Peer Pressure » The Resourceful Web

Peer Pressure » The Resourceful Web: "The Resourceful Web
Tuesday May 03rd 2005, 6:52 pm
Filed under:P2P, Social Software, Social Networks, Software Development, AllPeers

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the time we’ve been working on AllPeers is that P2P is much more about user control than about optimizing resource utilization. When people hear “P2P”, they tend to imagine an architecture that makes more efficient use of bandwidth and/or processing power by eliminating the distinction between clients and servers. And yes, this is certainly part of the picture. But far more important is the fact that P2P applications, done correctly, let individuals contribute new functionality to the network rather than relying on centralized service providers to do it for them. In fact, I’ve taken to calling our architecture “client-centric” because of the preconceived notions that people have about what it means to be P2P."