45. Staff are not able to download edit and upload images in web formats;

Please add more details about this hurdle to effective social media adoption and use here

Many times a day I find myself using a screen-capture tool to clip bits out of applications and websites into PNG or JPG formats, and then using these to upload and enhance blog posts. But that relies on (a) an awareness of the right formats for uploading to the web (and of file sizes so I only upload at the resolution needed); and (b) access to software for taking a screen-shot of a region of the screen and/or access to image editing software for cropping images.

Many corporate computers have neither.

Why is this a problem? Please provide details and links to resources which help make the case for the importance of overcoming this hurdle

The social web is a visual medium.

• Adding a profile photo when joining a social network puts a human face on Local Authority participation in networks.

• Including photos and images in blog posts make them much more readable.

• Sometimes it's easier to screen-shot can capture discussions from a blog, or to get images out of a Wordle (for example) than it is to use standard copy and paste over text.

How can we overcome this hurdle? Ideas, links, resources & shared learning about your experiences of this particular hurdle are encouraged and welcome.

• All corporate computers should have easy-to-use screen shot software installed.
  • If neccessary this could be custom written to include appropriate warnings and guidance to staff on responsible use (e.g. not image-capturing sensitive data)
• Or, to limit screen-capture to the web-browser only, (if Firefox is available) plug-ins like ScreenGrab could be provided

• Staff can be made aware of inbuilt ways to capture a screen-shot and manipulate images in their existing operating systems Windows/Mac.

• All computer should have basic image editing software on, with guidance available to staff on how to upload web-accessible images
  • Ideally this software will have easy wizards for exporting graphics for the web
  • What free/open source Software for Windows/Mac is around for this?

Overcoming this barrier may take a while. Are there any ways staff can work-around this barrier effectively until more permenant solutions are in place?

• The organisation should consider making available to all staff their own profile-picture for use when registering for online services.

• The organisation could maintain an image library for use online

• There is a tutorial here in using XNView to take screen captures and reformat images.

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