Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing was on the fast track long before Napster put it on the map for general consumption. P2P is, in fact, a natural offshoot of the Net, where "community" and "sharing" among friends, colleagues, and strangers are prime attractions. P2P networking allows users to connect and collaborate without a central hub governing the […]
The U.S. government is calling for volunteers from the science and technology arena to serve in the National Emergency Technology (NET) Guard. The task force is expected to mobilize at a moment’s notice to repair disruptions to the nation’s communications and technology infrastructure caused by terrorist attacks or other emergencies, according to Internetnews.com. The NET […]
I especially liked Phillip Armour’s idea of viewing projects through the lens of knowledge acquisition ("The Business of Software," Nov. 2002). I work for a European pharmaceutical wholesaler and retailer, currently dealing with the first stages of a project to replace wholesale supply chain systems across Europe in conjunction with a large consulting firm. Though […]
The ACM Fellows Program was established by Council in 1993 to recognize and honor outstanding ACM members for their achievements in computer science and information technology and for their significant contributions to the mission of the ACM. The ACM Fellows serve as distinguished colleagues to whom the ACM and its members look for guidance and […]
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing has both technical and social components. Both these components share the attraction of distributed control, where computers operating as peers collaborate to achieve an end result without a central authority.
The P2P revolution promises freedom from boundaries, censorship, and centralized control. P2P proponents claim the vast untapped resource of personal computers owned by ordinary people can be combined together to build something greater and more reliable than the sum of its parts.
Technologies often come wrapped in stories about politics. These stories may not explain the motives of the technologists, but they do often explain the social energy that propels the technology into the larger world. In the case of P2P technologies, the official engineering story is that computational effort should be distributed to reflect the structure of the problem. But the engineering story does not explain the strong feelings P2P computing often evokes. The strong feelings derive from a political story, often heatedly disavowed by technologists but widespread in the culture: P2P delivers on the Internet's promise of decentralization. By minimizing the role of centralized computing elements, the story goes, P2P systems will be immune to censorship, monopoly, regulation, and other exercises of centralized authority.
The main challenge in P2P computing is to design and implement a robust and scalable distributed system composed of inexpensive, individually unreliable computers in unrelated administrative domains. The participants in a typical P2P system might include computers at homes, schools, and businesses, and can grow to several million concurrent participants.
P2P file-sharing systems enable their users to share files directly among themselves without the need for a central file server. They form one of the most well-known categories of P2P systems, thanks largely to the Napster controversy and its appeal to the large potential user base. At its peak, Napster boasted a registered user base of 70 million [9] and 1.57 million simultaneous users. Now, after Napster's downfall, over 50 systems have taken its place. The files shared through these systems include not only music files but also videos, audio books, and pictures. P2P file-sharing applications account for five of the top 10 downloads from the download.com Web site, together representing over 4.5 million downloads in the last week of June 2002 alone. Also, as of June 2002, 19% of Americans over age 12 (about 40 million users) have downloaded music files from these systems, according to cyberatlas.internet.com. These systems are interesting in many ways. They blur the distinction between server, client, and router because individual computers fill these roles, communicating and sharing resources without dedicated servers [6]. They challenge the ability to enforce copyright. They form a backbone for other types of P2P applications, such as groupware and content distribution.
The Enterprise Object Model captures and transforms user requirements into detailed configuration settings for ERP software, reducing ERP system configuration effort and maintenance costs.
Understanding the sociotechnical aspects of Internet growth helps anticipate Internet diffusion, even in countries with vastly different socioeconomic conditions and telecommunication infrastructures.
Want to incorporate the Internet into your business strategy? Be sure you have a sound business plan, a product that people (with enough money) want to buy, and management, employees, and contractors able to implement and use the technology.
Because of rampant security vulnerabilities, ever-present risks of misuse by insiders, and possibilities for penetrations by outsiders, there are many needs for comprehensive computer system accountability—that is, the ability to know definitively what is transpiring, particularly during and after accidents and intentional misuse. Unfortunately, security typically focuses overly on confidentiality, with integrity, availability, strong authentication, […]
