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LibraryBox is an Open Source Server That Runs on Low-Cost Hardware (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the share-thousands-of-books-no-matter-how-far-you-are-out-in-the-boonies dept.

The world is full of wireless servers -- or at least some of it is. There are still many places, including parts of the United States, where you can have all the laptops, smart phones, and other wireless-capable devices you want, but there's no server that caters to them. Enter LibraryBox. It's open source and it runs on a variety of low-cost, low-power hardware. The project's website calls it "portable private digital distribution."

A lot of people obviously like this project and wish it well. LibraryBox ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, hoping for $3000, and raised $33,119. But today's interviewee, Jason Griffey, can explain his project better than we can, so please watch the video (or read the transcript) if you want to learn more about LibraryBox -- including the story behind the project's name. (Alternate Video Link)

47 comments

  1. Do we really need this? by zaft · · Score: 0

    First post? Do we really need yet another file server distro?

    1. Re:Do we really need this? by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      Not really a file server distro, a wireless access point and router combination that intercepts any http/https request and sends it to a certain web server.

    2. Re:Do we really need this? by darkain · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So, a file server service running on top of OpenWRT with a HTTP capture portal? I remember doing this with a WRT54G way back in the day...

    3. Re:Do we really need this? by Anonymous+Psychopath · · Score: 1

      Do we really need yet another file server distro?

      I'm a little more confused around the goal. It's designed to share eBooks in places that have no infrastructure, maybe not even a reliable electrical grid. Okay... but share with what? People in those parts of the world aren't running around with iPads.

      --

      Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

    4. Re:Do we really need this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, they're running around with phones. Phones really have revolutionized the world, all the way down to that one remote village with one phone to share with everyone to let them call in to see what price their crops will bring or whether heading into town will get them all slaughtered. I doubt they have an iphone 6+, and they probably have a candybar nokia, but cheap androids are only getting cheaper and will be in more hands as they do, especially when you have whatever idealist kids going around handing them out.

    5. Re:Do we really need this? by chispito · · Score: 1

      I don't have a smartphone. Are there places in the world where people pay for smartphones without any sort of data plan whatsoever?

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    6. Re:Do we really need this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't have a smartphone. Are there places in the world where people pay for smartphones without any sort of data plan whatsoever?

      2 out of 3 of us have smart phones in my house and don't have a data plan for them. So, yea... Canada.

    7. Re:Do we really need this? by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2

      I doubt they have an iphone 6+, and they probably have a candybar nokia, but cheap androids are only getting cheaper and will be in more hands as they do, especially when you have whatever idealist kids going around handing them out.

      There's probably still a lot of the candybar phones still around, but it was the Huawei IDEOS 8150 that took on the laptop-killer role in sub Saharan Africa all the way back in 2011. They were a quiet revolution in that part of the world, with locally-developed apps for everything from agriculture to healthcare, from disaster response to business and more. This stand-alone WiFi library would be ideal for those areas.

      http://singularityhub.com/2011...

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    8. Re:Do we really need this? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      It's a piratebox. An open-source tool for this already exists.

    9. Re:Do we really need this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My mom, who's deaf, has a smartphone and has no data or voice plan. She does, however have wifi in her house and uses Pinger to text.

    10. Re:Do we really need this? by damien_kane · · Score: 1

      I don't have a smartphone. Are there places in the world where people pay for smartphones without any sort of data plan whatsoever?

      Smartphones still can do a lot with just WiFi, and there are a lot of places with "free" wifi in generic metropolitan areas.
      I know quite a few people with little-to-no data plan; i.e. many with no data-plan at all, and a significant number of people with very little (a few hundred MB)
      Even the "small" data plans are used only for apps like Maps or Mass-Transit info (stuff that you may need while not near wifi); for all of their browsing and such while out of the house, they'll stop in at a Starbucks or something and do it there over wifi.

    11. Re:Do we really need this? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      not quite, it doesn't allow uploading of files

  2. Libraries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Each town typcially has a library. Try it!

    1. Re:Libraries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The best part is that they have "books" that don't require power, batteries, or firmware upgrades!

    2. Re:Libraries by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      No, the best part is the 3D rendering. It's as if you were looking at a real book with real pages!

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    3. Re:Libraries by pangloss · · Score: 1

      No, the best part is the 3D rendering. It's as if you were looking at a real book with real pages!

