The Time of the digital age.

[Adam L. Beberg]

> An initial problem is the term "peer-to-peer".  As the story suggests,
> it can be hard to distinguish P2P computing from the Internet in
> general.  For example, why isn't e-mail peer-to-peer?  And if SETI@Home
> (Anderson 2001) is an example of P2P computing despite its centralized
> structure (a central server that interacts with numerous personal
> computers that contribute their spare cycles), then why isn't the
> Web also P2P, given that its client-server structure is much less
> centralized?  Shirky (2001) proposes that P2P systems form a distinct
> category because they use mechanisms other than the domain name system
> (DNS) to identify and track their participants.  Yet this definition
> seems arbitrary.  Whatever the ills of the DNS, surely there exist
> other potential tracking mechanisms that are even worse.

I'd like to propose an Update'ism

In the atom'ic age, you knew something or someone's 15 minutes were up when
it was on the cover of Time Magazine. The horse was dead. By the time the
mainstream figured something out, it was no longer cool. Anyone who tried to
jump on the bandwagon was way way too late. History is full of example, pick
anything.

But Time Magazine isn't the mainstream of the geek world, they dont even
cover geek things.

I'd like to put forward for your consideration, that O'Reilly is the Time of
the bit age.

When the book hits the stands, and the conference is held, it's a dead duck.
The group of press folks in that social circle (we all know who they are)
then dance around the dead horse saying how cool it is and how it will save
the world. Geeks and even the VCs having long moved on, the players played,
the scam figured out, the window of opportunity closed.

Agree?

- Adam L. "Duncan" Beberg
  http://www.iit.edu/~beberg/
  beberg@mithral.com