Community internet drive

• US 8,738,725 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2012
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• 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): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alam, Uzma
• Application Number:
  US13/342,836
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173655A1
• Time in Patent Office: 875 Days
• Field of Search: 709214-216
• 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 machine-implemented method of managing data among a plurality of machines, comprising:

receiving, by circuitry, a first request from a first machine to join a community internet drive managed at least partially by a remote machine;

in response to receiving the first request, transmitting, by the circuitry, data initiating the configuration of the first machine to be part of the community internet drive;

receiving, by the circuitry, a second request from a second machine to join the community internet drive managed at least partially by the remote machine;

in response to receiving the second request, transmitting, by the circuitry, data initiating the configuration of the second machine to be part of the community internet drive;

receiving, by the circuitry, a third request from a third machine to join the community internet drive managed at least partially by the remote machine;

in response to receiving the third request, transmitting, by the circuitry, data initiating the configuration of the third machine to be part of the community internet drive;

receiving, by the circuitry, an indication of first data associated with a first user to be stored in the community internet drive;

causing, by the circuitry, at least a first portion of the first data to be stored on the second machine;

causing, by the circuitry, at least a second portion of the first data to be stored on the third machine;

determining, by the circuitry, a fourth machine has accessed and downloaded a first copy of the first data;

subsequent to determining that the fourth machine has accessed and downloaded the first copy of the first data, generating, by the circuitry, progenitor data indicating that the first copy of the first data is substantively identical to the first data associated with the first user;

receiving, by the circuitry, a request from a fifth machine to access the first copy of the first data; and

in response to receiving the request from the fifth machine to access the first copy of the first data;

identifying, by the circuitry, the first data associated with the first user based on the progenitor data;

determining, by the circuitry, whether the first user has authorized the fifth machine to access the first data; and

in response to determining that the first user has authorized the fifth machine to access the first data, enabling, by the circuitry, the fifth machine to access the first data.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating profile information associated with a first user of the first machine;

determining from the profile information that the first machine is associated with the first user;

determining the fourth machine is associated with a second user, wherein the first user has indicated in the profile information that the second user is in a group authorized to access the first data; and

enabling the fourth machine to access the first data.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a request from the fourth machine to access the first data;

determining the fourth machine is authorized by the first user to access the first data;

in response to receiving the request, determining the first machine is offline;

in response to determining the first machine is offline, determining the second machine and the third machine are online; and

in response to determining the second machine and the third machine are online, enabling the first data to be transferred from one or more of the second machine and the third machine to the fourth machine.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the fourth machine has modified the first copy of the first data; and

in response to determining the copy of the first data is unmodified by the fourth machine, generating progenitor data associated with the first copy indicating the first copy is substantively identical to the first data.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the fourth machine has modified the first copy of the first data; and

in response to determining the copy of the first data was modified by the fourth machine, generating progenitor data associated with the first copy indicating the first copy is a modified version of the first data.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

receiving, by the circuitry, a request from the fifth machine to access the modified version of the first data; and

in response to receiving the request from the fifth machine to access the modified version of the first data;

determining whether the modified version of the first data is available from at least one of the plurality of machines; and

subsequent to determining that the modified version of the first data is unavailable;

identifying, by the circuitry, the first data associated with the first user based on the progenitor data; and

enabling, by the circuitry, the fifth machine to access the first data.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising managing one or more namespaces, wherein at least one namespace of the namespaces is tagged as being a premium namespace for mount points and is offered for a fee.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the fourth machine is the second machine.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating profile information associated with the first user of the first machine; and

determining from the profile information that the first machine is associated with the first user; and

wherein determining whether the first user has authorized the fifth machine is to access the first data includes determining that the fifth machine is associated with a second user, wherein profile information indicates that the second user is in a group authorized to access the first data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

enabling the fifth machine to access the first data includes enabling the fifth machine to access the first data from at least one of the first machine, second machine, third machine and fourth machine when the at least one of the first machine, second machine, third machine and fourth machine are online;

whether the first machine is online is dependent on a first user;

whether the second machine is online is under the control of a second user that is different than the first user; and

whether the third machine is online is under the control of a third user that is different than the first user and the second user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first data is encrypted;

causing the at least the first portion of the first data to be stored on the second machine includes causing the at least the first portion of the first data to be stored on the second machine as encrypted and the second machine is unable to decrypt the first data; and

enabling the fifth machine to access the first data includes enabling the fifth machine to access the first data as unencrypted.

