Community internet drive

• US 10,177,978 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2017
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Planetary Data, LLC
• Original Assignee: Planetary Data, LLC
• Inventors: McEntee, Robert Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Uzma
• Application Number:
  US15/713,351
• Publication Number:
  US 20180013621A1
• Time in Patent Office: 473 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1834 implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella p2p communication protocols H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1837 Management specially adapted to peer-to-peer storage networks topology management mechanisms of peer-to-peer networks H04L67/1042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

Provided herein are devices, systems, methods and various means, including those related to providing a community internet drive that may utilize a centrally-managed hub as well as storage devices distributed among various networked machines. In some embodiments, the community internet drive can also include features to enable its users to promote and utilize the user'"'"'s trusted personal relationships while also enabling an open platform for peer-to-peer and/or other types of sharing schemes.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing a peer-based community internet drive, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

receive, from a first client machine, a request to be included in the community internet drive;

generate configuration data;

transmit the configuration data to the first client machine, wherein the configuration data is executable by the first client machine to partition a local storage device of the first client machine into a private portion and a shared portion, wherein the shared portion is included in the community internet drive and the private portion is excluded from the community internet drive;

receive, from the first client machine, a first user profile associated with a first user;

receive, from the first client machine, a request for control of a first namespace, wherein the first namespace provides a reference for access to first content stored in the shared portion of the local storage drive of the first client machine;

wherein the first content is associated with the first user; and

provide control of the first namespace to the first client machine, wherein control of the first namespace enables the first client machine to specify allowed access to the first content within the first namespace, and wherein control of the first namespace is required to publish any content under the namespace.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further caused to:

receive, from the first client machine, identification of one or more additional users to be included in a first in-group associated with the first user profile.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further caused to:

receive, from a second client machine, a request to access the first namespace; and

upon determining that a second user accessing the second client machine is in the first in-group, enable the second client machine to access the first content via the first namespace, the second user associated with a second user profile.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first content is encrypted.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, further caused to transmit notification to users in the first in-group when the first namespace is updated.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, further caused to:

store a portion of the first content in a shared portion of a second client machine, wherein the portion of the first content is only accessible to those users in the first in-group.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further caused to create a first uniform resource identifier for at least one instance of the first content.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further caused to:

receive encrypted second content from the first client machine;

stored the encrypted second content in the community internet drive;

receive a key from a third client machine, wherein the first client machine provided the key to the third client machine; and

upon verifying the key, enable the third client machine to decrypt and access the encrypted second content.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, further caused to:

receive, from the second client machine, identification of one or more additional users to be included in a second in-group associated with the second user profile;

receive, from the second client machine, a request for control of a second namespace, wherein the second namespace provides a reference for access to third content stored in the community internet drive;

wherein the third content is associated with the second user;

provide control of the second namespace to the second client machine, wherein control of the second namespace enables the second client machine to specify allowed access to the third content within the second namespace, and wherein control of the second namespace is required to publish any content under the second namespace.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further caused to one of restrict access or provide continuous access to the first content when the first client machine is offline.

11. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer program instructions stored therein, said instructions when executed by a processor manage a community internet drive by causing the computer program product to:

receive, from a first client machine, a request to be included in the community internet drive;

generate configuration data;

transmit the configuration data to the first client machine, wherein the configuration data is executable by the first client machine to partition a local storage device of the first client machine into a private portion and a shared portion, wherein the shared portion is included in the community internet drive and the private portion is excluded from the community internet drive;

receive, from the first client machine, a first user profile associated with a first user;

receive, from the first client machine, a request for control of a first namespace, wherein the first namespace provides a reference for access to first content stored in the shared portion of the local storage drive of the first client machine;

wherein the first content is associated with the first user; and

provide control of the first namespace to the first client machine, wherein control of the first namespace enables the first client machine to specify allowed access to the first content within the first namespace, and wherein control of the first namespace is required to publish any content under the namespace.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further caused to:

receive, from the first client machine, identification of one or more additional users to be included in a first in-group associated with the first user profile.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further caused to:

receive, from a second client machine, a request to access the first namespace; and

upon determining that a second user accessing the second client machine is in the first in-group, enable the second client machine to access the first content via the first namespace, the second user associated with a second user profile.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the first content is encrypted.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, further caused to transmit notifications to users in the first in-group when the first namespace is updated.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, further caused to:

store a portion of the first content in a shared portion of a second client machine, wherein the portion of the first content is only accessible to those users in the first in-group.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, further caused to create a first uniform resource identifier for at least one instance of the first content.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, further caused to:

receive encrypted second content from the first client machine;

stored the encrypted second content in the community internet drive;

receive a key from a third client machine, wherein the first client machine provided the key to the third client machine; and

upon verifying the key, enable the third client machine to decrypt and access the encrypted second content.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, further caused to:

receive, from the second client machine, identification of one or more additional users to be included in a second in-group associated with the second user profile;

receive, from the second client machine, a request for control of a second namespace, wherein the second namespace provides a reference for access to third content stored in the community internet drive;

wherein the third content is associated with the second user;

provide control of the second namespace to the second client machine, wherein control of the second namespace enables the second client machine to specify allowed access to the third content within the second namespace, and wherein control of the second namespace is required to publish any content under the second namespace.

20. The computer program product of claim 11, further caused to one of restrict access or provide continuous access to the first content when the first client machine is offline.

21. The computer program product of claim 11, further caused to:

receive, from a fourth client machine, the first user profile associated with the first user; and

provide control of the first namespace to the fourth client machine.