The following webpage features WebMirror, a web-native[0] protocol for secure[1],
decentralised[2] access
to files distributed across mirrors.
[0] "Web-native" as in designed with HTTP and modern Web APIs in mind such as Service Workers so that no
additional software nor browser extensions are needed to access files.
[1] Files are addressed by their SHA-256 hash of their content to ensure the authenticity of the data
received from mirrors.
[2] Files can be mirrored by anyone and users can retrieve files from any mirror; no party requires
any permission from any authority.
Digital Commons
Digital commons are defined as information and knowledge resources that are collectively created and owned or
shared between or among a community and that tend to be non-exclusive, that is, be (generally freely) available to
third parties. Thus, they are oriented to favor use and reuse, rather than to exchange as a commodity.
Samples
WebMirror demo
The following section demonstrates how you can use WebMirror to serve distributed images directly from their
mirrors.
Right click on one of the images to open image in new tab. See what its URL looks like and notice how
the
image is loaded just fine.
Use cases: comic/anime websites, serving posters of movies and TV series, ...
Kismet, Man of Fate
Kismet, Man of Fate is a superhero published by Elliot
Publishing Company in the Golden Age of Comic Books. The series features
adventures of an Algerian superhero who was thought lost by the Allies at
the end of World War II. The character originally appeared in Bomber
Comics #1 (1944), making him the first identified Muslim superhero.
WebMirror demo
The following section demonstrates how you can use WebMirror to serve distributed audio files directly from
their
mirrors.
Use cases: distributing podcasts, downloading/streaming audiobooks and music, ...
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV 582) is an organ
piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Presumably composed early in Bach's
career, it is one of his most important and well-known works, and an
important influence on 19th- and 20th-century passacaglias.
WebMirror demo
The following section demonstrates how you can use WebMirror to serve distributed video files directly from
their
mirrors.
Use cases: distributing video podcasts, downloading/streaming movies and TV series, ...
Man with a Movie Camera
Man with a Movie Camera (Russian: Человек с
киноаппаратом, romanized: Chelovek s kinoapparatom) is an
experimental 1929 Soviet silent documentary film, directed by Dziga
Vertov, filmed by his brother Mikhail Kaufman, and edited by Vertov's wife
Yelizaveta Svilova. Kaufman also appears as the eponymous Man of the film.
WebMirror demo
The following section demonstrates how you can use WebMirror, together with MapLibre GL JS, to load map tiles that are distributed
across mirrors.
It also demonstrates how you can use WebMirror in some non-trivial scenarios such as
accessing distributed content dynamically in
a pre-built JavaScript app.
Use cases: serving map tiles
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is a
website that uses an open geographic database which is updated and
maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration.
Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial photo imagery or
satellite imagery, and also import from other freely licensed geodata
sources.
WebMirror demo
This section demonstrates how you can use WebMirror, together with SQLite
and sql.js-httpvfs, to power a distributed static
website to have search functionality that typically requires a backend server to process queries.
It also demonstrates how you can use WebMirror in some non-trivial scenarios such as
accessing distributed content dynamically in
a pre-compiled WebAssembly app.
Use cases: searching distributed content repositories (e.g. Project
Gutenberg)
Open Library
Open Library is an online project intended to create "one
web page for every book ever published". Open Library provides online digital copies in multiple formats, created
from images of many public domain,
out-of-print, and in-print books.
