''Peer To Peer Internet File System '' While Surfing the Net, I happened upon what may be an important development. The proposal for an PeerToPeer Internet FileSystem. No present or proposed system seems to fit my idea of how ideas can be shared and collaborations developed in a PeerToPeer environment. I believe such a system should be distributed rather than centralized for the same reason underlying the original purposes which led to the development of the internet. The principal of which is survivability. Flexibility is a secondary principal. It might be possible for a model to exist which allows references to the PeerToPeer Origination or Reference to be made in existing venues such as AIM, IRC, Existing Wikis or Blogs, and even personal WebSite''''''s. This page begins a compilation of proposals and seeks to promote this as a GoodThing, perhaps the NextBigThing. ---- '''Traditional Internet Model''' Under a traditional internet model, User A places some content into their internet space, User B retrieves data from user A, User C retrieves data from user A. If user A wishes to change the content, they can do so, and the next time user B or C wishes to retrieve the content, they will get updated content. ---- '''Internet Publishing Model''' Under a peer to peer internet publishing model, User A places content into their internet space, User B retrieves the data and it stays on User B's machine. User C can now retrieve the data from either A or B. The tricky bit comes when a user wishes to modify their previously published content. Some possible systems for doing this are: * '''Central Owner''' User A (the creator) is designated as the master of the document. User A can push changes into the network, which get marked by a timestamp. Basically works as a distributed cache. Not much different from the current internet. * '''Global Editing''' Any user can release an updated version of a document, the latest updated document is considered the definitive document. Basically a distributed wiki. Big problems with edit conflict resolution. * '''Constant Branching''' All versions of a document are considered valid. Each document refers to its source document, allowing the tracking of how different versions came into being. ---- '''Existing Models''' * FreeNet : Project -- http://freenet.sourceforge.net * FreeNet : Freedom of Information Online -- http://freenet.sourceforge.net/papers/freenet-ieee.pdf * FreeNet : WhitePaper -- http://freenetproject.org/freenet.pdf * GnuNet : Overview -- http://www.ovmj.org/GNUnet/ * GnuNet : Documentation http://www.ovmj.org/GNUnet/documentation.php3?xlang=English ---- '''Proposed Models''' * DistribNet : Project -- http://sourceforge.net/projects/distribnet/ * DistribNet : Design Document -- http://distribnet.sourceforge.net/design.html ---- '''Commercial File Sharing Systems:''' * FolderShare - http://www.foldershare.com/info ---- '''Failed Models''' * Napster : The Day the Napster Died -- http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,52540,00.html ---- Contributors DonaldNoyes, DanielSheppard, MikeSmith ---- See also DistributedWiki, PeerToPeerInternetFileSystemDiscussion, CategoryDistributed,