LibriVox Forum

I am heading up a project to handle the distribution of our AudioBooks via the BitTorrent technology.

The goal? To provide the entire LibriVox catalog, in whole and in part, to the world via the BitTorrent protocol.

BitTorrenting is a rather strange, yet amazing beast.

If you think of a file as a deck of cards, broken up into 52 very specific and known pieces, then the technology becomes a little easier to imagine.

I start off by sharing my deck of cards to anyone who wants it(I'm the original seeder). I can copy any and all of the cards in my deck, so I never lose anything, of course. Once you've downloaded all the pieces from me, you now have a full deck that you can use.

Now, when a third person comes in and wants a copy, they can ask me for some cards and ask you for some cards. Doesn't matter where they get the individual cards (from you or from me), as long as they end up with a full deck, in the end.

As more people ask for a copy of the deck, there are more people available to make copies of the individual cards, which makes the download much faster than between two people. (You're downloading from a dozen or more people at the same time)

Another interesting aspect is that I don't have to have a complete deck to start sharing copies of the cards I have. If I only have the black cards, and you've only got the red cards...neither of us have a full deck. As we share copies of our cards with each other...we both end up with a complete deck.

All of the files available for torrenting are split into thousands of small pieces which are shared between all the people who elect to be seeds. It's all organized by the client program that you run on your computer, all you have to do is install a program on your computer. It can be setup to automatically download the new audio-books and automatically share them!

If you're willing to provide assistance of any kind, please send me a PM!

I will keep this topic up to date with the current efforts with implementing BitTorrenting on LibriVox.

*EDIT: I am currently unable to seed, due to my explorations of Linux. Will update when I have more news.*

Our first task is to identify active LibriVox Torrents. If you know of any tracker for any of the LibriVox books not on this list, send me a PM and I will add it to the list.

Every one of these has been downloaded by me, and I will continue to seed until I run out of hard drive space.

ClearBits.net
The Black Arrow, a Tale of Two Roses - Robert Louis Stevenson
Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin Abbott Abbott
Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection - Charles Darwin
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Scarlet Pimpernell - Baroness Emmuska Orczy
The Just-So Stories - Rudyard Kipling
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
The Book of Art for Young People - Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
The Sleeper Awakes - H.G. Wells

Helen's Babies - John Habberton
The Prisoner of Zenda - Anthony Hope
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Beowulf

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Psmith in the City - P. G. Wodehouse
The Road To Oz - L Frank Baum

Our second task is to identify any broken torrent links in the LibriVox Catalog.

There have been a number of efforts in the past to implement a BitTorrent implementation for LibriVox. I hope to be more successful, but since we've taken up the torch once again, we have the obligation to clean up the loose ends from previous projects.

If you find any broken torrent links in the catalog, send me a PM and I'll remove it. (If it works, we'll add it to the list above)

As the catalog is a very large collection, it would be difficult to divide it up to any assigned personnel. Short of having specific individuals claim a specific letter of the alphabet to sift through, I have no creative ideas for how to methodically clean up the catalog links. If you do, please let me know. If you do happen to clean up an entire section of the catalog, let me know so I can post it here. That way, we can help people avoid working the same areas over.

As the catalog is a very large collection, it would be difficult to divide it up to any assigned personnel. Short of having specific individuals claim a specific letter of the alphabet to sift through, I have no creative ideas for how to methodically clean up the catalog links. If you do, please let me know. If you do happen to clean up an entire section of the catalog, let me know so I can post it here. That way, we can help people avoid working the same areas over.

I think only MC's can clean up catalog pages. If you like, you can filter the broken torrent links through me, and I'll do it.

Can't you do a Google search on a specific site - something like, "site:librivox.org torrent book"? It will bring up some wiki and forum pages, but I would guess that most of the results would be catalog pages with torrents on them.

I've just heard that twice now, I will certainly have to look into the google site search.

I appreciate the offer to scrub the broken links. I have a few admins willing to clean up the broken links as we find them. Your help is very appreciated.

Thanks for the pointer to Google!

-Matt

All the catalog pages have been scrubbed!

I currently have a Fedora/Apache webserver setup, and I'm learning the logistics of getting a torrent tracker installed. (If anyone can help me with THAT, would make this go quicker)

I hope to have our own dedicated torrent tracker and host setup soon!

-Matt

Fantastic! Thanks, Matt! How funny, I was JUST thinking about this project earlier today, because a new user said he found us via a torrented audiobook (from monova, I think)...

I'm glad you are pluggin away at this Matt. We have listeners in China that can not access internet archive (censorship) but can use torrents!

I'm afraid I am not much help though. Just encouraging you onwards.

Esther

Jonathan Awesome was putting all the M4B books out as bit torrents - I see that they still show up in a Google search, I'm hoping he will return once he has a settled home and internet again. As is obvious I understand the theory but know nothing about the actual doing

Anne

I appreciate the support, both technical and moral!

It's a fun project, and I've had some tough times, so far, trying to learn the technology. I went through the process of setting up a Linux-Apache-MySql-PhP server, even though I had no idea how any of those worked. (Still don't, for the most part. )

I re-dedicated the machine to Windows Vista (pending better ideas and experience). Right now, I am looking for a windows based Torrent tracker software while I wait for Comcast to come and setup my new internet connection.

Pretty soon all the technical side of things will be finished, and I'll be looking to put some books online. I certainly don't have the time and space to put the entire catalog up, yet. If anyone has ideas on how to determine WHICH books should be put up first (and as more space becomes available), please let me know!

-Matt

"Which books" is a good question!

You could hit the monthly stats page: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/monthly.php , pick a month, and then take every 5th book. Heh :)

You could go for what YOU would most like to find on a torrent site.

You could go to our advanced catalog page http://librivox.org/newcatalog/visitor_advanced.php , hit the "genres" link, and put up all the "art" books (random example).

You could put up all the solos by your favorite reader.

This is your project! You can choose whichever books you want; we're not going to argue :) Having some books available via torrent is far better than having none available, so just choose what you want and have fun with it.

Hey, are we still working on this? I have a Linux computer that I would like to dedicate to 24/7 torrents of LV books.

please let me know how to continue.

We are most certainly still working on this, though it is a very slow process since I'm not technically inclined.

Are you familiar enough with Linux, perhaps, to help me setup a LAMP stack out of my home that would serve as a tracker? If so, PLEASE drop me a line!

MatthewMol wrote:We are most certainly still working on this, though it is a very slow process since I'm not technically inclined.

Are you familiar enough with Linux, perhaps, to help me setup a LAMP stack out of my home that would serve as a tracker? If so, PLEASE drop me a line!

i do not know much about setting up a LAMP stack or anything like that, but I do have access to a man in our computer club who can help. Where is the technical information located on our wiki so I can show him what we want to do. ?

At the moment, since this is a bit of a side project, we don't have any part in the Wiki.

The technical details are thus:

I have a blank computer capable of handling any distro of linux desired by the expert. I have chosen Erdgeist's 'opentracker' to host the torrents. However, I am unable to get PhP, MySQL, Linux, and Apache all working together in concert due to my own lack of experience with Linux. I have tried working with Windows as well, but I only have Vista with limited IIS functionality.

I am more than open to other ideas for hosting a tracker, though I think sticking with opentracker is the best answer long-term. If that means buying a better version of windows, or letting someone access my computer remotely, I'm all for it...just need help with the technicals.