Tubes Networks at DEMO 2007 announces Tubes

  Tubes Networks has announced a new version of Tubes, a P2P file sharing and synching application. There are lots of different file sharing utilities out there, but most of them don't synch files across your own devices, or synch files to other users. Tubes is a really simple and fast way to share files and keep changes synchronized.

“Tubes unleashes your content – making it simultaneously available both on your computer and on the web – just by putting your stuff in what we call a ’tube.’ Make a change to anything in any tube on your desktop and the web version instantly updates along with the copy on subscriber’s computers and vice versa.” said John Van Siclen, CEO of Tubes Networks. “Think of Tubes as synchronized media distribution and social sharing with a level of security, control and accessibility never available before.”

I have written about Tubes before, but there are lots of new features in the new version announced at DEMO 2007. The new features include;

TubeSites: Drag-and-Drop Web Site Creation: A tubeSite is a private website that Tubes creates automatically for each tube. Anytime anyone adds or removes files, Tubes automatically updates the tubeSite. Users can have as many tubeSites as they want – all with different users, structure and access privileges. These instant websites can host any type of files such as HD video, music, even Microsoft Office documents.

Social Network Creation: Users create their own networks simply by sending invitations via email. Invited users can be assigned different roles dictating their ability to edit or contribute content in the tube.

URL access to any file on the desktop: With Tubes, simply right-clicking on any file in any tube provides a unique URL to that file. Simply email that URL to a friend or colleague and that file – on your desktop – is accessible over the web. Make changes to that file – on your computer – and the URL still points to the updated version.Tubes provides privacy controls, allowing users to assign different access rights to anyone at any time, even authorizing them to contribute to a group tubeSite. TubeSites can be made private or public at any time.

Public/Private Content Sharing: Tubes provides privacy controls, allowing users to assign different access rights to anyone at any time, even authorizing them to contribute to a group tubeSite. TubeSites can be made private or public at any time.

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Comments

[Don - Needs Slot Machine Tips]

Can I add something?

TubesNow didn’t quite make it, but there’s a new guy on the scene that looks to operate under the same premise (sharing media with friends in a buddy-system environment). There’s one thing that works really well with YouTube content, and that’s its shareability. The ability to share that video content within the YouTube network, amongst friends and across websites is key to YouTube’s success, and has become a standard in its own right (all hail the widget). What YouTube does to enable such shareability is encode the video upon its being uploaded to the site.

Now theoretically, take a system like TubesNow, or more familiarly like AIM, and combine it with the standardizing power of YouTube, and you’ve got DoubleTwist. This new site is offering a downloadable application that looks to quickly convert files to become standard in a way that they can be shared amongst friends, regardless of their device. That means cell phones of all makes and variations, game consoles, set-top boxes, computers, etc. Well, there is one catch: DoubleTwist won’t have support for Macs for another couple of months. But you get the idea.

What’s good about DoubleTwist is that it’s operating from a concept that content should be standardized in a manner that’s device and system agnostic, making content shareable in ways that would otherwise have been more discouraging or down right impossible. It’s a concept that makes perfect sense, and it’s one that’s being slowly integrated on various levels.

In learning about DoubleTwist, I actually thought back to a conversation I had with Anu Kirk over at Rhapsody where he envisioned a world in which your digital music was made available to you from any device: your television, your cell phone, your computer, your mp3 player. That’s quickly becoming a reality, as Rhapsody can now be accessed through your TiVo set-top box, your MOG account, and countless other accounts you have lurking out there. Why not have more syncing options for your personal media files? Why not share content from the web to your PSP?

There’s a good amount of backend development required to halfway achieve such a feat, so in DoubleTwist’s efforts to “standardize and sync” all of your personal media, the project could quickly become massive, and prove an alternative for things like online “desktops.” But it will be its integration and distribution strategies that I will be most interested in witnessing, as making such content available in practical manners, especially for sharing purposes, is further developed.

[Don]

Can I add something about p2p file sharing? There is always confusion here:

File sharing usually follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users. Most people who engage in file sharing on the Internet both provide (upload) files and receive files (download).

P2P file sharing is distinct from file trading in that downloading files from a P2P network does not require uploading, although some networks either provide incentives for uploading such as credits or forcing the sharing of files being currently downloaded.

Webhosting is also used for file-sharing, since it makes it possible to exchange privately. In small communities popular files can be distributed very quickly and efficiently. Web hosters are independent of each other; therefore contents are not distributed further. Other terms for this are one-click hosting and web-based sharing.