A Xerox study finds that gnutella users are taking more than they’re giving. I think there may be a usability lesson to be learned here. Personally I’m still not sure if Napster/Macster/Gnutella has to be running for others to download files from my computer, or if there are extensions or whatever that do that in the background (on reflection I realize that’s probably not the case, but I have an IT background, so I’m assuming most people have no idea). In the report, “the researchers…thought they had surveyed a substantial portion of the network.” So what they reported what based on statistics, not user behavior, though the conclusion that people “are not sharing” sounds like an accusation against people’s behavior.
Incidentally this was on my mind recently regarding all sorts of free resources on the Net, whether source code or guitar tabulature or MP3s. Historically I consumed a lot of stuff from others for years and years without giving. Recently when my girlfriend was wondering why people create weblogs I gave it more thought and realized my web site is a little way I can offer up what I’ve learned to others, and I feel so much better.