2. TayegPersonal Digital Library
Digital items that are valuable, saved for years
Photos
Important emails
local and online documents
Typical size: 1,000s - 10,000s
“Digital Shelves”
Internal/external hard drives
DVD disks
Cloud storage
Email folders
3. Tayeg
The Problem: Scaling Problem
Scaling problem – home users do not
have the tools the manage their digital
library
The library is complex as a public library
but is managed like a regular home library
5. Tayeg
Currently Available Alternatives
Utilizing local/cloud directory hierarchy
Cloud/local indexers (Picasa web,
cloudfind, Desktop search engines)
Often file type specific
Backup solutions (Apple time machine)
Often platform/os specific
6. Tayeg
Public Library
Fix location of items
Catalogs
Strict policies
Maintenance procedures
Librarians
7. TayegTayeg Platform
Tayeg Library
Automatic remote backup
Catalog
“Librarian” service
Intuitive user tools
Automation
Open and free
10. TayegSummary
Complete solution for home users to the
“Scaling problem” of personal digital
items
Working POC prototype
Feel free to contact me by phone or by
email and visit www.tayeg.com
Editor's Notes
My name is Rahav Yairi. In this video I will give a short introduction to Tayeg. Tayeg is a project I developed to help home users manage their digital data.
The video covers the problem I try to solve, my proposed solution and the platform I developed
Think of all the digital items you would like to keep for long periods of time. Photos, important emails, documents and data that is relevant to you stored on the web (like online statements)
For many home users we are talking about thousands or tens of thousands of items. These items are typically stored on “digital shelves” – like hard drives, dvd disks or on the cloud
Users simply put their data on their digital shelves. Users hope that when they will need a specific item they will be able find it. This method is similar to how users keep books in their home libraries.
When the number of items is relatively small, this method works fine. But as the number of items increases problems start to appear…
In the end users do not know which items were stored in the digital library and which were not,
Items get lost and the user is not aware of that.
Items are hard to find
Items are not backed up properly, which means that in case of theft, fire, user errors, hardware failures etc users may lose items for good.
There are tools in the market, some are widely used, for dealing with each of the problems I listed above: there are tools for long term storage, there are tools for indexing and querying items, and there are tools for backup. But as I will show later, current tools only give partial solution to the scaling problem. Tayeg’s goal is to fill these gaps.
So how did public libraries solve the scaling problem for non-digital items? What do public libraries have that home libraries do not have?
First, Each item in a library has a dedicated and fixed location
Public libraries have catalogs, each item has a catalog entry that keeps the item location and item properties
There are strict policies for adding, accessing and removing items from the library
There are continuous maintenance procedures for detecting any failures: missing or torn books, incorrect catalog entries etc.
And finally there are Librarians that are responsible for maintenance and for enforcing library policies
Public libraries were the inspiration for the tayeg architecture. The tayeg platform was implemented in Java and supports the following features:
The tayeg library is a managed storage area where files can be stored. Files in the library can be added and accessed only using the Tayeg tools or Tayeg API. Files in the library have fixed location and once entered to the library files cannot be modified or moved
When an file is added to the library a remote backup copy is automatically created .
The catalog, which is implemented on top of a general purpose database, stores item’s metadata, and items’s location.
A librarian service runs continuously in the background and is responsible for maintenance and validation tasks.
The end user does not have to be aware of the internals of Tayeg as presented above. Complexity is hidden by tools with simple and intuitive user interface and by automation. Adding items, setting metadata and other activities can all be automatically initiated by the librarian software .
Tayeg is open and free. Openness means it can be easily customized to the needs of the individual user. Tayeg can be extended by 3rd party developers even after deployment.
Tayeg supports in one system indexing, managed storage and back up. This combination guarantees that all aspects of the scalability problem are addressed. With tayeg, items are not going to get lost, items will be easily found and items will be backed up. When one of this component is missing users may still be subjected to the implications of the scaling problem. For example Apple’s time machine backups aggressively all files and their revisions over time. Items are not lost and items are backed up, but what about searching? With all this accumulated data, will the user be able to find a specific file after 10, 20 or 40 years?
Tayeg is a platform meaning it gives services to the applications that are built on top of it. Here is a list of sample applications that can be built on top of tayeg.
First example, Some utilities company keep user’s statements online. However the utility company may keep statements only of the last 2 years. The user also may lose access to online statements ones he switches to a competitor. The solution is an application, based on tayeg that each month automatically accesses the web site fetches the latest statement parses it and adds it in the tayeg managed storage. A similar application can do the same thing for statements that arrive by email.
The receipt scanner is a mobile app. The user takes photos of receipts using the phone camera, the receipts are parsed using OCR and the photos are stored in the Tayeg library, the user now has access to all his receipts even if some receipts get lost or if all the ink is wiped off. The user can search for a specific receipts based on vendor or date of purchase
Last example, the user is an avid cook, that collects recipes from newspapers, books and from the web. Tayeg collects all recipes to one library, the user can add to each recipe his comments, photos and videos. Recipes will not get lost and the user can easily search his recipe collection based on ingredients, cuisine etc.
With the progress of digitization all households are bound to face scaling problems when it comes to their personal digital assets. Tayeg offers a solution that is independent of file types, operating systems, hardware platforms etc.
As a platform Tayeg can be part of a tool, part of a service or packaged as a standalone application
A working proof of concept prototype was developed and is available for demonstration.
Feel free to visit the tayeg website and contact me if you have any questions or comments regarding tayeg
Thank you
