Whisper is a prototype peer-to-peer based community software.
Whisper is a social network based on peer-to-peer technology. This means there is no central server or organization storing or owning your information. All data are stored by yourself and your friends in the cloud, and all communications are done from friend to friend, like Chinese Whispers.
By accepting a new friend in Whisper, you are at the same time accepting to cache his or hers information and also assisting in delivering it to common friends. This arrangement is of course mutual.
Features
- You own and store your own information. No corporation or other third part deciding what to do with your data. No one can compile the information stored in the Whisper net, since it is not stored at any single point.
- Highly redundant. Since all your friends help you store and transport your data, no single point of failure exists. You can even format your hard drive and still gain access to all your data, as long you have your key.
- High availability. You can even ready new posts and write messages offline. Everything will be synchronized again when online. This way Whisper is usable even with a sporadic access to Internet.
- No censorship. You are self responsible for what you are publishing yourself. There exists no means for anyone other to censor your information. Of course, if your friends do not like what your are publishing, they are free to end your friendship, hence not assisting you in the distribution of your information, but no third part can suppress what you are publishing.
Drawbacks
- If you lose your key or password, there is no way restoring it, since no central server or organization exists, but you have to start all over again by register a new login identity. Backup your key and write down your password.
- Requires disk space on your local computer. Since no central server storing all the data, you will need to grant some disk space for your and your friends information.
- Not suitable for sharing large files, like videos, large images or MP3's. Due to the redundant storage, Whisper is primary designed for blogs, news, texts, chat messages, small images etc.
The Whisper software is written by Mikael Q Kuisma <kuisma@ping.se>
-- Mikael Q Kuisma