Interview with David Tinkler, CEO of VxO Networks

VxO Networks recently announced Two Degrees, a new media service that incorporates P2P networking in a secure environment. As many of our readers are interested in getting their games and videos and whatnot in a secure and timely fashion, we figured it would be a good opportunity to sit down with David Tinkler, CEO of VxO Networks.

WarCry: Hello, David. Can you tell us who you are and what you do at VxO Networks?

David: Good to speak with you again. My name is David Tinkler and I'm the president and CEO of VxO Networks Inc., based in Toronto, Canada. As we are still a young company, my main role in the company is making sure all the staff have what they need to get their work done, setting the goals that we all work toward, and making sure we deliver solutions to real-world customer needs.

WarCry: Your new product, Two Degrees, is seeing a lot of press lately. Can you give us a glimpse into the feature set of Two Degrees?

David: I'd be happy to. Two Degrees is an online media publishing tool and distributed content management system. It is an online media publishing tool because members make their multimedia available from their web sites easily and cheaply; and it is a distributed content management system due to the fact that our publishing members can control, absolutely, the availability and removal of that media - a unique feature given that it's a distributed network.

Two Degrees has a peer-based back-end, which means that downloads through the network are served from others in the process of receiving the file -- or have already received it -- and not from a central server (or server farm). Downloads are multi-sourced to maximize the delivery speed, and every file published is "fingerprinted" and rechecked each time to ensure the download received is exactly the same as the one requested. If you've ever invested time in a download that didn't run, you'll appreciate this feature in particular, especially given that these days downloads generally are getting bigger in size. Our software client is not only small (590 KB), but, as it has an integrated Internet Explorer browser, it is easy to use and has a familiar interface. The client software generates HTML links (which we call Smartlynks) for every file published which can be put on websites, in newsletters, emails, and such - wherever you put hyperlinks today. When a surfer clicks on those links, the download begins, and as I mentioned earlier, is delivered not from a central server but from the network of peers themselves, those who have or are downloading the same file. All in all, Two Degrees is a very useful little tool that gamers and indeed, anyone with an interest in interactive entertainment should be well served by.

WarCry: How does Two Degrees compare to Bit Torrent, what I've come to understand is a similarly modeled product?

David: Bit Torrent is a neat system, but Two Degrees is altogether a different service and product. Our goal is eliminating obscurity through the persistent availability of the media published. Two Degrees is searchable, and we maintain seed servers to guarantee the highest availability of authorized, complete sources to the entire user population. Perhaps you might put the question to Bram at Bit Torrent directly.

WarCry: How does Two Degrees deal with privacy and security? If I ran a network monitor on my system, would I be able to tell from where I'm receiving a file, or who's getting a file from me?

David: Well, we take privacy and security very seriously indeed - no business today can afford not to. We do not ask for user's names or email addresses when they download the Two Degrees software client, nor do we monitor or track usage by individual members. Users select their own handle, and that is the name other users see when they download or upload files to them. Users are, for all intents and purposes, completely anonymous as they go about their business. You don't need a network monitor to tell who is uploading or downloading a file to/from you, as their handle and bit rate appear as you download-from, or upload-to them.

WarCry: How well does Two Degrees handle common network obstructions like firewalls, routers, NAT, proxies, etc.?

David: Two Degrees handles these as any other software would: it tries its best. The reality is that every network is configured differently - there is no "one size fits all" solution. Two Degrees has the option for users in those environments whereby they can select which port the software uses, depending on which ports are available to be used. If that proves ineffective, the user can ask the administrator to open a port to allow traffic flow. Again, if the network lockdown condition is borne from the network owner fearing the repercussions of the traffic itself, those reasons are moot with respect to Two Degrees.

WarCry: BitTorrent is known by the Slashdot crowd as a good resource for distributing large files in a short amount of time to a large amount of people. However, the rest of the world tends to see it as another medium for spreading pirated files, music, and pornography. Does Two Degrees do anything to limit this sort of usage, or does the company do anything to protect itself from being associated with this sort of general activity?

David: Actually, the view you expressed, I think, could apply to most (if not all) the p2p networks currently in operation.

The short answers to your questions are yes, and yes. We prevent this kind of usage, period. In so doing we protect ourselves, the published content, our customers, and the rights of every user not to be exposed to this kind of content.

Vicarious copyright infringement and the availability of adult media on many p2p networks have introduced an adversarial element to the relationship between artists and fans, businesses and staff, and faculty and students. These should never have existed in the first place: the former wants to protect itself from content-related litigation, the latter wants the best of the net (umm...now!). As Two Degrees publishing privileges are restricted to authorized members, governed by content agreements (and enforced), not only can we guarantee Two Degrees is free of copyright-infringing material, but of adult, or pornographic material as well. This is not a '"marketingese" point, but a critical one to understanding why businesses have become so interested in putting Two Degrees to use for the promotion of their titles and media: they know that they will never have to explain to a parent, school, shareholder, or executive (or family member) why their product is presented surrounded by the most odious, basest material on the web. As you may expect, it's one of the first things about Two Degrees that business people find unique and attractive about Two Degrees, and we have no desire to change that view anytime soon.

WarCry: I see that Two Degrees runs on any sort of Windows platform (95 and greater). What plans do you have of making a Linux or Mac-based client?

David: Well, we looked at both platforms and quickly came to the conclusion that the need simply wasn't there. That sounds a little harsh, I know: Linux isn't really a desktop OS just yet, and Mac games are still unfortunately somewhat rare. Rather than develop software clients for these, we decided instead on a slightly different course of action that, if all goes well, should be well received. My apologies for being cryptic, but that's all I can say about that for the time being. I'll keep you posted....

Thanks for the opportunity to tell WarCry readers about Two Degrees.