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Could BitTorrent Be The Distributed Social Network People Have Been Clamoring For?
from the it's-got-the-distribution... dept
One of the key things we've been noting over the past few months is how many more people are beginning to recognize the benefits of having systems and services that really are more distributed and decentralized, rather than very centralized. The problems with centralized systems should be obvious: not only are there single points of failure where a single mistake can knock out the entire system, but it also puts a single party in control as well. And that can lead to problems, say, when it comes to handing over private information to the government (or companies) without proper legal process.
Among the areas that have grown up with very centralized systems are various social networks, such as Facebook. In response, there's definitely been a call for alternative, more open and more distributed social networking systems, such as Diaspora, which has received a ton of hype, but still has a long, long way to go.
But could another player enter the space and have the infrastructure in place to make it work? It appears that BitTorrent is betting yes. The company is launching its new, much more user friendly Chrysalis interface for its software, which really goes a long way in moving the software towards being a media manager program:
But that's not what's really interesting here. It appears that BitTorrent is effectively trying to move into the distributed social networking space, while also disrupting the business models of various cloud storage offerings at the same time (a twofer!). On the social networking side of the game, the company recognizes that a big part of the success of Facebook is in sharing personal content such as photos and movies, so it's building off of its underlying technology to let groups and individuals create "channels" in which such content can be shared (not in a weakly compressed format either, but fully) and commented on:
If it works, you could see some pretty compelling ideas come to life. For example, it would be easy to build a group around, say, a wedding or a party, and have all attendees easily share their photos and videos from that event, allowing everyone to comment on them, etc. And it could work entirely using the BitTorrent infrastructure underneath -- meaning more efficient and often faster distribution of the content. The channels can be shared widely or narrowly, depending on users' preferences.
And it's all done in a distributed manner.
That point is where it starts to get pretty interesting. There were recently all of those concerns about Dropbox, but you could see how something like this might provide a very compelling alternative.
That's not to say there aren't huge challenges. While the company has a massive installed base for its technology, many of its users probably have never thought about BitTorrent in this context, and it's not always so easy to enact that kind of context and perception shift. The product is also still early and may be lacking in some random "killer" feature that really makes it catch on. However, it does strike me as really intriguing, and as more and more examples of problems with more centralized systems spring up, you could definitely see more people gravitating to a distributed solution like BitTorrent's. On top of that, the company is working hard to get its software embedded directly into a variety of consumer electronics offerings, making it easier to have the necessary software installed to make use of some of these new sharing features. Finally, as part of the process, the company has also made it really easy to share content even with those who don't already have a BitTorrent client installed -- setting up what's effectively a one-click email download "package," so if you want to send a bunch of pictures to your family, for example, they'll get an email that has them download the client software, prepopulated with the channel in question with all the photos.
As someone who thinks it's important to have more distributed systems and get further away from relying on single centralized systems with too much control, but who's also been skeptical of previous attempts at such distributed systems, I have to say that this is a lot more interesting and compelling.
Among the areas that have grown up with very centralized systems are various social networks, such as Facebook. In response, there's definitely been a call for alternative, more open and more distributed social networking systems, such as Diaspora, which has received a ton of hype, but still has a long, long way to go.
But could another player enter the space and have the infrastructure in place to make it work? It appears that BitTorrent is betting yes. The company is launching its new, much more user friendly Chrysalis interface for its software, which really goes a long way in moving the software towards being a media manager program:
And it's all done in a distributed manner.
That point is where it starts to get pretty interesting. There were recently all of those concerns about Dropbox, but you could see how something like this might provide a very compelling alternative.
That's not to say there aren't huge challenges. While the company has a massive installed base for its technology, many of its users probably have never thought about BitTorrent in this context, and it's not always so easy to enact that kind of context and perception shift. The product is also still early and may be lacking in some random "killer" feature that really makes it catch on. However, it does strike me as really intriguing, and as more and more examples of problems with more centralized systems spring up, you could definitely see more people gravitating to a distributed solution like BitTorrent's. On top of that, the company is working hard to get its software embedded directly into a variety of consumer electronics offerings, making it easier to have the necessary software installed to make use of some of these new sharing features. Finally, as part of the process, the company has also made it really easy to share content even with those who don't already have a BitTorrent client installed -- setting up what's effectively a one-click email download "package," so if you want to send a bunch of pictures to your family, for example, they'll get an email that has them download the client software, prepopulated with the channel in question with all the photos.
As someone who thinks it's important to have more distributed systems and get further away from relying on single centralized systems with too much control, but who's also been skeptical of previous attempts at such distributed systems, I have to say that this is a lot more interesting and compelling.
Reader Comments (rss)
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More seriously, is it placing your content in the cloud, so to speak, or is it sharing it off your hard drive, like torrents work today?
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I see problems...
This is where I have a contention with Mr. Masnick. if there are no net neutrality rules, and considering a large proportion of broadband in the US is monopolized, how can this technology take hold?
