xml-dev - RE: what Napster means for XML

[Matthew Fuchs <matthew.fuchs@commerceone.com>]

David,

This situation - popular information is easily available, less popular
information may be unavailable most (or eventually all) of the time - is no
different from the current situation.  Even without Napster, popular
information is easy to find (in bookstores, video rentals, etc.), and less
popular information is not (some books I can grab at the bookstore down the
street; some I can order from Amazon; some are out of print, but I can get
at the library; some are rare and I actually need to travel to get them; and
some are simply lost to the sands of time).

The Web drastically increases the availability of rare information.  I'm
sure you realize there will be a variety of ways to locate information, of
which the Napster model is but one.  Some will involve caching information.

I also know you're way to experienced a developer to leave the only copy of
important information on your laptop.  (And why use a cable modem when
you'll be able to go wireless?)

Matthew

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Megginson [mailto:david@megginson.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 8:21 AM
> To: xml-dev@xml.org
> Subject: Re: what Napster means for XML
> 
> 
> W. E. Perry writes:
> 
>  > I'm sorry, I don't follow this at all. There is an initial moment
>  > when the only copy of SAX offered is the one on your laptop,
>  > connected to your cable modem.  While that copy is available--an
>  > hour, a day--dozens of interested parties will download it.
> 
> OK, let me rephrase then -- in a distributed system like Napster, the
> likelihood of the availability of any piece of information at any
> particular time is dependent on its popularity.  If enough users have
> copies of the information on their systems, then at least one of them
> is likely to be connected when I go looking; otherwise, the
> information is simply unavailable.
> 
> This works well with MP3s because most people go out looking for the
> same few thousand MP3s over and over again.  In the general case,
> however, this model will not always be applicable: any piece of
> information that does not reach a certain level of popularity will
> simply be unavailable most of the time.
> 
> Clearly, the Napster model *will* be work in other areas that share
> similar properties to MP3s -- a relatively small number of items with
> a relatively large number of users -- so please don't take this as a
> blanket dismissal.
> 
> 
> All the best,
> 
> 
> David
> 
> -- 
> David Megginson                 david@megginson.com
>            http://www.megginson.com/
> 
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