[Air-l] peer2peer rsearch

[Karim R. Lakhani]

doh! i almost forgot.  i have a paper coming out (with Georg von Krogh & 
Sebastian Spaeth, University of St. Gallen) which looks at how 
developers join open source communities.  our focal case was Freenet - 
which is a p2p system.  during the course of the research we did 
download the client and also connect it to the network to see what it 
could and could not do.  we were carefull not to download obvious 
copyrighted materials.  one way to protect yourself against these issues 
is to download materials that have no copyright or have been released 
willingly by artists and authors on to the system.

again it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish...

K

noci wrote:
> that's really a very tough question-- i'm also esperimenting with doing
> "research"on p2p,
> more specifically on the way filesharing communities are connected to the
> warez release scene (if they are at all).
> 
> one of the problems now is whether it is legitimate to participate in the
> actual sharing process- to run a p2p programme, that is.
> 
> in my experience, you get quite a clear picture of what's happening in the
> specific network just by browsing through the community sites. no need to
> run the actual software, and i believe Karim is right there- might get you
> into trouble.
> 
> on the other hand, it could be helpful to run a client "just for the feel of
> it".
> yes, it *does* sound a bit odd, but in order to understand the situation
> people using p2p networks are in, participating as much as possible could be
> a real eye-opener. you suddenly don't feel as detached and cozy anymore.
> 
> i wonder how many people would actually like to conduct "illegal" p2p
> research but are afraid of the possible consequences.
> when i was searching for literature on the above topic, i could hardly find
> anything online.
> 
> well just a couple of thoughts at 4.30 am there, i'll try to be a bit more
> specific tomorrow.
> 
> good night,
> 
> max doelling
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
===============================================
Karim R. Lakhani
MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Free/Open Source Software Research Project
e-mail: lakhani at mit.edu
voice:  617-851-1224
fax:    617-344-0403
http://opensource.mit.edu
http://freesoftware.mit.edu
http://mit.edu/lakhani/www