Between Rhizomes and Trees: P2P Information Systems

Loban, Bryn. First Monday 9(10) (4 October 2004)

Loban offers a comprehensive overview of information retrieval that relies on "Peer-to-Peer" (P2P) information systems -- more famously known for music file sharing. He evaluates five desktop P2P information systems: Napster with its clones (OpenNap and eDonkey), and Gnutella and FastTrack (more famously known as Kazaa). What's good about this article is that it gives the reader a very detailed explanation of what P2P is all about: its "self-organizing" characteristics, the emergence of hierarchies of users, etc. Although not specifically mentioned in the article, P2P file sharing also forms the basis for many digital preservation strategies (such as LOCKSS, or Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe). While the author's goal is to compare these various systems and offer suggestions for further study, he simultaneously maps online life in the P2P environment, which comes at a good moment in time for digital librarians who are concerned with "persistent" resource building. He concludes with an evaluation of "ethics" in the P2P community, which, of course, draws upon the very public battles of music file sharing. (Via Current Cites)

Posted by Tom on October 29, 2004