12. A system of managing data among a plurality of machines, comprising:

a server including a processor, wherein the processor is configured to;

receive a first request from a first machine to join a community internet drive managed at least partially by the server;

in response to receiving the first request, initiate the transmission of data causing the first machine to be configured as part of the community internet drive;

receive a second request from a second machine to join the community internet drive managed at least partially by the server;

in response to receiving the second request, initiate the transmission of data causing the second machine to be configured as part of the community internet drive;

receive a third request from a third machine to join the community internet drive managed at least partially by the server;

in response to receiving the third request, initiate the transmission of data causing the third machine to be configured as part of the community internet drive;

receive an indication of first data associated with a first user to be stored in the community internet drive;

cause at least a first portion of the first data to be stored on the second machine;

cause at least a second portion of the first data to be stored on the third machine;

determine a fourth machine has accessed and downloaded a first copy of the first data;

subsequent to determining that the fourth machine has accessed and downloaded the first copy of the first data, generate progenitor data indicating that the first copy of the first data is substantively identical to the first data associated with the first user;

receive a request from a fifth machine to access the first copy of the first data; and

in response to receiving the request from the fifth machine to access the first copy of the first data;

identify the first data associated with the first user based on the progenitor data;

determine whether the first user has authorized the fifth machine to access the first data; and

in response to determining that the first user has authorized the fifth machine to access the first data, enable the fifth machine to access the first data.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to:

generate profile information associated with a first user of the first machine;

determine from the profile information that the first machine is associated with the first user;

determine the fourth machine is associated with a second user, wherein the first user has indicated in the profile information that the second user is in a group authorized to access the first data; and

enable the fourth machine to access the first data.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to:

receive a request from the fourth machine to access the first data;

determine the fourth machine is authorized by the first user to access the first data;

in response to receiving the request, determine the first machine is offline;

in response to determining the first machine is offline, determine the second machine and the third machine are online; and

in response to determining the second machine and the third machine are online, enable the first data to be transferred from one or more of the second machine and the third machine to the fourth machine.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to:

determine whether the fourth machine has modified the first copy of the first data; and

in response to determining the copy of the first data is unmodified by the fourth machine, generate progenitor data associated with the first copy indicating the first copy is substantively identical to the first data.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to:

determine whether the fourth machine has modified the first copy of the first data; and

in response to determining the copy of the first data was modified by the fourth machine, generate progenitor data associated with the first copy indicating the first copy is a modified version of the first data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the circuitry is further configured to:

receive a request from the fifth machine to access the modified version of the first data; and

in response to receiving the request from the fifth machine to access the modified version of the first data;

determine whether the modified version of the first data is available from at least one of the plurality of machines; and

subsequent to determining that the modified version of the first data is unavailable;

identify the first data associated with the first user based on the progenitor data; and

enable the fifth machine to access the first data.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to manage one or more namespaces, wherein at least one namespace of the namespaces is tagged by the system as being a premium namespace for mount points and is offered for a fee.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the fourth machine is the second machine.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the circuitry is further configured to:

generate profile information associated with the first user of the first machine; and

determine from the profile information that the first machine is associated with the first user; and

wherein the circuitry configured to determine whether the first user has authorized the fifth machine is to access the first data includes the circuitry being configured to determine that the fifth machine is associated with a second user, wherein the profile information indicates that the second user is in a group authorized to access the first data.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the circuitry configured to enabling the fifth machine to access the first data includes the circuitry being configured to enable the fifth machine to access the first data from at least one of the first machine, second machine, third machine and fourth machine when the at least one of the first machine, second machine, third machine and fourth machine are online;

whether the first machine is online is dependent on a first user;

whether the second machine is online is under the control of a second user that is different than the first user; and

whether the third machine is online is under the control of a third user that is different than the first user and the second user.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the first data is encrypted;

causing the at least the first portion of the first data to be stored on the second machine includes causing the at least the first portion of the first data to be stored on the second machine as encrypted and the second machine is unable to decrypt the first data; and

enabling the fifth machine to access the first data includes enabling the fifth machine to access the first data as unencrypted.