Re: [Din] Updated charter proposal

[Melinda Shore <[e-mail]>]

On 7/14/18 7:10 PM, Toerless Eckert wrote:
> You are comparing a system (CDN) with one of its aspect (control),
> that was not the question.

Well, I don't know - it might have been.  I think it's possible
to look at a number of different axes, including the question of
centralized control (which, come to think of it, strikes me
as one of the more significant aspects).

At any rate I think the question here is not to nail down a
precise definition, but rather to get a basic handle on what
is and is not in scope for the research group.  I think that
based on the original intent and on recent discussions, for
example, something along the lines of a traditional distributed
system like Amoeba would not be in scope, nor would technology
based on a permissioned blockchain, since both have highly
centralized control.  Similarly, someone might ask why we're
interested in alternatives to the DNS, which is distributed
but hierarchical and rooted in a small number of points of
control (allowing for the possibility of alternative hierarchies.

Melinda

-- 
Software longa, hardware brevis

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