[gutvol-w] Re: Distributing metalinks for the Gutenberg project

[Greg Newby]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 01:05:59PM +0100, Bram Neijt wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm a developer on the metalinks project and I would like to see if I
> could help with project gutenberg file distribution/mirroring by
> introducing metalinks or adding dynamically generated metalinks using
> dynmirror.net.

Sorry your message got missed the first time, Bram.  We haven't
used the -w list much lately....the -p and -d are more active.

> Metalinks are XML files which describe multiple mirrors and optionally
> multiple files. They help with distributing the load over the different
> mirrors and provide a more care-free download of multiple files. It is
> not a P2P system, although it is easy to include a link to a torrent
> file or other P2P links.

This would definitely be of interest, though it's not really
a pain point for us.  Our good friends at iBiblio have plenty
of bandwidth, and most of our downloads are not that large.

We would not mind seamlessly directing traffic to geographically 
appropriate download locations, though.  Currently, it's
something the human needs to do explicitely.  

It would be good to hear more from you about how this might
integrate with www.gutenberg.org.
  -- Greg

> More information is available at:
> http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/metalinks/wiki/WhatAreMetalinks
> and
> http://metalinker.org/
> 
> I'm going to be on a vacation the upcoming week, but I would like to
> hear from all of you if I could help with implementing metalinks for the
> gutenberg project and/or answer any questions you may have.
> 
> 
> Greetings,
>   Bram Neijt
> 
> PS I first wrote this message to webmaster2010, but that returned with
> a failure.

I think this is fixed, now.  At least for webmaster2010 at pglaf.org

Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation http://gutenberg.org
A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with EIN 64-6221541
gbnewby at pglaf.org