Online Collaboration Tools

With the introduction of the WebRTC protocol, any browser wanting to become a vehicle for P2P real-time communications, that requires no software downloads or central servers, can now do so.

"In real terms, WebRTC enables features such as videochat, VoIP calling, and peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, all within the browser."

One of the first apps taking advantage of the new protocol is Sharefest, an open-source browser-based app which allows you to send any file of any size to anyone that has its reference link. Just like a P2P torrent file the more people downloading it the easier and faster the transfer will be.

Sharefest essentially let's other people securely connect directly to your computer via the WebRTC protocol and to initiate a mesh, distributed file download that draws on your original file as well as on the parts of it already downloaded by others.

It goes without saying that you need to keep your computer on for this file transfer to take place unattended. 

"Sharefest operates on a mesh network similar to BitTorrent and all transfers are executed peer-to-peer. Files can be shared with many people at once and the technology can swarm to speed up transfers, just like BitTorrent. It’s Open Source and apart from Chrome or Firefox, no additional software is required."

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/the-easiest-way-in-the-world-to-share-files-p2p-and-how-it-works-130706/ 

"Sure, you could use Dropbox, YouSendIt, or even BitTorrent sync to do the same thing, but with Sharefest there's no extra software to install; no account registration; there's no centrally located server on which file delivery depends. And once other users download the file, they can expand the network as well, providing additional peer-sharing power."

Source: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-57591025-12/new-firefox-22-enables-browser-based-file-sharing/ 

My comment: Excellent direct P2P file-sharing tool, has no limitations in terms of file size, speed or number of people that you can distribute it to. Super-easy to use, free and open-source. Hard to beat.

N.B.: Currently, it works only with files under 250 MB (MioBook reports)

Free to use. 

No downloads and no registration required.

Try it out now: https://www.sharefest.me/ 

FAQ: https://www.sharefest.me/faq 

About info: https://github.com/peer5/sharefest#about 

Find out more of the tech works: http://torrentfreak.com/the-easiest-way-in-the-world-to-share-files-p2p-and-how-it-works-130706/ 

Check this presentation about WebRTC: http://www.slideshare.net/HadarWeiss1/peer5-webrtc-amdocs 

PaddleOver is a free P2P, Bittorrent-based browser plugin which allows you to share, send and receive any kind of file of whatever size to anyone you want without having to first upload your file to a dedicated service and then waiting for the other party to download your file.

With PaddleOver you can share and invite one or multiple parties to your files in no time at all. Post to Facebook, Twitter or invite via email without limits to number of files shared, invitees, or file size.

Works on PC, Mac, Linux.

Free to use.

Try it out now: http://paddleover.com/ 

RetroShare is a cross-platform, open-source, trusted and distributed P2P communication software and social sharing network.

Retroshare allows you to chat and share files of any size with your friends and family, using a web-of-trust to authenticate peers and OpenSSL to encrypt all communication.

RetroShare provides filesharing, chat, messages, forums and channels. Other key features include:

• Serverless, completely decentralised

• Multiple simultaneous downloads / uploads
• Search Friends
• Messages
• Forums
• Channels
• Voice over IP
• Instant messaging
• Groupchat
• GnuPG Authentication
• OpenSSL Encryption
• adding downloads via website links
• Plugins support
• UPnP / NAT-PMP port forwarding support
• Graphical User Interface written with Qt4 toolkit
• System tray integration

RetroShare has been inspired by the design of the Turtle algorithm:

"When designing Turtle, we were inspired by the way people living under oppressive regimes share information deemed "hostile" by their government (this can be books, newsletters, video and audio recordings, or even political jokes). Because of the potentially very serious consequences raising from being caught possessing/distributing such material, no single individual is willing to share it, except with close friends. Experience has repeatedly shown that, even in the most repressive environments, this "friends-to-friends" delivery network is remarkably effective in disseminating information, with relatively little risks for the participating parties; if one chooses his friends carefully, the chance of being caught doing the forbidden exchanges becomes very small."

Retroshare "... makes it difficult to intrude and hardly possible to monitor from an external point of view." This makes government monitoring and prosecution impossible beyond the will of Retroshare users

Free to use.

Find out more: http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/

Screenshots: http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html

Download (Mac, PC & Linux): http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/downloads.html 

(Thanks to Sepp Hasslberger)