NEW APPROACH TO SHARING DATA IN SOCIAL NETWORKS
Date
1990-06-01
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Abstract
While most schemes that support information sharing on computers rely
on formal protocols, in practice much cooperative work takes place
using informal means of communication, even chance encounters. This
paper proposes a new method of enabling information sharing in
loosely-coupled socially-organized systems, typically involving
personal rather than institutional computers and lacking the network
infrastructure that is generally taken for granted in distributed
computing. It is based on the idea of arranging for information
transmission to take place as an unobtrusive side-effect of interpersonal
communication. Update conflicts are avoided by an information ownership
scheme. Under mild assumptions, we show how the distributed database
satisfies the property of observational consistency.
The new idea, called "Liveware", is not so much a specific piece of
technology as a fresh perspective on information sharing that stimulates
new ways of solving old problems. Being general, it transcends particular
distribution technologies. A prototype database, implemented in
HyperCard and taking the form of an electronic directory, utilizes the
medium of floppy disk to spread information in a (benign!) virus-like
manner.
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Computer Science