Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies

From the Publisher: Upstart software projects Napster, Gnutella, and Freenet have dominated newspaper headlines, challenging traditional approaches to content distribution with their revolutionary use of peer-to-peer file-sharing technologies. Reporters try to sort out the ramifications of seemingly ungoverned peer-to-peer networks. Lawyers, business leaders, and social commentators debate the virtues and evils of these bold new distributed systems. But what's really behind such disruptive technologies -- the breakthrough innovations that have rocked the music and media worlds? And what lies ahead? In this book, key peer-to-peer pioneers take us beyond the headlines and hype and show how the technology is changing the way we communicate and exchange information. Those working to advance peer-to-peer as a technology, a business opportunity, and an investment offer their insights into how the technology has evolved and where it's going. They explore the problems they've faced, the solutions they've discovered, the lessons they've learned, and their goals for the future of computer networking. Until now, Internet communities have been limited by the flat interactive qualities of email and network newsgroups, where people can exchange recommendations and ideas but have great difficulty commenting on one another's postings, structuring information, performing searches, and creating summaries. Peer-to-peer challenges the traditional authority of the client/server model, allowing shared information to reside instead with producers and users. Peer-to-peer networks empower users to collaborate on producing and consuming information, adding to it, commenting on it, and building communities around it. This compilation represents the collected wisdom of today's peer-to-peer luminaries. It includes contributions from Gnutella's Gene Kan, Freenet's Brandon Wiley, Jabber's Jeremie Miller, and many others -- plus serious discussions of topics ranging from accountability and trust to security and performance. Fraught with questions and promise, peer-to-peer is sure to remain on the computer industry's center stage for years to come.