#1 Batch Peering of awareNet Instances

[Ronald Wertlen]

Issue:

It is important that many linked awareNet instances be able to exist. This is because often developing areas have local high speed nets with very slow Internet connections. (We expect this to remain for the next 5 - 10 years.) Currently awareNet suggests a hybrid peer network of awareNets with one central instance and several possible remote instances.

Functional Spec:
- information needs to flow in both directions: updates on the central server must be seen remotely and vice-versa
- since all information is bundled centrally, remote sites will see other remote sites information
- all information updates to a site may be batched with exception of chat and presence (who is online)

Non-Functional Spec:
- initially presume only one remote site (Zwelenqaba)
- batched information may be up to 24 hours out of date in both directions (central to remote)
- batched text may be updated faster than batched images
- batch update functionality should not interfere with presence and chat. This implies that in periods of much chatting bandwidth, the batch process should be turned off. It may also be simpler to simply update in the evening when the system is not in use and no one is logged in at the remote site.

[Ronald Wertlen]

We now need to presume 3 remote sites - the schools in Grahamstown and Zwelenqaba and Mpume.