[freehaven-dev] Opening example

[dmolnar@belegost.mit.edu]

Currently we begin the draft of the O'Reilly chapter with the slashdot
flooding example. Roger and some reviewers have brought up the fact that
this may not be the best way to start, because

	1) Flooding is too familiar and too specialised
	2) It's hard to see how the techniques we suggest really deal
	with web server flooding; notice how client side puzzles haven't
	taken off. 
	3) We should exhibit something which is in more of a peer-to-peer
	spirit. 


So what are some examples?

We need something which is dramatic and which shows off the problem well.

I was thinking of the Napster bandwidth usage problem. Harvard recently
started filtering incoming Napster connections to reduce network load; the
local admins claim that at one point a large proportion (20%) of our
bandwidth was spent on Napster transfers to other sites (since it sets up
a machine to work as a server automatically). Other universities have
cited bandwidth usage as a reason for banning Napster.
(The question is whether this is a fig leaf for avoiding the RIAA...)

Another problem - Gnutella freeloading. The recent study claiming that
a small percentage of the people provide most of the MP3s. There's one
person who thinks the study is flawed, however- his response is at 
http://www.infoanarchy.org/?op=displaystory&sid=2000/8/22/33519/1404
for what it's worth. 
	
Does anyone actually use Gnutella here? What are usage anecdotes like?

What other major problems could we open a chapter with?

-David