A Word of Thanks

With tens of thousands of very active users, we get a lot of feedback and support requests. We're very happy about this, since the feedback shows us that we're on the right track in building a very useful product. Even though we're listening and responding, we sometimes can't answer everything. However, I can assure you that we're reading it and that it influences our roadmap.

You, our core community, help us handle many of the requests. You help us answer support questions, in our Wuala Community group or on our forum on Get Satisfaction. We're very grateful for all of your assistance and your expertise.

A special thank you goes to our loyal group of Wuala Masterminds. You guys are just phenomenal! You support us on the forum or in our Wuala Community Group and even collect and summarize user feedback so that we can process it very efficiently. This means a great deal to us!



Again, thank you dear Wuala Community, thank you dear Wuala Masterminds!

Effective Wuala Usage: Adding files efficiently

Wuala is different compared to other online storage services. Many of them use the browser upload and that means you have to add every single file manually. When you want to upload 50 or even more images it is a nice monotone work. With Wuala you can easily upload 50 files or more with only a few clicks. There are a few different ways to do so.

Using the menu
When you create a new folder in your Wuala account the text "Add local files and folders to Wuala" appears. You can hit "files" to open a dialog. Now you can navigate to the files you want to add. When there are files in the folder on Wuala, the text disappears. Then you can open the "Add files"dialog by clicking on the actionheel and choosing "Add files".



But that is sometimes not the best way, especially, when the folder which contains the files is opened.

Using Drag & Drop
If the folder is open you should use drag & drop. That is very easy and you only have to mark all the files you want to add and move it to the folder in Wuala. Then Wuala starts to encrypt all the files and uploads them to the cloud. Not many online storage services support drag'n'drop at the moment. Drag'n'drop also works on the filesystem integration :) Filesystem integration means that you can open folders on Wuala with your Windows Explorer and use these folders like normal folders on Windows. It also works on Mac and Linux.

Adding files via URL
For example you find a funny clip on the internet and you want to share it with your friends in Wuala. Then you can do it in two different ways: Download it with your browser and add it to Wuala after it is finished. Or you let Wuala do the whole job. Paste the URL of the Video (e.g.

http://www.veryfunnydownloads.com/funnyvideos/vids/TennisAccidentw3281.wmv) into a folder on Wuala. Wuala immediately starts downloading the file, reads it and uploads it in fragments to the cloud. 

Adding text files
You don't need to create a new text file on your PC or Mac and then upload it to Wuala when you want to write something down. Just type the text into the comment field or your addressbar of your browser and copy and paste it into the folder in Wuala. Wuala will create an .txt file automatically.

Adding screenshots
Wuala also supports adding images from the cache. For example you made a screenshot of the Wuala Client with the Print key, hit Ctrl+V on Wuala and it will start uploading the file. The image will be saved as a .jpg file.

Summary
There are many ways to add files in Wuala. You can add files by dragging them into Wuala or the FSI, by pasting urls and pasting a text.

About the author
I am Pascal Herbert, a blogger from Lower Franconia in Germany. I am using Wuala since December 2007 and I am one of the "Wuala Masterminds", who help the Wuala team in the community and the forum. If you have a question or another idea how to add files to Wuala, let me know.

Daily Life at Wuala: We're Hiring

Are you a software engineer or an UI designer? Are you hardworking and passionate? Do you thrive in a start-up and want to push boundaries? Do you want to bring Wuala to the next level?

We're looking for talented and enthusiastic individuals who want to join us. We're nine bright individuals and as a team we're quite cool ;-)



Second row (from left to right): Roger (Developer), Carola (Finance and Operations), Andreas (Marketing and Business Development), Dominik (CEO and co-founder).

First row (from left to right): Sushi (Developer), Oona (Marketing and Communications), Luzius (CTO and co-founder),Fabius (Developer), Kaspar (Developer).

If you want to become part of the Wuala team, then please have a look at the job descriptions and apply now!

Effective Wuala Usage: Online Collaboration

With Wuala, collaboration has just become a lot easier. The most common and best way to do it, is to create a group around a certain topic and start organizing all your files, from videos over music to powerpoint presentations and word files in it. In this post, I want to show you how to create a group and how to use it.

