throughout the development. We now have a digital record of what was done, and every day every file was securely backed up without any effort, It just happened as an integral part of us just using the software.
Lets look at just some of the ways you might want to use The Hub.
Sharing. The Building Works is a small fictitious architectural practice. They have a great brochure style website with a portfolio of work, contacts and a description of the company. All their client relationships are handled by email, snail mail and phone or site visits. Each project invariably involves a great many drawings, revisions, planning applications, photo’s, tenders, invoices and so forth. Clients, Suppliers, builders and planners require different documents all the time. Why not create a channel for each Project. The company could have their own in-house Hub channel in which every item associated with the project is accessible and backed up and a Hub channel which is used to share with clients and others on the project. The Channel starts with Photos of the site, meeting notes, agreements, and stores items through time detailing appointments, plans, revisions and finally to wiring diagrams and so on. This channel then becomes a very useful Building resource which can then be archived or kept live for future use.
Collaborating.Using the above example collaboration becomes a natural extension of the use of the channel. With different parties involved being able to add files, pictures and other material the channel can be accessed by all anytime, anywhere..
Back Up. For companies data backup is a critical job. However its often either overlooked entirely or done in a way that still leaves you open to severe disruption or worse. Traditionally ‘offsite’ backup has been the preserve of larger enterprises. With i-Sho you have an easy straight forward cost effective solution. Backing up your files is not a separate job performed by the last person to leave the office at night. It happens as part of your normal working environment. When you use i-Sho its part of the ‘DNA’ within our software!
Central Document Store. You have to go on a trip to the U.S.you are taking your laptop with all the files for the meeting, but if things can go wrong, you just know they will. So you create a new Channel, put all the documents you need for the meeting in the channel and hit the ‘Publish’ button. Now, no matter what, you can always get those files wherever you are.
What is a Group? Groups can be two or 200 people……or more. Groups can be clubs, societies, schools, classrooms, universities or just a gang of friends with a similar interest. A Group might start off with one person, you, creating a Personal Manchester United Fan Channel and grow to have 2,000 people who share your passion.
Just some of the ways Groups might use The Hub.
Sharing. The Classroom. Miss Williams is a busy teacher. She has 26 children in her class. Keeping the parents of her children involved with the curriculum is difficult and time consuming. Miss Williams has set up a Year 3 Hub Channel. She keeps a class diary which she uses every day. In it she posts examples of some of the work that the children have done just by using a simple digital camera. She also puts homework files and other resources like website links, school letters and after school club timetables, now her Year 3 Hub has become a bulletin board as well! Parents and children can now access all this information at home. The difference between this and a website is that Miss Williams doesn’t have to know how to add things to the school website, she simply drags and drops the things she wants to share into the Channel.
Collaborating. Fundraising. The Starfish charity is a very active charity with a number of fundraising activities. One of the main annual attractions is a Ball held in central London. Organising the event has always meant lots of people doing lots of different jobs on a part time basis. Most of the organisers are spread out and they all access the Starfish Ball Channel. Not only is the software Free, meaning more money is saved for the charity, but they also know that should anything go wrong they have everything safe and sound on the Hub. Everyone has access to it from suppliers to tradesmen.
Back Up. What every groups has in common is a fail safe back up in the event a disaster strikes. Everyone knows where to go to retrieve their files and the class or the school or the club can carry on from where they left off the day before.