Peer-to-peer An article I wrote for my college mag

[itrainmonkeys 0]

This was a well written article with a lot of good information. While I usually am a fan of peer-to-peer networks....i'm also starting to see a change in the trends. We learned a lot about web 2.0 in one of my classes for college. Basically the whole idea of web 2.0 is sharing and collaboration. In a simple way - peer production. Using resources that we all have and working together for a common goal. Facebook, Myspace, Youtube.......they all require peer-to-peer production. People make those sites and without the work they put in we wouldn't have them. Think about the new Facebook applications. Anyone can make any type of application and have it used worldwide. It's a way for the overall product to get better while using all the available resources. The comparisons we got in class for peer production and collaboration were about Goldcorp Drilling and Linux. With Goldcorp.....this fledgling drilling company.....they needed a new way to find the stuff they were looking for (oil i believe). So what the CEO of Goldcorp did was completely reveal all the information they have. All the drilling locations they've been to.....what they're looking for......etc. IT was really a mind-blowing concept in the business world where a company's secrets are usually held close to their hearts and not released to people. But Goldcorp released the info, and asked for help. They said "Give us your ideas" and people responded. A ton of people had great ideas and different ways to figure this stuff out that Goldcorp had never thought of. They went from 100 million dollar company to a 9 billion dollar juggernaut.Linux is the same thing. In case you don't know what it is.........it's an Operating System that was built and is maintained on the idea of collaboration. It's open source so you can change stuff to make it better......but only if you share your ideas with everyone else.It's amazing and peer-to-peer really is the wave of the future. Get on or get lost.........it's going to be big.