COMMUNITY INTERNET DRIVE

• US 20140317225A1
• Filed: 04/09/2014
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Planetary Data, LLC
• Original Assignee: Planetary Data, LLC
• Inventors: McEntee, Robert Alan
• Granted Patent: US 9,800,464 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/216
• 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. A method of managing data on a machine, comprising:

generating, by a first user machine, a request to be included in a community internet drive, wherein the first user machine is a non-commercial machine used predominately for personal computing by a first user;

transmitting the request to a remote machine;

receiving, from the remote machine, configuration data;

executing the configuration data including partitioning a local storage device of the first user 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;

generating a first user profile associated with the first user, wherein the first user profile identifies a second user to be in a group with the first user;

providing the first user profile to the remote machine;

storing first user data associated with the first user in the shared portion of the local storage device, wherein the first user data is encrypted;

receiving third user data associated with a third user, wherein the third user is unassociated with the group including the first user and the second user;

storing the third user data in the shared portion of the local storage device, wherein the third user data is encrypted such that the first user machine is unable to decipher the third user data; and

enabling a second user machine associated with the second user to decipher the first user data stored in the shared portion of the local storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the first user machine to access decrypted data associated with the second user.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising, prior to configuring the first user machine to access the decrypted data associated with the second user, sending a share request from the first user machine to the remote machine.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending the second user machine a notification in response to new data being added, by the first machine, to the shared portion of the local storage device.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

requesting control of a namespace from the remote machine; and

receiving control of the namespace from the remote machine.

6. A system, comprising:

a first user machine that is a non-commercial machine used predominately for personal computing by a first user, comprising;

a local storage device; and

one or more processors configured to;

generate a request to be included in a community internet drive;

cause the request to be transmitted to the remote machine;

receive configuration data provided by the remote machine;

execute the configuration data, including partitioning the local storage device of the first user 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;

generate a first user profile associated with the first user, wherein the first user profile identifies a second user to be in a group with the first user;

cause the first user profile to be provided to the remote machine;

store the first user data in the shared portion of the local storage device, wherein the first user data is encrypted;

receive third user data associated with a third user, wherein the third user is unassociated with the group including the first user and the second user;

store the third user data in the shared portion of the local storage device, wherein the third user data is encrypted such that the first user machine is unable to decipher the third user data; and

enable a second user machine associated with the second user to decipher the first user data stored in the shared portion of the local storage device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first user machine is further configured to access decrypted data associated with the second user.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first user machine is further configured to receive a notification that the second user machine has accepted an invitation to be in the group with the first user machine prior to the first user machine being configured to access the decrypted data associated with the second user.

9. The system of claim 6 further comprising the first user machine being configured to send the second user machine a notification in response to new data being added, by the first machine, to the shared portion of the local storage device.

10. The system of claim 6 further comprising the first user machine being configured to:

request control of a namespace from the remote machine; and

receive control of the namespace from the remote machine.

11-22. -22. (canceled)