Introducing NMFileManager: An Easy to Use File Sharing Application

We have previously posted on the importance of a web design team having access to programmers, as programmers can help the team design for the web and navigate obstacles when they arise.  We recently had a relevant situation popup, as our team of developers needed to create a custom solution for one of our web design clients.

One of our largest and favorite clients, the National College Advising Corps, needed a way to streamline the process of sharing resources among different advisers across the nation.  Knowing that the core of our team consists of technologists and that we work as a web development partner for advertising agencies, NCAC came to us to bring their goal to fruition.

The Advising Corps needed to enable its college advisers to find and share resources with other Advising Corps members from a national network of college institutions - this system would streamline the process of resource sharing and help advisers get relevant documents that their peers had already created.

After gathering the system requirements presented by the Advising Corps, I worked with the NMC team to devise the best plan of action. We wanted to provide an effective file sharing system with a powerful built-in search engine. However, it was imperative that this power be contained within a simple, user-friendly interface - after all, we were trying to make the advisers' jobs easier, not more cumbersome. The result: a powerful yet easy to use file sharing application that we like to call NMFileManager.

NMFileManager allows users to share, search for, and download resources. The NMFileManager interface is clean and simple. Resources are easily identified by common file icons for images, audio, video, Microsoft Office documents, and more.

While at its heart, NMFileManager is a file sharing application, it has many advanced features that make it intuitive and fun to use.  NMFileManager also incorporates a powerful search engine built upon an enterprise-level and open-source Apache Lucene library. This means users can search for resources with many of the same advanced queries accepted by Google. Users can also search for resources using a tag-based taxonomy.

Users are also given their own member profile pages. Profile pages show information about each user and list the files each user has shared. User profiles are a great way for the Advising Corps advisers to learn more about and contact their fellow advisers from other institutions.

NMFileManager also exposes many helpful controls to the administrator of Advising Corps' NMFileManager account. Administrators can determine the maximum allowable size of uploaded files, and they can choose to receive email notifications of new user registrations and new file uploads.

We are excited about our latest accomplishment, and we will soon expand NMFileManager into a full-fledged file sharing platform.  For now, you can sign up for a free beta account of NMFileManager and we will give your organization an account to try out and provide us feedback on.  Keep an eye on our blog for more information about this upcoming venture.