On the Impact of Practical P2P Incentive Mechanisms on User Behavior

In this paper we report on the results of a large-scale measurement study of two popular peer-topeer systems, namely BitTorrent and eMule, that use practical and lightweight incentive mechanisms to encourage cooperation between users. We focus on identifying the strategic behavior of users in response to those incentive mechanisms. Our results illustrate a gap between what system designers and researchers expect from users in reaction to an incentive mechanism, and how users react to those incentives. In particular, we observe that the majority of BitTorrent users appear to cooperate well, despite the existence of known ways to tamper with the incentive mechanism, users engaging in behavior that could be regarded as cheating comprised only around 10% of BitTorrent’s population. That is, although we know that users can easily cheat, they actually do not currently appear to cheat at a large enough scale. In the eMule system, we identify several distinct classes of users based on their behavior. A large fraction of users appears to perceive cooperation as a good strategy, and openly share all the files they obtained. Other users engage in more subtle strategic choices, by actively optimizing the number and types of files they share in order to improve their standing in eMule’s waiting queues; they tend to remove files for which downloading is complete and keep a limited total volume of files shared

On the Impact of Practical P2P Incentive Mechanisms on User Behavior

In this paper we report on the results of a large-scale measurement study of two popular peer-topeer systems, namely BitTorrent and eMule, that use practical and lightweight incentive mechanisms to encourage cooperation between users. We focus on identifying the strategic behavior of users in response to those incentive mechanisms. Our results illustrate a gap between what system designers and researchers expect from users in reaction to an incentive mechanism, and how users react to those incentives. In particular, we observe that the majority of BitTorrent users appear to cooperate well, despite the existence of known ways to tamper with the incentive mechanism, users engaging in behavior that could be regarded as cheating comprised only around 10% of BitTorrent’s population. That is, although we know that users can easily cheat, they actually do not currently appear to cheat at a large enough scale. In the eMule system, we identify several distinct classes of users based on their behavior. A large fraction of users appears to perceive cooperation as a good strategy, and openly share all the files they obtained. Other users engage in more subtle strategic choices, by actively optimizing the number and types of files they share in order to improve their standing in eMule’s waiting queues; they tend to remove files for which downloading is complete and keep a limited total volume of files shared

Cognitive networking techniques on content distribution networks

First we want to design a strategy based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques with the aim of increasing peers download performance. Some AI algorithms can find patterns in the information available to a peer locally, and use it to predict values that cannot be calculated by means of mathematical formulas. An important aspect of these techniques is that can be trained in order to improve its interpretation of the local available information. With this process they can make more accurate predictions and perform better results. We will use this prediction system to increase our knowledge about the swarm and the peers who are part of it. This global knowledge increase can be used to optimize the algorithms of BitTorrent and can represent a great improvement in peers download capacity. Our second challenge is to create a reduced group of peers (Crowd) that focus their efforts on improving the condition of the swarm through collaborative techniques. The basic idea of this approach is to organize a group of peers to act as a single node and focus them on getting all pieces of the content they are interested in. This involves avoiding, as far as possible, to download pieces that any of the members already have. The main goal of this technique consists of reaching as quickly as possible a copy of the content distributed between all members of the Crowd. Getting a distributed copy of the content is expected to increase the availability of parts and reduce dependence on the seeds (users who have the complete content), which would represent a great benefit for the whole swarm. Another aspect that we want to investigate is the use of a priority system among members of the Crowd. We consider that in certain situations to prioritize the Crowd peers at expense of regular peers can result in a significant increase of the download ratio

Variable Format: Media Poetics and the Little Database

This dissertation explores the situation of twentieth-century art and literature becoming digital. Focusing on relatively small online collections, I argue for materially invested readings of works of print, sound, and cinema from within a new media context. With bibliographic attention to the avant-garde legacy of media specificity and the little magazine, I argue that the “films,” “readings,” “magazines,” and “books” indexed on a series of influential websites are marked by meaningful transformations that continue to shape the present through a dramatic reconfiguration of the past. I maintain that the significance of an online version of a work is not only transformed in each instance of use, but that these versions fundamentally change our understanding of each historical work in turn. Here, I offer the analogical coding of these platforms as “little databases” after the little magazines that served as the vehicle of modernism and the historical avant-garde. Like the study of the full run of a magazine, these databases require a bridge between close and distant reading. Rather than contradict each other as is often argued, in this instance a combined macro- and microscopic mode of analysis yields valuable information not readily available by either method in isolation. In both directions, the social networks and technical protocols of database culture inscribe the limits of potential readings. Bridging the material orientation of bibliographic study with the format theory of recent media scholarship, this work constructs a media poetics for reading analog works situated within the windows, consoles, and networks of the twenty-first century

Understanding Web 3.0 - the Semantic Web : how the evolution to a third generation of the Web will impact upon the Internet and media environment within a global and South African context

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-174).This thesis examines the potential evolution of the current version of the Internet, popularly referred to as Web 2.0, to a third generation of the Web, referred to as the Semantic Web or Web 3.0. The paper provides an overview of the change in architecture and structure that the current version of the Web will need to undergo in the form of a standardised ontology development in order for the Web to evolve. The evolution to a third generation of the Web will ultimately improve the overall user experience both within a global and South African online context, through the innovation and development of Semantic Web technologies and capabilities. The thesis also discusses the role of the political economy of media and how this concept needs to be refreshed in terms of dealing with the advent of 'new' or digital media which are characterised by the Internet. The role of traditional media is also discussed and how, due to the advent of the Internet, there has been a movement away from a model of traditional centralised media to one of a more decentralised model. The challenges of intellectual property rights and copyright are analysed in terms of online users developing their own content online in the form of user generated content and how, through the evolution to a Web 3.0 version of the Internet, these challenges can be potentially solved through the use of Semantic Web innovation and technologies. One of the major challenges which Web 2.0 currently faces is that of privacy infringement, but through the adoption of Semantic Web technology these challenges which currently affect all users on the Web can potentially be solved. Finally, the paper looks at the way that South African online users interact with the Internet and how the potential evolution to a third generation of the Web could potentially impact their user behaviour online