      Revolutionary! Bringing the BookBook to the masses is an admirable goal.

  3. Roblimo! Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Waasssaaaabbee!

    Hey, man... When's Katz comin' back, huh?

  4. Why do kickstarter funders fall for this? by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This guy got $33,119 from Kickstarter and now he is selling the "Starter Edition" for $150. The starter edition is, in a nutshell, a router that costs $31.24 on Amazon and a stinkin' 16 gig flash drive with some free books from Gutenberg.org on it. And he even wants to sell custom 3d printed boxes for $50 more and little stickers that say "Library Box" that he charges 5 bucks each for. Why do people feel compelled to fund such greed?

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re: Why do kickstarter funders fall for this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Two words: impulse spending

    2. Re:Why do kickstarter funders fall for this? by griffey · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's a particularly cynical way to look at it. :-) I have talked elsewhere about the budget for the Kickstarter, but something like 80% of the total went directly towards fulfilling the rewards, and almost 10% comes off the top for Kickstarter itself and Amazon for processing. Plus the 4% or so of backers that didn't pay, and you're getting a pretty narrow window of $$ here. If you think that people doing Kickstarters are getting rich, you've never done one yourself. The typical router that we use is $35 or so most days (varies a lot on Amazon), but you have to pay development somehow. Typical markup for commercial products is in the 300% range after you do production, then wholesale price, then retail...this is within that rough amount ($35 for router, $10 or so for USB, plus packaging and such). And that, of course, doesn't take into account actually paying anything at all for development time. All of which ignores the fact that, of course, it's an open source project that anyone can use and install at will. All of the code we've produced is available, for free, for anyone to modify and fork at will. Trust me, if you actually looked at the numbers, there is nothing happening here that isn't by the skin of our teeth.

    3. Re: Why do kickstarter funders fall for this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because people who are not talented or bright enough to achieve their goals throw money at them until they are achieved.

  5. I don't get the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is nothing more than a USB stick gussied up into a router.

    Are suggesting that remotely located people have ethernet, but not USB? Why bother including the router at all and why not just ship out a USB stick by itself?

    After all, "Anywhere there is a lack of open internet access, LibraryBox can bridge the gap of information delivery."

    I just don't get it.

  6. Justify my love by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

    Why do I need one of these? Seriously, I want one, and I could buy the hardware off Amazon for $35 and download an installer for free to make my own. I just can't think of a single legitimate reason why I should have one beyond "it's really neat". Help me, geek brethren and sisthren: why do I need to buy and set one of these up?

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    1. Re:Justify my love by Cley+Faye · · Score: 2

      You.... don't?

      This one is too hard to defend. Sometimes I've been really enthusiastic about small and/or useless stuff on crowdfunding sites and early access stuff, but this is simply overpriced off the shelve hardware with a sticker...

      Well, as long as there are people willing to send money to them, I suppose it's a "good" idea from a commercial point of view...

    2. Re:Justify my love by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2

      To clarify: I want to buy my own $35 hardware and install the downloadable firmware on it, not pay a 300% markup for someone else to do it for me. The project itself looks neat, not the commercial product itself.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    3. Re:Justify my love by swb · · Score: 1

      These would be more interesting if they had more clever features. Uploading and downloading files doesn't seem interesting enough on its own.

      Like maybe a kind of mesh network/anonymous proxy capability or some kind of distributed file system where you could subscribe or publish content that would get automatically replicated between devices when they came in range of each other. Maybe some kind of messaging/bulletin board communications.

      It would take a critical mass of users for something like this to be useful, but it seems like it would be a great way to anonymously connect people/information.

    4. Re:Justify my love by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Like maybe a kind of mesh network/anonymous proxy capability or some kind of distributed file system where you could subscribe or publish content that would get automatically replicated between devices when they came in range of each other. Maybe some kind of messaging/bulletin board communications.

      Ooh, like a cross between Freenet and FidoNet? I'm in. I don't know that this is the right software, but PirateBox shows a lot of potential and runs on the same hardware.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  7. We aren't the target audience... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see several post on here that talk about how we've been able to do this for quite some time now. I can think of several other devices that do the same thing as what this guy made.

    This kind of thing is really good to push onto people that do not have the technical prowess to make their own, or at least follow some instructions on making your own.

    As others have said, any real geek would just buy the cheap router, load custom open source software, and do exactly what he did for a lot less.

