[p2p-hackers] A globally distributed peer-to-peer data archive

[Zooko O'Whielacronx]

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 4:40 AM, Michael Rogers <m-- at gmx.com> wrote:
>
> To be honest, I think you're asking the wrong question. It's a question I've also spent a long time asking, but it's the wrong one. Unfair resource allocation isn't what's preventing a global p2p filesystem from existing.

I like the way you're thinking.

> If you want to know what's actually standing in the way of a global p2p filesystem, try to persuade your technically minded friends to use Tahoe (or Freenet, or OceanStore, or CFS, or PAST, or FARSITE) for sharing files.

Of the ones you listed only Freenet and Tahoe-LAFS are things you can
use and are being actively developed, right? Also there is GNUnet. On
the Tahoe-LAFS wiki we have a page of links to related projects [1].

> Make a note of the problems they run into and solve them all.

This is something we're doing in the Tahoe-LAFS project, for example
on our ticket #1024 "introductory docs are confusing and off-putting".

You would be more than welcome to jump in and help. Try following the
"quick start" instructions [2] and tell us how it works for you.

> Repeat the process with your less technically minded friends. Once you've solved all their problems, open some champagne because you've achieved more than a decade's worth of p2p research. ;-)

Heh heh.

> After that, if your system's running into resource shortages, try displaying the contribution ratio in the corner of the screen with a polite reminder that higher ratios help to support the community. ;-)

We have plans to do something along those lines, too:

http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/Ostrom

Again, we'd love help! You can get major kudos points (which are
redeemable for gratitude tokens and awesomeness levels) by doing some
fairly simple hacks like "collect server capacities and put them on
the welcome page" (ticket #648). On the other hand if Ostromism and
warm fuzzy social encouragement isn't your thing, you might be able to
get cold hard cash (U.S. Dollars or BitCoins) by contributing patches
to Tahoe-LAFS in return for bounties. :-)

Regards,

Zooko

[1] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/RelatedProjects#OtherProjects
[2] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/browser/trunk/docs/quickstart.rst

tickets mentioned in this letter:
http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1024# introductory docs
are confusing and off-putting
http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/648# collect server
capacities and put them on the welcome page
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