Annenberg Media seeks to create an educational content distribution network that will increase the speed of Internet streaming access to its video resources. To achieve this, Annenberg Media seeks partnerships with educational institutions that can host "mirror sites" of Annenberg Media videos, to serve specific geographic areas (that can be defined by city or state name, or zip codes).

[Top]

A mirror site is a Web site that holds the same files (a "mirror") as another site so that traffic can be spread around, in order to improve performance and reliability. Annenberg Media is seeking institutions that will mirror the video files only, not all of learner.org, so that users from a given geographic area can watch videos with less chance of network congestion.

[Top]

A mirror site provides adequate storage space (approximately 300 gigabytes for almost 1000 hours of video programming) on a server capable of serving Windows Media Player files. The mirror site then needs to provide—as needed, not dedicated—the outbound bandwidth necessary to stream these videos to users in a designated geographic area.

[Top]

There is no fee to become a mirror site, nor is there a fee for the digitized files Annenberg Media provides. Equipment costs are the responsibility of the mirror site, and will vary from site to site depending on existing infrastructure as well as institution-specific IT preferences and practices.

[Top]

We do not dictate any technical specifications for the server, other than 300 Gigabytes of storage capacity, and the ability to serve 300 kbps Windows Media Player files, with adequate bandwidth to provide for your audience.

[Top]

This will depend on how widely the resources are promoted to your audience, and how widely broadband has been rolled out in the state or region you are serving. Several mid-sized state mirrors have reported traffic bursting to between 10 and 15 megabits.

[Top]

Annenberg Media is seeking partners with a vested interest in serving their educational community so that this would be a quid pro quo arrangement—Annenberg Media provides the content, the mirror site provides the server space and outbound bandwidth. Annenberg Media does not provide financial support to mirror sites.

[Top]

[Top]

We do not provide statistics, nor do we require any statistical reporting.

[Top]

Annenberg Media will deliver the video in digitized 300 kbps Windows Media Player 8 files, on a Firewire/USB2 hard drive. The institution copies the files onto their system (and returns the hard drive). Periodic updates, approximately twice a year, will be provided via FTP, DVD or through a network connection convenient to both parties.

[Top]

Users will need a broadband connection to the Internet, Windows Media Player installed on their computer, and JavaScript enabled in their browser. Windows Media Player is available for most popular browsers, on both Mac and Windows operating systems.

[Top]

The Annenberg Media Web site, <www.learner.org> remains the principal entry point to the resources. All users complete a free registration that includes their city, state and zip code. Requests for streaming video received by the Annenberg Media server from users who register from a particular geographic area are re-directed transparently to the corresponding mirror site server.

[Top]

Annenberg Media acknowledges the mirror site by displaying their logo in the video viewer window.

[Top]

[Top]

Annenberg Media would be pleased to extend this broadband network to hundreds of mirror sites—the goal is to make our programs more easily accessible, so the more mirror sites the better. Practically speaking, as we build out this network, we will give implementation priority to those institutions that can serve the largest populations (states and major metropolitan areas), but we welcome all parties, including individual schools and school districts.

[Top]

Please send an email to mirrorsite@learner.org for more information.

[Top]