<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Francesca Musiani</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:francesca.musiani@gmail.com" target="_blank">francesca.musiani@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 11:40 AM<br>Subject: [berkmanfriends] New book in French: "Nains sans géants Architecture décentralisée et services Internet"<br>To: Berkman Friends <<a href="mailto:berkmanfriends@eon.law.harvard.edu" target="_blank">berkmanfriends@eon.law.harvard.edu</a>><br>
<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Dear Berkfriends,<br><br></div>For the French readers among you, today's release of my book may be of interest. Waiting for the English version... :)<br><br><a href="http://www.pressesdesmines.com/nains-sans-geants.html" target="_blank">http://www.pressesdesmines.com/nains-sans-geants.html</a><br>
<br></div>Kind regards,<br></div>Francesca<br><br><br>The cover blurb roughly translates as:<br><br><span lang="en"><span>Dwarfs Without Giants: Decentralized Network Architectures and Internet-based Services<br><br>Francesca Musiani<br>
With a Preface by Geoffrey C. Bowker<br><br>Decentralization</span> <span>is central to</span> <span>the genesis</span> <span>of the Internet,</span> <span>whose primary objective</span> <span>was</span> indeed to enable communication between<span></span><span></span> <span>heterogeneous</span> <span>and remote machines</span>, without mandatory transit points<span>.</span> <span>Today,</span> <span>concentration</span> models <span>dominate,</span> <span>around</span> <span>a handful of macro-</span><span>actors - </span><i><span>giants</span></i> <span>equipped with</span> extensive<span> server farms, managing</span> the most part of Internet traffic<span></span><span>.</span> <span>However,</span> <span>the</span> <span>original principle</span> <span>has not</span> <span>been entirely abandoned</span><span>, and in</span> <span>all areas of</span> <span>application,</span> <span>developers</span> <span>explore</span> <span>decentralized</span> <span>alternatives.</span> <span>These</span> <i><span>dwarfs</span> </i><span>go on to form</span> <span>search engines,</span> <span>social networks,</span> <span>storage spaces</span> <span>that allocate</span> <span>resources and tasks</span> <span>equally between</span> <span>members of the network</span><span>.</span><br>
<br><span>This book explores</span> <span>decentralized approaches to</span><span> Internet services</span>, <span>and investigates the</span> <span>organizational forms</span> they propose<span>:</span> <span>it shows</span> <span>how a network</span> <span>that distributes the</span> <span>responsibility of its operation to the edges</span><span>,</span> <span>and organizes</span> <span>according to</span> <span>a</span> <span>non-hierarchical</span> <span>or hybrid</span><span> model</span><span>,</span> <span>may develop in</span> <span>the</span> <span>highly-constrained contemporary</span> <span>Internet</span><span>.</span> <span>The operation of such</span> <span>systems</span> <span>raises questions of</span> <span>market organization,</span> <span>technical</span> <span>efficiency</span><span>, economic sustainability</span><span>, but</span> <span>also</span> <span>of privacy protection </span><span>and regulation of personal information.</span><br>
<br><span>As</span> <span>Geoffrey</span> <span>Bowker</span> argues<span> in his</span> <span>introduction,</span> <span>this</span> volume ultimately suggests that we need to approach the study of <span>Internet governance</span><span> in new ways,</span> <span>and highlights how, to</span> <span>understand this key</span> <span>socio-technical</span> <span>issue</span> <span>of our time,</span> <span>we need to analyze</span> possible <span>alternatives to the current</span> <span>modes of operation of the "network of networks".</span> <span>In a detailed and informed manner, this is precisely what "Dwarfs without giants" achieves.</span></span><br>
<br><br><br><div><div><div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Francesca Musiani, PhD<br><br>2012-13 <a href="http://isd.georgetown.edu/programs/yahoofellow/" target="_blank">Yahoo! Fellow in Residence</a><br>
<a href="http://isd.georgetown.edu/" target="_blank">Institute for the Study of Diplomacy</a><br>
<a href="http://sfs.georgetown.edu/" target="_blank">Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service</a><br>Georgetown University<br>1316 36th Street NW<br>Washington, DC 20057-1025<br><br><a href="http://www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/" target="_blank">CSI, MINES ParisTech</a> | <a href="http://adam.hypotheses.org/" target="_blank">ANR ADAM project</a> <br>
<a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Berkman Center for Internet and Society</a> <br><a href="http://iamcr.org/s-wg/cctmc/esn" target="_blank">ESN-IAMCR</a> | <a href="http://giga-net.org" target="_blank">GigaNet</a><br>
<br><a href="http://www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/Perso/Musiani/" target="_blank">Personal website</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/franmusiani" target="_blank">Twitter</a><br>
</div></div></div></div></div>
<br></div></div>----------<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br></font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div><b>Carolina Rossini</b> <div><div><font color="#3333ff"><a href="http://carolinarossini.net/" target="_blank">http://carolinarossini.net/</a></font></div>
<div><font color="#666666"><a href="tel:%2B%201%206176979389" value="+16176979389" target="_blank">+ 1 6176979389</a></font><br>
<font color="#666666">*</font><a href="mailto:carolina.rossini@gmail.com" style="color:rgb(102,102,102)" target="_blank">carolina.rossini@gmail.com</a><font color="#666666">*</font></div></div></div><div><font color="#666666">skype: carolrossini</font></div>
<div><font color="#666666">@carolinarossini</font></div><div><br></div>
</font></span></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div><b>Carolina Rossini</b> <div><div><font color="#3333ff"><a href="http://carolinarossini.net/" target="_blank">http://carolinarossini.net/</a></font></div><div><font color="#666666">+ 1 6176979389</font><br>
<font color="#666666">*</font><a href="mailto:carolina.rossini@gmail.com" style="color:rgb(102,102,102)" target="_blank">carolina.rossini@gmail.com</a><font color="#666666">*</font></div></div></div><div><font color="#666666">skype: carolrossini</font></div>
<div><font color="#666666">@carolinarossini</font></div><div><br></div>