First, I'd like to give you some examples of how Wuala groups are being used today:

• Online Communities who want to share and access their files in one place


• Family members who are spread around the world and want to exchange photos


• Students who have running projects or study groups and want to exchange & collaborate on raw data, summaries, presentations, word docs, etc.


• Lecturers who want to provide their students with course material of all formats in one place (videos, images, documents, etc.)


• Private societies who want to centrally store their files and access them from anywhere (e.g. if the president changes, the successor will have access to all files in no time)

Creating a group
The first step to create a new group is to go to the "My Groups" tab. In this tab you can right click with your mouse anywhere in the blank area. A context menu will pop up in which you will find the option "create group" (see screenshot).


After you have clicked on "create group", a dialogue with some options will appear (see second screenshot). In this dialogue you have to first fill in a name for your group (example: online collaboration). Then you have to decide whether you want your group contents to be publicly accessible or if you want to keep it private. If you make your group private, only the members will be able to browse its contents while the contents of public groups can be viewed by all Wuala users.

Private groups still have the option to have a public profile, which means that they will be included in search results. Groups which don't have public profiles do not appear in search results, thus they are only known to actual and invited members.

Public groups can be open for anyone to join or you can require users to be accepted by an admin or moderator. I will show you in the next step why this option makes a difference.

Customizing groups
I have created a public group that requires new members to be accepted by an admin or moderator. The group then immediately appeared in my list of public groups (the standard logo for new groups is an orange butterfly). I double clicked on the group in order to get inside it. Then I decided to give the group a new image by clicking on "set image" in the top left corner just below the logo (the butterfly). I decided to use my own image by clicking "create icon", then "open image" and then used the scrollbar on the right to adjust the area of the image that I want to use as my group logo.



After inserting the logo, I added a description, some keywords and my imaginary website address to my group's profile in order for it to be found by other Wuala users. Then I pressed "save" in the bottom right corner of the grey area (see screenshot). Keywords are mostly important for the search function because users can find my group if they look for one of my group's keywords.

Inviting others to join & managing group members
My group is now ready for my friends to join in. If I do not want my friends to have to search for the group, I can simply invite them. To do so, I click on the large text "invite friends" and then tick all the friends I want to invite. As soon as I hit "ok", all the marked friends will be invited and appear in the "unconfirmed members" section (like "Carola" in the screenshot). Members who found my group in the search results and want to join it appear in the "member requests" section (like Sushi in the screenshot). Members who were invited and who accepted my invitation will appear next to me in the "members" section (like Luzius in the screenshot).



Files in groups are managed just like in the "My Files" section. I can create folders, add all types of files (videos, music, word docs, etc.) or links and my files will be available to all other group members as soon as I have finished uploading them. The main difference between the "My Files" section and groups is, that I can give moderation or administration rights to the group members. To do so, I can simply right click inside the white area in the group and choose "Roles and Permissions ...". After defining the standard role for new members and the rights for each role, I can assign roles to each member by right clicking on the member name, then moving the cursor over "change role" and chose the appropriate role for the member (like I do for Luzius in the screenshot).



Communicating in team projects
A specialty of Wuala is its comment function. This function enables you to comment on just about everything you can find inside the Wuala community. You can comment on files, folders, users and groups. Of course your friends can reply to these comments. In order to write comments I have to select a file, a folder or a friend by left clicking on it once and then chose "click here to comment" at the very bottom of the Wuala client (see screenshot). A comment box will immediately appear on the right side of the screen, where I can type my comment and click "add" to store it with the file, folder, friend, etc. My friends will be notified of my comment and they can reply next time they go into Wuala.



