By Rich Jones, Jan 16, 2012.

I've made a purely browser-based file sharing system. Try it out with the link above or watch the video below.

Motivation

For a long time, I've felt that there has been a void for file-sharing services. There isn't an easy way for a person to share a directory of files and let their friends browse and download directly from them, so that's what I've wanted to make, and that's how DirtyShare got started.

DirtyShare still isn't the situation I've described, as the file transfers still go over a central server over WebSockets (although the data chunks are never stored on the server). However, browser technology will be improved in the next 6 to 12 months with 'WebRTC', which will allow for web-based peer to peer file sharing systems such as the one I described, and I'd like to spur some discussion about those systems and to provide a framework for future systems when the necessary browser enhancements become available.

Get Involved

If you're interested in playing with DirtyShare, you can try it out here, and find the source code here.

If you'd like to discuss future web based peer to peer filesharing systems, please join the webp2p mailing list by sending an email to:

webp2p@librelist.com

which will sign you up to the list.

Thanks!

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