[Foundation-l] new site notice now ready

[Erik Moeller]

On 12/28/06, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> This list isn't really the place to discuss the details,
> especially as the management of the foundation isn't interested.

There was a brief P2P media and business hype in 2000-2001. In August
2000 I started infoAnarchy.org, which was one of the leading weblogs
on the phenomenon, and reviewed in detail applications such as MNet,
Freenet, The Circle, Gnutella(2), giFT, BitTorrent etc. I also
co-authored a 90 page business plan on such a P2P venture, which we
sadly started pitching shortly after the bubble burst.

I continue to be interested in P2P solutions, but I have seen too many
companies in this sector fail, in spite of millions of dollars of VC
investment, to believe that money is the solution to decentralizing
Wikipedia. These companies were pursuing much more humble ambitions
than something as fantastic as a truly P2P WIkipedia.

That said, we need to distinguish different approaches. Decentralizing
WP to the extent of using the highly asymmetrical and unpredictable
connectivity of everyday users is hopeless. Decentralizing it to make
intelligent use of a global network of servers with reasonably high
bandwidth and storage and good connectivity is perhaps less so. But
the issues of latency and distribution would necessitate quite a lot
of rethinking on all levels.

It's a goal worth pursuing, among a hundred others I could list. If
someone approaches us with a truly convincing model of how it could
work, then I'll be the first person to listen and consider to make it
part of our planning. But vague claims about what can be done with
money are completely unhelpful. Ideas are worthless without
implementation, but the power to implement is worthless without ideas.
Presently we have neither.

When it comes to decentralization, the greatest potential for
immediate cost savings seems to be in an area which we are currently
not even pursuing significantly, i.e. very large files (primarily
videos, but also speeches or really high resolution pictures). Here
we've got tried and tested technology like BitTorrent that would only
need to be integrated better. But if we want to go into large file
hosting, we must coordinate this with the Internet Archive, which is
leading the global efforts in this area.

I don't see how any talk about P2P has relevance to our fundraising
needs for the near future.
-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik

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the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.