Conducting Research

The Web 2.0 communication medium that I have chosen to research for my final essay is the platform of BitTorrent. From the article that we read in class, I learned that, “BitTorrent, like other pioneers in the P2P movement, takes a radical approach to internet decentralization. Every client is also a server; files are broken up into fragments that can be served from multiple locations, transparently harnessing the network of downloaders to provide both bandwidth and data to other users.” (O’Reilly, 2005) Aside from this article, I have located and researched nine other sources regarding the platform of BitTorrent, finding results to be both credible and non-credible.

The first database that I used to search for sources was EBSCO through the University at Albany Library. Before I conducted my research, I explored the EBSCO webpage and found out that it had many complex search techniques. There were many different options of where in the article to search for the phrase typed in. When I began to search I typed in the keyword, “BitTorrent” and it returned to me over a few hundred scholarly articles that it had found in its’ database. When I saw these results I began to the look over the articles to see which ones could be relevant for my project. After looking over the first few pages of results I found two scholarly and credible journal articles that I could use for my final project. They both discussed the P2P movement over the internet and how this way of sharing files actually works. The articles also discuss possible ways to try to prevent free-riding as well. (Park & van der Schaar, 2008) & (Li & Yu, 2008)

After I found those two articles I decided to stick with EBSCO because it returned good results. I changed my keyword search to, “p2p file sharing” and once again plenty of articles came up. The one that I selected spoke about the decentralization process and node clustering schemes. This source was also from a scholarly print journal and was credible as well. (Ramawamy & Gedik, 2005) My last source I found through EBSCO was conducted with the keyword search of, “BitTorrent works”. One result came back to me, but when I located the article and read it I found it to be extremely resourceful. It was from PC Magazine, and explained how all torrent programs functioned and discussed how they manage to stay legal. (Norton & Freedmart, 2006)

The next database I decided to use was LexisNexis. This also is a database within the University at Albany Library. The keyword search phrase I used was, “BitTorrent file sharing.” Although the results were not as broad as I thought they would be I did find one useful source for my paper. It came from a popular newspaper in London and spoke again about what makes torrent programs function and also how people are beginning to make false torrent sites to try to harm computers and piracy. (Bradbury, 2007)

My third search engine that I used was google. When I typed in the searched, “BiTtorrent” thousands of results came up, however the first five pages of results that I looked over did not seem to help me out. All of these results were actually sites for torrent sharing programs and information on the internet decentralization process itself. After this I modified my keyword search to, “how BitTorrent works” and sure enough better results came back. A great article came up on the torrent process and included in the article were many diagrams giving me an animated view of what actually occurs during this type of file sharing. After I stayed within google, but changed the keywords to, “torrent p2p software”. Again another scholarly and credible article came up on the description of the software as well as research conducted about the software that is used.

The final search engine that I used was yahoo. I typed in the keyword search, “using BitTorrent” and thousands of sites came back in the results. Here was where I found results that would not be useful towards my final project. The first article I came across had non-credible written all over it. When I went to the page I could not find an author, a date of publication, and there were more advertisements on the page than information that I was looking for. My last source that I found was also a non-credible or resourceful site. It was written by a person who called himself, ‘Ernesto’. The site also had many advertisements and did not include a works cited section to credit where he obtained the information he used to write the article.

After conducting this research on BitTorrent using different search engines and databases I have learned that there is a very wide range in the level of credibility amongst articles about the same topic. I found that using the databases through the University Library game me mostly in depth and scholarly results about what I was looking for. While Google and Yahoo gave me both credible and non-credible results for the research I was conducting.

Works Cited:

Bradbury, D. (2007, April 12) Technology: Can Stuck Torrents Beat Pirates?. The Guardian. pp.1.

Li, M. & Yu, J. (2008). Free-Riding on BitTorrent-Like Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Systems: Modeling Analysis and Improvement. IEEE Transactions on Parallel & Distributed Systems. 19(7), 954-966.

Norton, P. & Freedmart, A. (2006, February). Torrents. PC Magazine. 25(2), 112-116.

O’Reilly, Tim. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved August 21, 2008 from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Park, H. & van der Schaar, M. (2008). Coalition-Based Resource Reciprocation Strategies for P2P Multimedia Broadcasting. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, 54(3), 557-567.

Ramaswamy, L. & Gedik, B. (2005). A Distributed Approach to Node Clustering in Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Networks. . IEEE Transactions on Parallel & Distributed Systems. 16(9), 814-829.