Class 8, Peer to Peer (P2P) & BitTorrent

P2P (peer-to-peer) sharing is a communications model where each person or party involved has the same functions and capabilities. The peer –to-peer model allows each party to serve as both a client and a server. Most P2P programs focus on media sharing. I myself use Kickass torrents, a P2P program to download certain books and other forms of text. P2P is often associated with software piracy. Many people are able to download software for free.
Many users of peer-to-peer seek to allow one connection at a time. This allows for easier downloading and more control of what is coming and going. Others may like to use many parameters at the same time. Usually they have a stronger computer so their machine is able to allocate more resources to the network. P2P didn’t become widely known to the public until the late 1990’s when music sharing became common.
Applications like Napster allowed people to share their own music and download others. Napster is one of the most known examples of peer-to-peer sharing. Although it was later shut down because it cut into music and movie industry profits it revolutionized the way people went about consuming media. More people wanted to be able to get their media digitally because it saved time and effort.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal athttp://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc