[Gzz-commits] manuscripts/pointers article.rst

[Benja Fallenstein]

CVSROOT:        /cvsroot/gzz
Module name:    manuscripts
Branch:         
Changes by:     Benja Fallenstein <address@hidden>      03/11/01 11:35:05

Modified files:
        pointers       : article.rst 

Log message:
        a much-too-long abstract

CVSWeb URLs:
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/gzz/manuscripts/pointers/article.rst.diff?tr1=1.44&tr2=1.45&r1=text&r2=text

Patches:
Index: manuscripts/pointers/article.rst
diff -u manuscripts/pointers/article.rst:1.44 
manuscripts/pointers/article.rst:1.45
--- manuscripts/pointers/article.rst:1.44       Fri Oct 31 14:00:10 2003
+++ manuscripts/pointers/article.rst    Sat Nov  1 11:35:04 2003
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-=============================================================================================
-Versioning for a location-independent Web: Stopping the shoulders of giants 
from rotting away
-=============================================================================================
+===================================================
+What's missing: Why isn't the Web running over P2P?
+===================================================
 
 .. META:
 
@@ -40,8 +40,27 @@
 Abstract
 ========
 
-XXX
-
+File sharing systems allow you to download a file from any host 
+that has a copy. This saves bandwidth and increases availablity. 
+It would be nice if the Web worked the same way. However, 
+the hash-based addressing used in current file-sharing systems 
+does not allow documents to be updated. Most current P2P systems 
+have no facility to allow documents to be updated. 
+The systems that do (such as Freenet or OceanStore) 
+require state in the network for remembering 
+what the current version of a document is.
+Thus, to keep a version of a Web page available, 
+it does not suffice to keep a copy on your computer; additionally,
+the network has to remember the associated versioning information.
+
+Extending OceanStore's *heartbeats*, we propose pointer records, 
+small, digitally signed files containing the identifier of a document, 
+a timestamp, and the hash of its current version.
+Pointer records, like other files, can be downloaded from any peer 
+that has a copy. We can find all available pointer records for a document 
+through the same mechanism we use to find files in the peer-to-peer network 
+(for example, a distributed hashtable). This way, versions of a document 
+stay available as long as anybody keeps a copy.
 
 ..  raw:: latex