Patent ID: 8914837

Claim:
A method, comprising: communicatively coupling a plurality of user devices together in a network, each of the plurality of user devices being located in one of a plurality of customer premises, and each user device comprising: a video input interface to receive video input from a local content source; an audio input interface to receive audio input from the local content source; a video output interface to provide video output to a video display device; an audio output interface to provide audio output to an audio receiver; a video capture device to capture at least one of image data or video data; an audio capture device to capture audio data; a network interface; at least one processor; and a storage medium in communication with the at least one processor; establishing, with a computer, one or more user devices of the plurality of user devices as distributed infrastructure elements of a distributed infrastructure of a cloud computing system to share resources of the one or more user devices with the cloud computing system as part of the distributed infrastructure and host content associated with users separate from users associated with the one or more user devices, the one or more user devices being of a type of user device including one of a gaming console or a dedicated video communication device, and the shared resources including one or more of at least a portion of random access memory of the one or more user devices, at least a portion of nonvolatile storage of the one or more user devices, or at least a portion of processing capacity of the one or more user devices; providing, with the computer, at least one of one or more software applications, customer data, or media content to the one or more user devices for hosting on the one or more user devices within the distributed infrastructure of the cloud computing system, the at least one of one or more software applications, customer data, or media content being associated with the users separate from the users associated with the one or more user devices, on which the at least one of one or more software applications, customer data, or media content are being hosted; monitoring, with the computer, usage of a user device, among the one or more user devices, as a distributed infrastructure element over a first period of time; and determining, with the computer, compensation to an owner of the user device for usage of the user device as a distributed infrastructure element over the first period of time.