Freenet founder launches business P2P product

NEWS

Uprizer, a start-up co-founded by one of peer-to-peer's chief ideologues, plans to release its first product on Wednesday, aiming at businesses that want to broadcast video and other presentations in-house. That's a far cry from the radical anticensorship drive of co-founder Ian Clarke, whose Freenet project which first brought him and Uprizer into the public eye. But it's also one of the first examples of the underground file-swapping technology being retooled into a product. Uprizer is focused on using file-swapping technology to efficiently distribute content, tapping unused personal computer hard drive space and Net connections to host streaming video and other presentations. Other companies, including Kontiki and Red Swoosh, are also pursuing this goal. "We really enable companies to take advantage of unused assets at the edge of the network that they've already paid for," said Uprizer chief executive Dave Scantling. The company is part of a growing move to tap the resources of ordinary personal computers in the service of corporate or collective computing tasks. Drawing from the technical momentum built by the file-swapping community in the wake of Napster's meteoric success, the lower-profile drive has pushed for peer-to-peer technology to supplement basic Net functions such as file downloads and streaming video. None of the companies has made substantial progress into the market. Kontiki is the most advanced of the companies, with venture funding exceeding $18m and customers that include AOL Time Warner, Amazon.com and Palm. The technology concept has also been adopted, albeit with a different business model, by a company called Brilliant Digital Entertainment, which is distributing its own peer-to-peer content distribution software called Altnet along with the popular Kazaa file-swapping software. The beginnings of that network have already been installed on millions of personal computers, but they have caused some controversy as consumers slowly learned what Brilliant's software would do. The Uprizer technology is based loosely on Freenet's system of distributing content. A video file would be put in a central server and would migrate around a network of other computers as different people needed to use it. If many people wanted to stream a chief executive's video message at the same time, some people would be watching it as it was stored on other employee's personal computers, for example. Clarke, chief technology officer of Uprizer, and Scantling say they are initially targeting corporations who want to show this kind of executive video message or want to give their employees video training sessions. They said they are providing big companies with a free 30-day trial to test their claims of cost savings. Although analysts have applauded the notion of storing content as close to individual users as possible, some say going so far as to use employees' or personal computers isn't necessary. Hard drive space and processors are cheap enough that a company could simply buy a few extra computers and use those to hold and distribute video or other content, according to Peter Christy, founder of Nets Edge Research Group.

More enterprise IT news in ZDNet UK's Tech Update Channel.

For a weekly round-up of the enterprise IT news, sign up for the Tech Update newsletter. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

@Jack, > Works really well for thieves.... Nice attempt to deflect the argument by tossing in a point that's totally irrelevant, even it were...

58 minutes ago by BrownieBoy on AMD Ultrathins to challenge Intel Ultrabooks

Make that 13 people now - I got refused today at Manchester airport. I thought I was up to date on this legislation - I knew of the EU ruling from...

4 hours ago by bootlegger on UK airport body scans will not be opt out

Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...

7 hours ago by tinycg on Four top iPad apps for people on the move

Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly? I thought perhaps it was something to do with...

11 hours ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...

21 hours ago by Freebies202 on Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source

"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...

1 day ago by Marg Menzies Harrison via Facebook on 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick... Kubuntu is late. Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions. cf.:...

1 day ago by zdnetukuser on Linux Minterface

@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...

1 day ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system." Point truly missed. Both use a...

2 days ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article. I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...

2 days ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...

2 days ago by Dennis Nilsson via Facebook on ACTA stumbles in Germany

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

2 days ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

2 days ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

2 days ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

2 days ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

2 days ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

2 days ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Freenet founder launches business P2P product

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Stealth P2P network hides inside Kazaa

Kazaa exec defends sleeper software

What's hidden in your hard drive?

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

PHP Web Developer - html, css, javascript

Java Developer, Online Gaming, London

Quant Dev, Hedge Fund, FX, Excel VBA

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Make faster, smarter decisions using BI

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Freenet founder launches business P2P product

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features