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The PirateBay there is an uTorrent app for that ....
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Re: I see problems...
The app you see displayed above (uTorrent) had 100 million unique users online a month back. I think they have the "taking hold" piece figured out already.
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Workaround??
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Re: I see problems...
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Re: I see problems...
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If this proves to be successful (even if it doesn't) it's a step to distributed websites. It's not much more to make a system where you can put your own files up to be distributed to everyone.
On an unrelated note, why hasn't anyone made anything like dropbox but built ontop of Bittorent? That way you don't have to worry about your storage cap.
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It's both... basically, it copies it up into the cloud and pulls it from your hard drive -- whichever is the best connection...
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Friendster and MySpace were much more fleeting than Facebook. People didn't have their entire lives -- pictures, relatives, histories -- attached to their social network. But at this point, it's going to take a lot more than a fancy new technology only of interest to techies to get people to reupload the information they've spent years compiling to another service. You're going to need something absolutely earthshattering, or Facebook would need to commit a massive blunder.
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Re: Re: I see problems...
1. Make municipal monopolies illegal
2. Create net neutrality rules
If it's not illegal, local governments will continue to do it. It's too cheap and easy (by design).
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Re: Re: I see problems...
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Re: Re: I see problems...
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Maybe you could drop Osiris on top of BitTorrent - uTorrent as an app for the distributed web site. In uTorrent each website would become its own app that you could install.
As a thought experiment, what do we need bare minimum for a functional distributed web site app?
-The ability to serve static web pages in a distributed fashion.
-distributed file system.
-distributed search function.
How do we handle public file uploads?
How do we handle site changes? (public-private key system?)
...
Anything I am missing??
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coming of age
Collaboration and "working together" are important in both rural and urban contexts - but "centralisation" is largely an urban concept, where factors of economies of scales are supposed to shine. What would you prefer - stuck in a quarantine with other sickees or being given your own 10 acres as diversification against contagion? ;-)
Glad to see the concept being debated from a slightly different angel :)
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Re: Workaround??
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But I question the lack of anonymity built into the client. Let's be real, torrents have been used to skirt the legal purchase of many forms of media. Most people do not want their illegal activities known to the general public, and they are betting on "IP addresses" being semi-anonymous helping them succeed.
I'll admit it's a good start. I like that I can put up thousands of pictures of my kids and share with my dad if he has a client, and there's no terms of service I have to deal with in terms of limitations of how much data I host (other than my ISP)
Will watch this closely, because I hate the "Cloud," Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and I don't think any of our computing should be proxied through any single entity other than the Internet.
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Re: Workaround??
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Re: Re: I see problems...
So we got a problem there.
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What it could take is a massive breach on facebook's network where a significant portion of people are dramatically negatively impacted by their profiles, en masse. It could take years, but eventually enough people will be harmed by the data they hold on facebook (willingly or not) where their lives will be worse for having been a member. It is that day when their membership will slip and fall.
Nobody should be putting their eggs in one basket, certainly not a corporate entity where their bottom line is far more important than individual members' privacy or data.
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Re: Workaround??
Also there is this project.
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Here's that Limewire social network story: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10137030-52.html
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Long live the Mesh!
I am so excited about decentralized being the future of the net, not just with respect to p2p and social networks but on a physical network level where ultimately a free mesh internet could spring up in parallel to the net, that is accessible without having to go through an ISP.
The ISP's are gatekeepers at the moment.
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Errm, isn't this just
Which is really smart system that's already well established.
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Why P2P?
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Theres a million reasons
Storage space is cheap. I dont think cloud computing will EVER catch on without significant breakthroughs in internet speed (at least in the US). Its very efficient to store your own data. A 2 terabyte harddrive is now less than $200. Ill be able to buy a 16TB for the samed price in 6 years.
Easy cloud computing killer? I want to watch my HD movie right now GO. It cant even come close to happening yet. BluRay discs are 50gb. Even buffering the entire time, that breaks down to 50gb in 2 hours or 7Mb/s. Now Im sure some users on here have that speed, cities and places with fiber, but I sure as hell dont.
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Another issue is that many people have closed ports, so mutual third party "friends" are sometimes needed whenever two people want to engage in a private p2p "conversation". They can each automatically dial up the mutual friend and have their conversation be passed through to each other. IM can work this way. Either you keep a connection open with the mutual friend, or you send out a query periodically to see if someone is waiting to send you a message.
Torrents are optimal for very large files but generally talking p2p so that your PC can engage with someone else's in many ways does not require the bittorrent protocol (and it would not be efficient.. and wouldn't even make sense when the conversation is just among a few people).
Hopefully, I'll eventually get to writing something like this up within a custom Linux Distro.. to have various apps be able to talk to each other and share more intimately (where authorization has been given and across an interface that considers security concerns). OTOH, by the time I get to it, it might be old news.
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