This is our entry into the 'What would you do with 100 Drobos?' grant/contest sponsored by Data Robotics, Inc.
If we had 100 Drobos:
We have chosen to archive video locally because of our nonprofit mission and the possible un-reliability of commercial services such as YouTube, Blip.tv, etc. They have size limits, length limits, encoding limits, ads, etc. Even with such resources as Archive.org, bandwidth costs become an issue. We believe a distributed solution using Drobos would be awesome!
We would place them at various locations around Davis, CA such as the Davis Library, the Davis Senior Center, school facilities, etc. The Drobos would be networked to the I-net, which is a local fiber loop that is used by the City of Davis, The Davis Joint Unified School District and Davis Media Access. The high speed loop is provided by Comcast under its franchise agreement with the City of Davis for cable services to residents.
The Drobos would then become a shared storage pool for a distributed Community Media Archive. This storage could be accessed by residents at these placement sites using "library" stations which would allow playback and burning of content to DVDs. By having them networked, community members could also easily pull video from other nodes without the speed penalties associated with going out across the commercial internet.
By moving the storage out along the loop we would be able to start having more people upload and download video at convenient locations without having to go through the commercial Internet. In addition there are many many people, especially in rural areas, who still do not have access to broadband internet, either because of access issues or cost. This would allow them the ability to quickly submit/upload video to the archive, as well as use the local "library" stations to watch high quality video produced by community members or quickly burn files to a DVD for viewing at home.
Because the Drobos would be on the I-net, the video could be transferred around the loop quickly to anyone along it without the normal bandwidth costs and traffic penalties. Having the video uploaded at various nodes would also keep the regular internet bandwidth in and out of Davis Media Access (where we have a large local video library) from being choked by large transfers or too many outgoing streams. It would be similar to the load balancing and content distribution networks run by large companies, only with a community media focus.
Davis Media Access currently maintains an ever growing library of locally generated content, however, streaming such content to more than a few people at once is difficult. By moving the storage and access points out, we believe we can create a more robust solution for the community as well as make it easier to submit HD video to the archive. It would also allow for much greater on demand usage of high quality video by the school district. We think 100 Drobos would not only make this possible but make it amazing!
Support our entry by voting at:
www.drobo.com/promos/100drobos/100drobos_gallery.php
Our vote code is: 687787
Or email the code to: