My recent burst of interest in P2P networks stems from the idea of sharing wishlists which I mentioned in my comment about CleverCactus Share.  Diego expressed some enthusiasm about the idea so there is a good chance it will appear in ClearCactus Share.

But my mind is already leaping forward exploring generalizations and mutations of the basic idea of sharing and seemlessly integrating the capability into the operating system.  To power this exploration, I am asking questions like:

• What is a file?
• What does it mean to share?
• How can I share something without having it?
• How can I share nameless, locationless, temporary, and formless objects?
• What if everything is shared by default?
• What if bots are loosened into the shared space?

Many of the answers seem to point to a need to review some basic assumptions pounded into us by file systems and databases like names, locations, queries, etc.

If you drag a file from here to there, people expect the object to move from here to there and also expect the operation to take some time.

If the object is a wish, meaning it will arrive sometime in the future, dragging it from here to there could mean it should be moved there when it arrives.  That's like an instruction.  But people usually don't give instructions to empty air.  Is it better to introduce a bot-like objects or should future actions or 'promises' be turned into an object?

There is also the problem of having too many P2P networks.  They can be abstracted or hidden behind other shapes and forms.  At that point, even services like eBay and Amazon can be thrown into the mesh.  An auction involves someone wanting to sell something they either own or can provide.  Drag and drop this from here to there and eventually a real-world object is 'downloaded' to someone's doorstep.  All this is nice except abstraction and usuability don't often walk hand-in-hand.

I know that I am overstepping the bounds of practicality in many areas, but overreaching is often useful when searching through the solution space.  Anyway, these are kind of things I occupy weekends with these days.