    Heck, we could just use a Raspberry Pi to do what he described in the article for less.

    1. Re:We aren't the target audience... by grcumb · · Score: 2

      I see several post on here that talk about how we've been able to do this for quite some time now. I can think of several other devices that do the same thing as what this guy made.

      Yep, just like the Aptus Classroom Without Walls (sorry, PDF only - not my site) or any one of a dozen other attempts at this.

      I am right at this moment putting together the ground work to deliver tablets and computers to some of the most remote areas in the developing world, and we've been looking very carefully at this kind of stuff. Right now, we're leaning heavily toward just reappropriating the software and using better hardware. The big problem with this kind of server-in-a-dongle is that, although it's possible to make a cute knick-knack with a tiny processor, it doesn't handle a class of 40 children (and more) well at all.

      As far as this particular one is concerned: would it be too much to ask to see a listing of the content in this 'library'? I checked the site, and there's basically nothing.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    2. Re:We aren't the target audience... by griffey · · Score: 1

      The "library" is a selection of starter content from archive.org, project gutenberg, and openly licensed content from other sources (Cory Doctorow's corpus, for example). The content itself is largely secondary to the project, and my expectation has always been that people are putting their own set of content on their Librarybox. With that said, I am working to find interesting educational content, and have talked with Project RACHEL (http://rachel.worldpossible.org/) which works very well on a LibraryBox. I would love to be able to provide "content packs" of educational content for various levels and uses. With the new codebase release, I'll work on getting a listing of the default contents up on the website.

    3. Re:We aren't the target audience... by grcumb · · Score: 1

      With that said, I am working to find interesting educational content, and have talked with Project RACHEL (http://rachel.worldpossible.org/) which works very well on a LibraryBox. I would love to be able to provide "content packs" of educational content for various levels and uses.

      Interesting. We're evaluating RACHEL too.

      But please do give some thought to performance. It's underrated as an issue.

      Most people - even many of my colleagues - think that something, anything is better than nothing. And that's true, as far as it goes. Our immediate challenge is getting broadband internet to a part of the world that doesn't have any automation whatsoever, unless you count horses. It's quite remarkable the lengths they're willing to go to in order to see their children's lives improved. But it's equally interesting how people's attitudes change as ease of access improves.

      Right now, there's one village where they need to climb a nearby mountain in order to get mobile coverage. There are phones in the village, but they're few in number and reserved for particular uses. There's almost a tabu built up around their use, and nobody is particularly proficient with them, nor is there much sophistication or even process optimisation in their use. The point is that children can't really get the most out of the material unless it's immediately available all the time. There's enough effort required in terms of language and technological process that even a small amount of additional inconvenience will be enough disincentive for the majority that uptake is no longer generalised.

      Of course, that has to be balanced against being able to run the damn thing at all.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    4. Re:We aren't the target audience... by matmota · · Score: 1

      Is the performance limitation you mention about the number of wireless connections, or the processing power?

      I tried several such devices with the intention of prototyping my own software, but either their CPUs were underpowered or they were unreliable. I got Debian on a GK802 for instance, installed in the internal SD-card so leaving the external slot free, with a USB WiFi dongle in addition to the internal WiFi so that it could work as a gateway to certain web content while serving its own applications. The problem I had was that it did not boot reliably, maybe because the file system got corrupted occasionally when powering off: it does not have a power button.
      Another limitation is the number of simultaneous connections, which was not important for me in the prototype phase.

      At the time there was a device developed for that usage, serving a whole classroom, called the SMILEplug:
      http://www.cnx-software.com/20...
      https://www.globalscaletechnol...

      It used a separate WiFi chip from Marvell that supported up to 60 simultaneous connections, with applications running on NodeJS on what seems to be a standard Debian system.
      I haven't heard about them in a while and suspect they just abandoned the project: http://www.smileconsortium.org...

      Is there some way I could follow your project?
      I'm very interested in the subject, specially in the difficulties and needs found in actual use.
      You can find my e-mail address at my website: http://sentido-labs.com/en/abo...

  8. I like PirateBox better by hot+soldering+iron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://piratebox.cc/

    It's open source, anonymous, keeps no records, and acts as an off-line file-sharing system. you can pack it in your lunchbox, or even smaller. You can have it sitting in the bottom of your backpack, and have everyone in the food court up/downloading *ANYTHING* without worrying about getting nailed by "The Man". I don't think that it would be that hard to have it securely wipe it's storage clean at shutdown or startup, so there is no evidence of anything being stored on it, in case of seizure. It's been out for over a year and runs on multiple platforms.

