diff --git a/oyster/tasks.py b/oyster/tasks.py
index 82349dd..ad88eb2 100644
--- a/oyster/tasks.py
+++ b/oyster/tasks.py
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 from celery.task.base import Task, PeriodicTask
 from celery.execute import send_task
 
+from pymongo.objectid import ObjectId
+
+from oyster.conf import settings
 from oyster.client import get_configured_client
 
 
@@ -40,3 +43,57 @@ class UpdateTaskScheduler(PeriodicTask):
         for doc in next_set:
             UpdateTask.delay(doc['_id'])
             self.client.db.status.update({}, {'$inc': {'update_queue': 1}})
+
+
+class ExternalStoreTask(Task):
+    """ base class for tasks that push documents to an external store
+
+        when overiding be sure to define
+            external_store
+                short string describing external store (eg. 's3')
+            upload_document(self, doc_id, filedata, metadata)
+                function that uploads the document and returns a unique ID
+    """
+
+    # results go straight to database
+    ignore_result = True
+    # used as a base class
+    abstract = True
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        # one client per process
+        self.client = get_configured_client()
+
+    def run(self, doc_id):
+        # get the document
+        doc = self.client.db.tracked.find_one({'_id': ObjectId(doc_id)})
+        filedata = self.client.get_version(doc['url'])
+
+        # put the document into the data store
+        result = self.upload_document(doc_id, filedata, doc['metadata'])
+
+        doc[self.external_store + '_id'] = result
+        self.client.db.tracked.save(doc, safe=True)
+
+
+    def upload_document(self, doc_id, filedata, metadata):
+        """ abstract method, override on implementations """
+        pass
+
+
+class S3StoreTask(ExternalStoreTask):
+    external_store = 's3'
+
+    import boto
+    s3conn = boto.connect_s3(settings.AWS_KEY, settings.AWS_SECRET)
+
+    def upload_document(self, doc_id, filedata, metadata):
+        """ upload the document to S3 """
+        bucket = self.s3conn.create_bucket(settings.AWS_BUCKET)
+        k = self.boto.s3.Key(bucket)
+        k.key = doc_id
+        k.set_contents_from_string(filedata.read())
+        k.set_acl('public-read')
+
+        url = 'http://%s.s3.amazonaws.com/%s' % (settings.AWS_BUCKET, doc_id)
+        return url