AOL was in the news recently with plans to deliver video content using peer-to-peer technology that sounds remarkably like Bittorrent. When I went to their vendor's site (Kontiki), I found this picture:
Grid Delivery Technology -- Wow! What a great way to pitch the concept. This totally avoids the taint of peer-to-peer which today implies file sharing which connotes illegality.
Of course Bittorrent has many, many legitimate uses and peer-to-peer is a fundamental Internet value. But connotations matter. These terms have received too much negative press.
As I read their technology white paper (pdf), it is a combination of Bittorrent or Bittorrent-like peer-to-peer technology and enterprise IT management software.
But it's only a commercialization of Bittorrent-like capabilities -- it only supports file download. As I wrote a few months ago, China is more advanced. Already there are several peer-to-peer video sharing systems supporting real time streaming of live TV, e.g. PPLive and PPStream.
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