thanks for the responses, there are some interesting ideas here...
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Originally posted by TankGirl
It is possible to have verifiable peer identities also on 100 % decentralized networks. This requires that any two peers communicating with each other for the first time establish a protected communication channel between them and exchange dedicated encryption keys that they can use in their future communications to verify each other's identity. Using encrypted 1-to-1 communications all the way they can maintain an elementary trust relationship on which trusted groups and communities can be built.
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this is an excellent point - i hadn't thought of encryption, although it could possibly become a little cumbersome with large numbers of people involved. for 1-to-1 communication, however, it would provide an extra layer of insurance - being especially useful if the identities were somehow removed temporarily, in that other communication methods such as email could be used to re-establish contact between the two peers.
Quote:
Originally posted by TankGirl
AudioGalaxy made important contributions to the idea of social self-organization but in the centralized environment. I trust that similar ideas will inevitably find their way also to the decentralized p2p, making way for even more exciting applications and networks.
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i loved audiogalaxy, and found it to be superior even to napster at its peak. audiogalaxy-style communities could start on a network of this type if some of the users were willing to run 'indexes' of the network, or individual features like forums, chatrooms and so on using the already-established identities. this would be a great way for a community to grow, and would provide true flexibility, as everyone would have the ability to do whatever they wanted to help the network without having to download and configure a seperate and far more complicated server application.
Quote:
Originally posted by goldenrod
Anyone remember the proggie that combined filesharing with the AOL IM and buddy lists?
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i think you're thinking of aimster (now pretty much dead and known as madster). this seemed like a good idea, but turned out to be more of a gimmick, and just decreased the program's reliability by forcing it to rely on two login servers instead of just one. i never managed to get a single successful download from aimster, and resented the clunky integration with aol im - aimster ran at startup whenever you turned on your computer, just in case you decided to use aol that day!
it's probably better in the long run to create a new im network to 'piggyback' a p2p network on, as relying on existing ones would also mean keeping all of their faults.
ps. thanks for all the welcomes, i'm liking it more here every minute!
