[Design] [cosmo] File sharing on Chandler Hub (osaf.us)

[Priscilla Chung]

I started a discussion on irc on #cosmo last thursday: http:// 
tinyurl.com/yox7dn

I was working out some definitions about all the different target  
users for Chandler Hub (osaf.us) when Mimi had mentioned about file  
sharing on Chandler Hub. It never occurred to me that anyone could  
just put files on Chandler Hub. Since there is no UI to do so, I just  
never thought of it.

In most of our use cases for file sharing was done by users who have  
downloaded the bundle. In our discussion on irc, it seemed that we  
were not limiting anyone to put files to Chandler Hub, at the same  
time we were not encouraging or supporting that kind of use.

So the first question (as katie put it) is to figure out why would we  
want to stop file sharing on Chandler Hub (osaf.us)?

*Why not to allow users from just putting up any files* they want on  
Chandler Hub (most of these are really legal then a technical issues):

+ Do users need to sign up for an account to put files up, if not,  
how do we track and/or *ban* users from putting up anything they  
want. Would we eventually need to track users/ban them from putting  
up files?
+ Are we going have users accept some user agreement in which we  
don't own their content that they put up on the server? What are the  
terms of use? Is this a common thing to do among photos sites, blogs  
hosting service sites, etc.
+ What limits do we put on file access? Are the files completely public?
+ What about malicious behavior? (I'm not sure exactly what, but I'm  
sure ppl can think of some.) Cease and desist (C&D, I heart  
wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cease_and_desist)- if by  
chance there is ever a copy-write infringement with files on the  
server, do we have the means and personnel to search and pull these  
files off the server? I believe this is a requirement imposed by DMCA  
on public servers. Do we even have a good enough search engine to  
pull the files off the server?
+ For example, do we have enough servers to host all the photos I put  
up on Chandler Hub? Do we limit users to using only so much space? (I  
know a lot of photo site already started putting limits on their  
servers) Jared, do you have a plan for sizing the server?

*Reasons to allow users to put files on Chandler Hub*
+ Support for Chandler users to attach files to an item in Chandler  
Desktop/Hub UI. The UI in Chandler desktop/Hub UI does not currently  
support attachments. Perhaps file sharing is a conversation when  
there is the ability to share files through the UI?
+ Will there be a point when someone could build a file sharing,  
where you could share file sharing w/ other ppl. (ie. .mac, but  
even .mac has a limit don't they?)
+ If we're supporting small business it may not matter provided it's  
difficult for the general public to find high risk content stored by  
a single member.

Please note, this is only in reference to Chandler Hub, not the OSAF  
bundle.

In our irc discussion, it sounds like there are ways in which we  
could limit users to only putting up their calendar information. (I  
personally seem to be leaning toward this solution.)

+ morgen: 'once eim is working we could limit DAV puts to .ics  
resources'
+ jared: 'it could be done technically a few different ways, such as  
blocking mime types except for ics, etc.'

What other issues are there?
-Priscilla



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