Shen, Yu, Buford, Akon (eds.): Handbook of Peer-to-Peer Networking (2010)

The handbook offers elaborate discussions on fundamentals of peer-to-peer computing models, networks and applications, and provides a comprehensive study on recent advancements, crucial design choices, open problems, and possible solution strategies. It is written by a team of leading international researchers and professionals

Peer-to-peer networking, a disruptive technology for large scale distributed applications, has gained widespread attention due to the successes of peer-to-peer (P2P) content sharing, media streaming, and telephony applications. In addition, a large range of new applications are under development or being proposed. The underlying architectures share features including decentralization, end system resources, autonomy, virtualization, and self-organization. These features constitute the P2P paradigm. Trends in information and network technology such as increased performance and deployment of broadband networking, wireless networking, and mobile devices are synergistic with and reinforce the capabilities of this P2P paradigm.

The Handbook of Peer-to-Peer Networking is dedicated to discussions on P2P networks and their applications, thus providing an exhaustive view of the state-of-the-art of the P2P networking field. Written by leading international experts, the volume contains fifty chapters dedicated to the following topics:

• Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Networking
• Unstructured P2P Overlay Architectures
• Structured P2P Overlay Architectures
• Search and Query Processing
• Incentive Mechanisms
• Trust, Anonymity, and Privacy
• Broadcast and Multicast Services
• Multimedia Content Delivery
• Mobile P2P
• Fault Tolerance in P2P Networks
• Measurement and P2P Traffic Characteristics
• Advanced P2P Computing and Networking

This comprehensive volume serves as an essential reference for researchers and professionals, The book is also suitable for computer science and engineering students at the advanced undergraduate level or higher who are familiar with networking, network protocol concepts, and basic ideas about algorithms.

Edited by Xuemin Shen, Heather Yu, John Buford, Mursalin Akon
Publisher Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London
ISBN 978-0-387-09750-3
1421 pages

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Philippe Aigrain: Sharing: Culture and the Economy in the Internet Age (2012)

In the past fifteen years, file sharing of digital cultural works between individuals has been at the center of a number of debates on the future of culture itself. To some, sharing constitutes piracy, to be fought against and eradicated. Others see it as unavoidable, and table proposals to compensate for its harmful effects. Meanwhile, little progress has been made towards addressing the real challenges facing culture in a digital world.

Sharing: Culture and the Economy in the Internet Age offers a counterpoint to the dominant view that file sharing is piracy, analyzing it rather as the modern form of long recognized rights to share in culture. Sharing starts from a radically different viewpoint, namely that the non-market sharing of digital works is both legitimate and useful. Philippe Aigrain looks at the benefits of file sharing, which allows unknown writers and artists to be appreciated more easily. It supports this premise with empirical research, demonstrating that non-market sharing leads to more diversity in the attention given to various works.

Concentrating not only on the cultural enrichment caused by widely shared digital media, Sharing also discusses new financing models that would allow works to be shared freely by individuals without aim at profit. Aigrain carefully balances the needs to support and reward creative activity with a suitable respect for the cultural common good and proposes a new interpretation of the digital landscape.

With contribution of Suzanne Aigrain
Publisher Amsterdam University Press
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License
ISBN 9789089643858
244 pages

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Circulations of Culture: On Social Distribution of Content: A Research Report (2012) [Polish/English]

This report reconsiders a vision often encountered in the public debate: that of the cultural sphere destroyed by ‘pirates’ who illegally download and copy books, music and movies. The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of sociologists, anthropologists and media theorists from Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt: Polska, led by Mirek Filiciak, Justyna Hofmokl and Alek Tarkowski. Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt: Polska is a Polish non-governmental organization and research institution working with digital technologies towards greater civic and cultural engagement.

The research results demonstrate that the border between legal and illegal circulations of culture are often fluid and undefined – as the internet grows and changes faster than its regulation by the legal system. Three times more Poles participate in informal circulations of culture (mainly online) than they do in formal, market circulations (putting aside the issue of TV viewing). Surprisingly, those who obtain content informally, through the internet are among those who most often buy content in stores.

This report is the first of its kind to demonstrate in detail the character of informal participation of Poles in culture. Based on empirical data we show that the internet is not killing culture in Poland.

(in Polish)
Raport ‘Obiegi kultury. Społeczna cyrkulacja treści’ stawia pod znakiem zapytania obraz świata kultury niszczonego przez ‘piratów’ poprzez nielegalne ściąganie i kopiowanie muzyki, filmów i książek. Przeprowadzone przez zespół badaczy z Centrum Cyfrowego Projekt: Polska badanie pokazuje, że granice między legalnymi a nielegalnymi obiegami kultury są płynne i często niezdefiniowane, bo internet rozwija się szybciej, niż legislacja.

Pomijając telewizję, Polacy aż trzykrotnie częściej korzystają z kultury w sposób nieformalny niż formalny (odpowiednio 39% i 13%) – pożyczając sobie książki, oglądając filmy online lub ‘ścigając’ pliki z Sieci. Co zaskakujące, to właśnie te osoby które najczęściej ‘zdobywają’ treści kulturowe za pośrednictwem internetu również najczęściej kupują książki w księgarni, są klientami sklepów muzycznych i najczęstszymi bywalcami seansów kinowych.

Publikowany raport po raz pierwszy pokazuje nieformalny kontekst uczestnictwa Polaków w kulturze i podważa powtarzaną często tezę, że internet zabija kulturę.

Obiegy kultury. Społeczna cyrkulacja treści: Raport z badań
Written by Mirosław Filiciak, Justyna Hofmokl, Alek Tarkowski
Published by Centrum Cyfrowe, Warsaw, January 2012
Creative Commons License BY-SA 3.0 Polska
100 pages

English edition
Published in September 2012
125 pages

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