The web 2.0 application being discussed this week is Isohunt.com which is a torrent hosting website, allowing its users to download nearly any type of media through a peer to peer network. Isohunt fits the definition of web 2.0 because, as more people use the service, it gets better (O’reilly T, 2005). As more people use Isohunt, download speeds (of peer to peer content) increase, as does the amount of content available.
Users make explicit contributions to isohunt by contributing to the help forum, adding comments about specific torrents, tagging media and forums, rating torrents’ quality and uploading new torrents. Despite the large number of people who use isohunt (20.66 million), only a small percentage (1.20 million) of these users are registered members who explicitly contribute (isohunt.com, 2010).
Members are motivated to contribute through community recognition. Notably, of the twenty-one comments written about a random torrent, five were thanking the person who uploaded it, this is a trend seen throughout the site. Isohunt also welcomes and recognizes its newest members on the homepage.
Isohunt implicitly collects data about the popularity of torrents through user interactions (user searches). This information is fed back into the system to display “Top Searches” on the homepage.
Other factors which may have contributed to Isohunt’s success include a transparent purpose for the service (which can be achieved through only three clicks), trusting its users which has lead to a self-regulating community (through the torrent rating system), developer APIs to offer further flexibility and folksonomy tagging which allows for more precise user navigation (Watson J, 2010).
When Isohunt was placed on the web, users decided the application’s purpose, currently it is sharing movies, tv shows and music, and how the application would be used. As the community’s values and needs change so will Isohunt assuming the freedoms which allowed its creation remain intact. The biggest threat to Isohunts flexibility in coming years may be media distributors who have filed law suits against the company and other Bitorrent services.
In summary, fundamentally, Isohunt is a site which allows users to share content and information. Without users it is worthless. Through harvesting collective intelligences, it has become an online community with valuable, meaningful content.
References:
isoHunt Inc. (2010) the BitTorrent & P2P search engine.
Retrieved March 4, 2010, from https://isohunt.com/
O'Reilly, Tim (2005) What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. O'Reilly Media.
Watson, J. (2010). INN347 Web 2.0 Applications [Lecture 2 Notes].
Retrieved March 4, 2010, from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_61779_1%26url%3D
Interesting example of collective intelligence. Being a fan of the ios hunt myself, you have demonstrated its support of Metcalfe's law and the reason why it’s the most popular. The explicit content added by that 5% of users is their competitive advantage and I guess the reason for its popularity. It adds value to the website as users can make informed decisions. Therefore dramatically decreasing my post download disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI guess the only problem is that it’s illegal. That being said I retract everything I said about participating in ios hunt.
I have used it for some time too and despite knowing how it works, never understood the extent to which it harvests the collective intelligence.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Jack!
ReplyDeleteAs you would know, the owners of Pirate Bay went down last year due to massive court action. Your reference to action against some of the other Torrent sites makes me wonder how long it will be before these sites are permanently shutdown.
It is definitely getting expensive to own a Torrent site. This article outlines financial claims against Pirate Bay: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/145779,studios-push-for-more-money-in-pirate-bay-case.aspx
Do you know what the percentages are of illegal as opposed to legal content transfered through a Torrent site such as isohunt?
That's a great question Gavin but I couldn't find that information anywhere. I would suspect it would be a very large percentage. Thanks for the article too I find it interesting how much is invested into these ventures.
ReplyDeleteHey Jack, great blog post!
ReplyDeleteI posted a very similar blog post about torrents being a web 2.0 technology and utilising collective intelligence.
Very insightful what you have written as I mentioned about the closure of Mininova November last year. And as both you and Gavin has said the massive court actions upon Isohunt and Pirate Bay.
Hi Jack, that was a really interesting blog post. I had not previously heard of isoHunt but it is certainly an excellent example of harnessing collective intelligence.
ReplyDeletehi jack, interesting post. huge fan of utorrent. easy tools to download files from the internet.Also agree that it is worthless without user's participation. Good example of how Web2.0 can harness intelligence.
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