- The
Parable of Umbrellas and Taxicabs by: Clay Shirky 01/18/01
This article compares the differing abilities of P2P systems to react to increased
demand to the availability of taxicabs vs umbrellas in New York City when
it begins to rain: "As soon as the first few drops fall, people appear
on the street selling cheap umbrellas, while a lucky few pedestrians occupy
all the available cabs." While some P2P systems (Napster, for example)
produce extra supply with each demand, others, such as Popular Power, do not,
and must be willing to compensate users for their computing time. It further
explains that "Cycles, disk space, and bandwidth are like taxis: They
are resources that get provisioned up front and are used variably from then
on." The article then suggests several options for compensating users
and comments on the neccessity of having the most open framework and the most
installed clients for success in a P2P network.
- The
Power of Peer-To-Peer By: Paul McDougall. 08/28/00
Napster-style computing is going corporate. The potential benefits are so
great, in fact, that Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Intel now want to standardize
and commercialize the technology. They, along with several startups, last
week launched the Peer-to-Peer Working Group, a consortium whose goal is to
give businesses the benefits of peer-to-peer computing. These benefits could
be among others: resource sharing, support of sophisticated business processes
such as supply-chain management and distributed computing.
- Intel
Says: Think Like Napster By: Leander Kahney. 08/24/00
An Intel executive said Napster and programs like it will transform the Internet
as profoundly as the first Web browser. Peer-to-peer networks allow any Net-connected
computer to talk to any other without having to go to centralized servers.
The executive announced the formation of the peer-to-peer working group www.peer-to-peerwg.org, a consortium
of 19 companies that are mostly distributed computing startups but also including
IBM and HP. The group intends to establish standards for management and security,
define protocols, and hammer solutions.
- Intel:
The future is peer-to-peer By: John G. Spooner. 08/24/00
The peer-to-peer networking revolution championed by Napster will change computing,
Intel Corp. believes. Its overall peer-to-peer networking vision expects consumers
and companies alike to create "self-organizing webs". Collaboration,
distributed computing, file serving, edge services and intelligent agents
are five possible applications for peer-to-peer networking or business, Pat
Gelsinger, Intel's chief technology officer outlined.
- Peer to Peer Working Group
Is a consortium for advancement of infrastructure standards for peer-to-peer
computing. Their goal is to develop infrastructure standards to enable peer-to-peer
computing everywhere. Its 18 members are: AppleSoup,
Applied MetaComputing, CenterSpan,
Distributed Science, Dotcast,
Enfish Technology, Engenia
Software, Entropia, Groove
Networks, HP, IBM,
Intel, Kalepa,
MangoSoft, Static,
United Devices, Uprizer, and Vtel.