Chilligavva

Computer scientists are using a novel peer-to-peer video sharing application to explore a next-generation model for safe and legal electronic commerce that uses Internet bandwidth as a global currency. The application (available for free download) is an enhanced version of a program called Tribler.read more | digg story

I like the way social networking has taken off on the internet. For any social networking site, the revenue generated has mostly been due to advertisements based on traffic, or payment for services rendered. [Buying things on the internet.] Most of us have used peer-to-peer generally for downloading movies, songs, files, etc. [No, I am not broaching any kind of legalities here..] Sometimes they are slow, and sometimes fast. If you pay and opt-in into the system, you have better storage capacities, and participation. Most ISPs charge you on the data traffic that you have used.

Here are the folks at Harvard, taking a new look at the way we do business. The way I see it, the implications are huge, and powerful. As in any business strategy, the early birds get the worm.

Here’s my breakdown of whats going on… [geeks and gearheads, please bear with me…]

Peer -to-peer is the human chain equivalent of passing a parcel. Instead of actually going to New York yourself, you ask your friend to pick it up, give it to another bud at Chicago and he in turn passes it to you via his friends. Thats how a peer to peer works. Earlier these pass-on points were based on goodwill and friendship. You help because you belong to the resistance or group of friends or whatever.

Now the smart guys at Harvard have thought this out and said, why not ask these friends who are forwarding things to become part of the model, and actually earn reward points for the things they do anyway. So if you have been passing things, you get rewarded by being able to recieve things based on a reward system.

I see this as very important step, as the internet super highway is more or less getting jammed or maxed. Its like finding shortcuts in a traffic jam. All these participants provide alternate routes, and ease traffic, so everyone more or less can drive at a same speed. [Thats the socialist approach.] Now the capitalist take is, if you provide a very good escape route especially if the president is driving, we can make sure that you get special rewards. Thats where the proposed model is going to come in. I envisage large groups extorting speeds on the internet in the future. Why?

More broadly, this paradigm empowers individuals or groups of users to run their own “marketplace” for any computer resource or service.

The researchers envision an e-commerce model that connects users to a single global market, without any controlling company, network, or bank. They see bandwidth as the first true Internet “currency” for such a market. For example, the more a user uploads now (i.e. earns) and the higher the quality of the contributions, the more s/he would be able to download later (i.e. spend) and the faster the download speed. More broadly, this paradigm empowers individuals or groups of users to run their own “marketplace” for any computer resource or service.

Another idea the researchers believe has enormous but untapped potential is the combination of social network technology with peer-to-peer systems. “In the case of sharing and playing video, our network-based system already allows a group of ‘friends’ to pool their collective upload ‘reserve’ to slash download times. For Internet-based television this means a true instant, on-demand video experience,” explains Pouwelse.

For any research model to succeed, they need to show possibility and thereby attract participants to go from a model to implementation.. This model will generate a lot of interest, if they can leverage the peer points into a successful revenue model. [As always, success is all about the money] The money here is speed… I do not envisage this model taking off virulently, as we now step into the most questioned human issue.. Trust ..

To do so they will use a feature already included in the enhanced version of the Tribler software, the ability for users to “gossip” or report on the behavior of other peers. Their eventual goal is to find a way to create accurate personal assessments or trust metrics as a form of internal regulation.

Any model that uses gossip as a feedback point into the system, will not be dependable. Trust can be faked. What am I talking about? A hacker blackmails me, I say the hacker is trustworthy, and the hacker is now covertly into the system. So trust metrics at the moment is dicey. But on the whole, as a business model, it does show promise.