Panel on peer to peer computing

Peer to peer (P2P) computing has recently gained a lot of prominence because of its potential to unlock vast unused computing power via the Internet. However, a broad based use of P2P paradigm brings in a host of not only technological challenges (e.g., naming, security, communication across protection domains, information management, ensuring acceptable performance, coping with intermittent connectivity, etc.) but also socio-economic ones (e.g., charging for services, business models, intellectual property protection, incentives to share/cooperate, etc.) The sheer scale at which some P2P applications may operate makes many of these challenges particularly daunting. The panel shall focus on some of these challenges and provide perspectives from panelists on how to address them. The goal of the panel is to stimulate further research on many of these issues in order to enable truly useful and scalable solutions in areas where P2P paradigm can be highly effective.