    --
    When you want something built, come see me. If you want correct grammar and spelling, get a F*ing liberal arts student.
    1. Re:I like PirateBox better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you look at the docs for the librarybox, you will notice that it is just a modified piratebox.

    2. Re:I like PirateBox better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was going to call BS, but then I noticed the following on the "build your own" page:

      Run the command: /etc/init.d/piratebox avahi

    3. Re:I like PirateBox better by griffey · · Score: 5, Informative

      As another poster noted, LibraryBox is a fork of Piratebox (done with the blessing of the Piratebox creator, for what its worth). In fact, the lead developer on both projects is the same person. The Kickstarter funding allowed us to create an entirely new installation process for LibraryBox, which was then backported to PirateBox after the fact. LibraryBox has also produced an internationalization process for the UI that's going to be ported back to Piratebox in a future release. We've freely shared code back and forth at this point. Why a fork in the first place? Because I wanted an anonymous sharing device that was more friendly for use in library and educational situations. Anonymous uploading isn't exactly a welcoming idea for sharing in those circumstances.

    4. Re:I like PirateBox better by felipou · · Score: 1

      I just looooove when the people being bashed in the comments come up defending their position! Thanks a lot for all the info griffey!

    5. Re:I like PirateBox better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm more impressed that Ken Griffey, Jr. has a slashdot account.

  9. Gadget users who think they are nerds... by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 1

    ...are gradually replacing computer operators, even on communities like Slashdot, because time and aging and dying and stuff. Those gadget users who don't understand GPOS's and don't want to...they want stuff like this. To me, it looks like a waste of time, but maybe they'll make some money. Not with my help, though.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  10. How is this different by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    than my 32GB Kingston Wi-Drive or the HP Pocket Playlist knockoff that came later (and I also have for some unfathomable reason)

  11. So LibraryBox works like this? by dixonpete · · Score: 1

    If I have my just laptop and no Internet connection ( besides LibraryBox) I can connect to the LibraryBox wifi signal and goto a set IP address and see and potentially download all the content?

  12. Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whatever this piece of shit is

  13. Wikipedia text is 40 GB by raymorris · · Score: 1

    A recent article noted that the full text of Wikipedia is 40 GB. With a 64 GB or larger stick, you could have Wikipedia and a lot more.

  14. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess I'm not getting it. Wouldn't an old android phone with an SD card running a web server be the same thing, pretty much for free? It seems like it would be a great use for all those old phones sitting in drawers. They're compact, low power and come equipped with touchscreen interfaces, powerful processors, wifi capable and SD card slots (most of them). Hell, these days even a new one can be had for a lot less than this, the last android phone I bought was $99 retail (no contract) and it had a 5" screen, 1.2GHz processor, etc.

    1. Re:Why? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      Wouldn't an old android phone with an SD card running a web server be the same thing, pretty much for free? It seems like it would be a great use for all those old phones sitting in drawers. They're compact, low power and come equipped with touchscreen interfaces, powerful processors, wifi capable and SD card slots (most of them).

      Meet my old Galaxy S1. It also serves as a remote control for my router and my desktop.

      I'm pretty sure all the software I use on it for those things is available on G-Play, even. There's probably better/more secure stuff from alternative sources, but I am fortunate enough to live in a building whose inhabitants seem blissfully unaware that there's even a 5GHz band (since I appear to have it all to myself), so I'm not real worried about anybody leeching copies of old Green Acres shows or what have you.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  15. Bibliotecha by u27039008+ · · Score: 2
    If you a interested in this sort of projects, I recommend checking Bibliotecha for the RPi. Developed by students and enthusiasts interested in light electronic publication sharing infrastructures. It's all free software, humble and to the point:

    Bibliotecha is a framework to facilitate the local distribution of digital publications within a small community. It relies on a microcomputer running open-source software to serve books over a local wifi hotspot. Using the browser to connect to the library one can retrieve or donate texts. Bibliotecha proposes an alternative model of distribution of digital texts that allows specific communities to form and share their own collections.

    http://bibliotecha.info/

  16. tplink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    look like tplink http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-mr3020