Faster Feeds Using FeedTree Peer-To-Peer

dsandler writes "Researchers at Rice University have just released version 0.7 of FeedTree, a peer-to-peer system for distributing Web feeds faster. Instead of polling feeds independently, FeedTree users cooperate to share news updates using multicast in Pastry, a scalable p2p overlay network. FeedTree reduces the update delay for existing RSS and Atom feeds to a few minutes without putting extra stress on the webserver (anyone who's ever been temporarily banned by Slashdot's RSS feed knows this is a real concern). Feed publishers can also choose to push digitally signed updates for immediate, tamper-proof delivery to subscribers. The client software (download) runs on Linux, OS X, and Windows, and works with any desktop feed reader."

Why?

[TFGeditor]

WIth Bittorrent et al firmly established, why do we need another P2P?

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

The particular p2p application isn't really newsworthy. The overlay network (Pastry) is. The Pastry codebase appears to be mostly sponsored by Microsoft, is written in Java, and has a 'BSD-like' license. If all that doesn't give you the shivers, then you must have been in Microsoft hell long enough to start getting comfortable.

Mark my words: Microsoft is going to attempt to co-opt the term 'p2p', and make it their own.