Audio And Video File Distribution With BitTorrent: Prodigem Opens To The Public

Prodigem, the online P2P distribution service for independent artists, musicians and videomakers has finally opened its doors to the public at large.

With a nominal 1-dollar fee you can upload up to 100MB of files and enjoy all of the BitTorrent distributed bandwidth as well as up to 3GB of Prodigem's own.

The times when you had to worry about being slashdotted or pointed out by the New York Times while having a video clip to serve to thousands of sudden visitors is indeed a thing of the past.

Photo credit: Christopher Bruno

Today, I have taken the time to talk again to Gary Lerhaupt, the Stanford Computer Science master student behind this small but truly useful service called Prodigem.

In a more conversational fashion than in the past (I wasn't thinking of recording for publication), I have asked Gary more about the benefits and effectiveness of using its service, and quite a few interesting things have come up, including:

• Updates from me about TheWeblogProject


• the opening of the service to the public at large


• three service offerings with detailed pricing and allowances


• improvements to the system that make it a little bit easier to use (still a long way to go on this one)


• being Slashdotted when posting a video clip


• benefits of using Prodigem over Ourmedia or similar services

 

 

Gary Lerhaupt

Just click the play button here below and wait a few seconds. The audio will start automatically.



Duration: 24'13"
(Excuse the low volume of my microphone, as the recording took place without planning and in it is reflected the spontaneous nature of our conversation)

Download Torrent file - 5.5 MB(.mp3)

or

Download standard .MP3

Reference links and resources mentioned in the interview:
Nessuno TV - http://nessuno.tv
TGBlog - http://www.tgblog.com/
Top-IX - http://www.top-ix.org/uk_home.php
Ourmedia - http://www.ourmedia.org/

Some of you may ask why do more coverage of Prodigem when there are so many other new tools, news items and breaking stories that deserve more attention?

My answer is easy and straightforward:

Prodigem is the type of company that has many of the characteristics that I think are essential to create a new business economy.

Prodigem is, like me, a one-man band. it doesn't use venture capital and it does not have an advertising agency behind it.

Prodigem uses its know-how and resources as effectively as it can, while leveraging the skills, technologies and know-how available out there on the Internet.

Prodigem is an underdog, for which I stand for by default. Not a big company it does compete with much larger realities for a little slice of the coming market pie.

Prodigem is a small little company with a great idea that helps others save lots of money. It does good before asking for money.

Prodigem gives great value for the money it asks and ti delivers 100% of what it promises.

By far not perfect, still a bit too geeky, and missing some truly user-friendly interface to make its use as simple a dialing a call, Prodigem remains one of the most innovative and useful realities out there from which each one of us can learn something good.

Find out more about Prodigem offerings and costs right here.