Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to share audio/video clips on a network. A clip comprising a collection of formatted frames is stored on a proprietary file system that is hosted by a server. A lightweight application programming interface (API) enables communication with the server, exposes clip information for clips on the proprietary file system through a tree-like hierarchy, and enables a clip to be referred to anywhere on a network independent of underlying storage. In addition, data may be transferred in the background. A background server is coupled to the file system and hosts a background input/output (I/O) plug-in. Further, a background I/O manager receives a request to transfer data and communicates with the plug-in to coordinate the data transfer in the background. Pursuant to the instructions from the manager, the plug-ins transfer the data from the file system to a server(s) in the background.