sending big files (part ii)

Arthur (@fatrat) suggested Zend.to as a solution to the problem of sending big files. It certainly seems to tick the boxes:

• you run it on a server owned by you - no nasty questions of trust and third party intermediaries using transit servers in Ktoznaetistan
  
• you tie it into local authentication making it easy for your users to exchange files
• it presumes that if you are a home user and are sending the file to an external user the external user is known to you
• it does some standard address verification if the external user wishes to send a file to an internal user - again there is a presumption that the recipient will know/recognise the email address of the originator

and this works rather well i a consenting adults sort of way allowing people to exchange files. It also bypasses the rather ticklish problem of what to do with users outside of your shibboleth access federation, say from commercial partners of small reasearch institutions without an IdP, or indeed from institutions overseas whose IdP is not part of a federation your home federation recognises.

I also guess it would be possible to add shibboleth authentication as an option for originators for added verification for cross institutional collaboration...