Re: [circle] Resumption of adwords

[Thomas Voegtlin]

Thomas Mangin wrote:

>Like it or not, the UI need redoing, the stability improving (you want 
it to
>be able to run in the background for days without memory or cpu hug), and
>then we can hope to get critical mass. If you advertise too much now you
>will probably do more harm than good to the project.
>
>Did you look at application like piolet or emule ?
>
>I think a roadmap should be decided on this list with clear target for a
>"1.0" release which then should be advertised.
>
>
>
>

I agree we should discuss these issues more.
There are probably stability issues and missing features.

however, I would like to point out two other issues:

1- The web site.

I think it currently looks a bit like a dead project, where the
site is updated every 3 months. I think we should reorganize it.
Check out www.overnet.com, or www.kazaa.com.
You might find these sites ugly, but at least they are alive!

if we want to attract masses, the web site should look more like a blog.
at the very least, we should display news and update them regularly.
I know it is demanding, but we could use gossip for that, or we could
make the effort to add a "news" everytime we commit a new feature...

The website should also be more synthetic. Masses do not care about DHTs.
They do care about what they can do with it. And, yes, they do care about
"feeling like a rebel" when infringing stupid and inadequate copyright
laws.
So we should keep and emphasize the non-commercial, "fighting for freedom"
aspect.

So we should make it more explicit that circle is for chat and file-trading.
For chat, we should emphasize that it is serverless, which means that
"you are independent", "no one can boot you off", and
"your circle identity is eternal and cannot be stolen (yay)"

For file-trading, we should emphasize the "new generation p2p" aspect.

2. The content

If we advertize for circle, we should make sure there is some content
on it when we do that. This means that we should use circle, and not
simply expect others to use it. We should provide more files.

if the network is empty, there  is no point using it.
maybe it would be enough to attract a few "big traders".



Frankly, I do believe that this stupid "war about copyright" is almost
over.
Majors will soon or later realize that they better let people share files
(and they will not die from it, but some of them will probably experience
dramatic downsizing).  They will probably try to make the current legal
situation last as long as possible, however.

Most ISPs have already understood that p2p does indeed boost their traffic
(p2p accounts for up to 50% of their traffic, according to some estimates),
so they have no reason to report file-traders to the RIAA. I think Verizon
have taken a really stupid step recently (they just did that), and they
will
soon realize how much money it will have cost to them. ISPs will publically
go on pretending that they fight illegal file-trading, while they actually
welcome it. They will be very happy with anonymous systems, so that
they do not have to report the identity of file traders. They will simply
say that they cannot do anything about it (except money, of course).

However, an important issue is: what kind of software do we
want to use for that? The main p2p networks (kazaa, overnet)
are private and closed-source, which means that they will soon
or later try to make money out of that. Kazaa used to make
money out of ads. I guess there are many more opportunities
to make money with a DHT (e.g. targetted ads, but not only...
think of amazon.com), because of the far better control it gives.

For that reason, I think we should develop free software alternatives.