|
|
I was listening to a Gillmor Gang broadcast from May 21st and the conversation turned to digital identities, domain key and a host of related topics. Jon Udell pointed out how interesting it is that the less formal (ad hoc as he put it) mechanism of extending DNS via text (TXT) records is being used in all of the current proposals rather than creating a new record type (something I've wondered about in private communications... why not use a new record type? It seems to be a pain and while it might happen eventually, using TXT records gets things done more quickly).
Jon thinks there is a bit of a lesson here about explicit versus generic (and informal) methods for system extension. Time and time again, the generic mechanisms prove sufficient while changes using the more official extension mechanisms are harder to create.
IT Conversations is pretty a neat concept, but I don't see why they don't leverage something a bit more bandwidth friendly (to themselves) like BitTorrent?
Posted by Dave at May 31, 2004 09:44 AMThanks for the kind words, Dave. Steve and the Gillmor Gang are using everyone's feedback to improve this format that's new to all of us.
BitTorrent wouldn't reduce our bandwidth usage since very few people are listening to the on-demand shows simultaneously. BT only helps when users can share in real time. Luckily, Limelight Networks thinks what we're doing is important enough that they've given us access to their worldwide content-delivery network, so bandwidth isn't a problem. Yet.
Posted by: Doug Kaye on May 31, 2004 09:54 AM commLinkYou're quite welcome.
The Gillmor Gang show was really a surprise. I saw something about it and figured it was a one time thing. Then another was announced. And another. Eventually it dawned upon me that this is a recurring show. I think the idea of recorded technical discussions is great. More and more I am finding myself listening to pre-recorded discussion media that is distributed in MP3 format.
BitTorrent wouldn't reduce our bandwidth usage since very few people are listening to the on-demand shows simultaneously. BT only helps when users can share in real time. Luckily, Limelight Networks thinks what we're doing is important enough that they've given us access to their worldwide content-delivery network, so bandwidth isn't a problem. Yet.
It might be worth revisiting later, because I think you can take advantage of BitTorrent as part of the early distribution process. Popular .torrent files seem to stay around for a few weeks at best for most things (e.g. TV episode torrent files). Others seem to stick around for far longer, as long as the original seed location doesn't entirely disappear.
The idea would be to distribute for the first week or so with the fire hose fully open and after that period, turn down the torrent stream to about 5K per second. The seed location is there in case another round of interest pops up and you don't really need to do much besides keeping the seed site active and mostly turned down.
I don't know how others typically do things, but I try to follow the community guidelines and make sure I pass along at least twice what I've pulled down. After that point, I usually end up capping it at around 10K for as long as I keep the client running. For a project like this, clearly aimed at a technically savvy audience, it seems reasonable to give it a shot.
Posted by: Dave Ely on May 31, 2004 04:44 PM commLink