Summary
A short list of the steps to be taken in order to create a group for online collaboration:

• Go to the "My Groups" tab


• Right click in the white area and click "create group"


• Make your group public or private


• Start inviting people


• Set roles and permissions


• Assign roles to members


• Start uploading & commenting files

Advantages of using Wuala in teams, work groups or study groups:

• Files will immediately and always be available anywhere


• Easy communication through comments


• No file size or type limitation


• Joint editing on documents


• Full control: Easily set roles and permissions and assign them to members


• Collaborators can stream videos, they don't have to download them first


• I can harness the speed of a P2P network (fast up- and downloads)


• Several copies of files only use storage capacity of one (see last week's blog post for further info)

Daily Life at Wuala: Locked Out

In the series called "Daily Life at Wuala", we want to show you what it is like to work at Wuala. We want to give you a further glimpse into our daily routine: things we do, things we don't do, stuff that happens, and so on. Enjoy!

Even though we're hard-working and passionate, there are times when we are unable to start working. This is usually the case when we're locked out of the office. This doesn't happen that often, but when it happens, we're stuck in the hallway or we're bugging our neighbors for coffee. Fortunately, we're usually not locked out that long, and as soon as the "Keymaster" appears, we rush to our computers....


If you're dying to know what else is going on at our office and other topics we should blog about, just let me know (oona AT wuala DOT com).

Effective Wuala Usage: Copying files vs. linking them

In this blog post I'll explain the main differences between linking a public file and copying it. I'll also provide two common examples in which you have to choose if you want to link to or make a new copy of a file.

Links
Inside Wuala, links are displayed differently from files. They have a small black arrow in the lower left corner. In this screenshot you see two links (Rashomon and 3007.avi).

To create a link to a file or folder you need to right-click on it and select "Copy Link". Then you open the folder where you want to place the link and press "CTRL + V" on your keyboard. Et voilà: a link to the original file will appear.

Copy & Paste
"Copy & Paste" creates a copy of a file or folder. To do this, you must right click on the file and select "Copy File". Then you open the folder where you want to place the new file and press "CTRL + V" on your keyboard. Et voilà: the copy of the file or folder will appear.

How to use links and copied files
You can use these functions to do a lot of different things. I'll give you two examples.

Share your files in public groups

When you have a public file that you want to add to a public group you have two options: link to it or copy it.

• If you use a link to the file you will have all its comments in one place and if you want to change the tags or the description you only need to edit them in one place. Additionally, you can see in which groups the file is linked when you click on it. For example, Nosferatu is linked in the Creative Commons group and in the public domain group.
  
  

However, if you use links, you must be careful with the original file: it must remain public on your profile, if you remove it all the links will be removed too.


• By using "copy & paste" to share your file, you'll have one file in each group but you don't pay extra space for that. Since they are different files, each one has its own tags, description and comments. You can track which files you've posted in which groups in the Group Postings folder in your My Files tab.

Keep a file that you found in Wuala

If you found a cool public file that you want to keep to yourself, you have to choose how to save it in your profile. There are two ways to accomplish this:

• You can link it. Therewith you don't really have the file because if the owner decides to delete it, your link will also be deleted. The advantage is that links don't cost you any space.


• You can use "copy & paste". Therewith you'll have a new copy of the file and it'll be under your control how long you want to keep it. The trade-off for this file ownership is that the file will use some of your storage.

Conclusion
Both options have advantages and disadvantages, it really depends on what you want. Personally, I use links to share my public files but when I want to keep someone else's I use the traditional "copy & paste".

The following table contains a feature comparison of links and copied files.




About the author
My name is Nuno Teixeira (username nmat in Wuala) and I live in Lisbon, Portugal. I've been using Wuala for over a year and I'm one of the "Wuala Masterminds", who support the community in the forum and the Wuala Community Group. I hope that you liked the article. If you have any questions just post them in the comments.

Runner-Up at the 2008 Crunchies!

I know we were quite pushy about getting you to vote for us at the Crunchies 2008, but it was worth it! Even though we didn't win in the category "Best International", we're proud, honored and thankful. Proud for having been a nominee, honored to being a Runner-Up and thankful to all of you who voted for us - we wouldn't be have gotten so far without you!

Effective Wuala Usage: Share Files in Transfer Folders

In this series called "Effective Wuala Usage", we would like to show you how current users take advantage of Wuala. In other words we simply want to show you how Wuala can make your life easier every day.

Today we want to start with introducing you to the concept of "Transfer Folders". In case we want to temporarily provide fellow students or colleagues at work with files, which we do not want to permanently store on our Wuala account, we use Transfer Folders. That means that we simply create a folder called "Transfer" in the "my files" section of Wuala as shown in the screenshot below.


In the next step, if we want to send a file to a friend named "Robert", we simply create a new folder called "Robert" within the Transfer Folder and add all files we want to share with Robert. We share this folder through a secret link. To achieve this, we right click on the folder "Robert", then choose "Share..." and finally click "Set..." next to "Weblink:". Then we either use the predefined key phrase or we manually enter a new one. We click "ok", then "save" which will make the "Robert"-folder turn red and everything is ready to go.


Now if we want to share these files by e-mail, in a Facebook message, in a chat or in an online forum, we simply right click on the "Robert" folder, then chose "Copy Link" in order to copy the link into the clipboard. Then we can simply enter the link into our message by pressing "CTRL + V" on our keyboard. An example of a Transfer Folder called "Wuala Tutorial" containing two images can be accessed at this link: https://www.wuala.com/andi/Transfer/Wuala+Tutorials?key=tutorials. As soon as we feel that Robert has received our files and we do no longer need to host them on our Wuala space, we can simply delete them from our folder or we could delete the complete "Robert" folder.

What are key advantages of using Wuala to share files?

1. It enables you to attach files to your Facebook messages, LinkedIn messages, to share files in chatrooms, etc., which would not be possible otherwise


2. You can send large files with unlimited size by e-mail and don't have to fear your or the recipient's size limit for e-mail attachments


3. You can track how many times your files have been accessed on the web and in Wuala


4. An advantage over sending large files via Skype or other Instant Messaging Tools is that by sending them with Wuala + E-Mail, you don't disturb the other party, thus you don't interrupt her workflow.


5. In contrast to many other services, you can exactly control who will have access to your files because only those who know the link or the key phrase will be able to view and download what you shared. In case the secret link ever gets into the wrong hands, you can simply change the key phrase in order to restore privacy.

I hope this little tutorial could make your life a little bit easier. Please let me know if you have similar use cases for Wuala by sending me an e-mail to andreas AT wuala DOT com. Please direct feedback for this blog post to the same address or simply leave a comment right here.

20% discount on LIFT '09 tickets for friends of Wuala

LIFT is a series of events to inspire and connect the community of doers and thinkers exploring the social impact of new technologies.

At LIFT '09 the community of technology enthusiasts will try to answer the question "Where did the future go?". With this topic, the attendees should talk about past predictions in the area of technological development that have become reality and those that haven't. In the end of these intense three days, everybody should better understand how to look at the future and how to make accurate predictions.

The past feedback for LIFT has been very good and we at Wuala can only recommend to everyone working in the internet, technology or new media sector to attend the upcoming LIFT '09 in late February. We have been entrusted with a promotion code to offer our friends 20% cheaper entry tickets. Use "wualift09" to buy your ticket at the discount rate.

Kaspar - The Wuala King

Today it's Epiphany. In Switzerland we call this Dreikönigstag (Three Kings Day) were we traditionally eat the Dreikönigskuchen (King's Cake). The Dreikönigskuchen is made of sweet yeast dough and is formed like a blossom of a flower. Inside the Dreikönigskuchen there is a small king or crown hidden. Whoever finds the crown is king for the rest of the day and gets to wear the crown (and boss others around...). This year Kaspar is our Wuala King! This doesn't surprise us, after all Kaspar, Melchior and Balthasar are the Three Kings ;-) 

Ready for the new adventure

Dear Wuala Community,

My name is Andreas Brenner or Andi for short and I'm Wuala's newest team member. Together with Oona and Carola, I will take care of the business development. Together, we'll strive to grow the Wuala community and perform many more usability tests in order to make the product even more useful for our users.

Being an adventurous person, I'm very much looking forward to this new unique and exciting challenge ahead of me. I believe in Wuala, which makes it easy to start at full speed and integrate with the charming and hard working team in no time.

If you have any inputs for my work, you wonder who I am or you just want to have a chat, please get in touch with me at andreas@wuala.com


Let's move forward with the speed of light...
Andi