Re: fun w/gnutella

[wally grotophorst <wallyg@gmutant.gmu.edu>]

> 
> On a related noted has anybody played with gnutella much yet?  Just for
> kicks, I've got it running here with some of the PG texts on my machine.
> If you've got a working client do a search on any of the following:
> 

Got a couple of your files with GNUtella this morning...

A couple minutes with GNUtella and you begin to have a visceral
appreciation for authority control.  Here's an excerpt of an article
that appeared in the Washington Post the other day...it recognizes
that the really "neat" thing about gnutella is that it doesn't have a
central server anywhere as does something like Napster:

"...Programs such as Freenet and Gnutella conform to the original
vision of the Internet's architects, who imagined it to be a
completely decentralized system. But then corporations came along and
set up central information storehouses called "servers."

Being able to control storage and distribution of information, of
course, gives online companies the ability to set prices, track the
habits of users and block material they find objectionable. Any
computer running Gnutella, though, can search all the others running
the program and retrieve information that the user makes publicly
available. The
data still flows over the wires of the Internet, but the distributed
network theoretically reduces the need for vast
content repositories such as AOL..."

 

from "E-Power to the People", By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post
Staff Writer Thursday , May 18, 2000 ; A01 

-- wally

Wally Grotophorst
Library Systems Office
George Mason University
wallyg@gmutant.gmu.edu