Peer-to-Peer Working Group Elects Diverse Range of Peer-to-Peer Pioneers for Chair and Member Positions
SANTA CLARA, CA  The Peer-to-Peer Working Group (P2PWG), a consortium for the advancement of infrastructure standards for peer-to-peer computing, held elections at its meeting on February 8 in Santa Clara, CA. Thirteen positions were filled, including Group Steering Committee Chairman, Group Steering Committee Members, Technical Architecture Council Chairman, Marketing Committee Chairman and Technical Architecture Council Members.
The Working Group was created last year as an initiative by Intel to bring together organizations and companies involved in P2P infrastructure and application development. P2P evangelist Bob Knighten acted as founding chairman while the Working Group gained momentum. Under Knighten's leadership, over forty companies joined the Working Group as members or supporters, four of which have already submitted P2P architecture whitepapers for the group's review.
The elected council includes:
Group Steering Committee Chairman - Brian Morrow, president and COO, Endeavors Technology.
Technical Architecture Council Chairman - Bob Knighten, P2P evangelist, Intel.
Group Steering Committee Members - Andrew Chien, CTO, Entropia; Andrew Grimshaw, president and CTO, Applied MetaComputing; Jeffrey Kay, president and CTO, Engenia; and Tim Mattson, senior research scientist, Intel.
Marketing Committee Chairman - Mike Leaffer, Intel.
Technical Architecture Council Members - Greg Bolcer, CTO, Endeavors Technology; Steve Bush, VP of engineering, OpenDesign; Andrew Grimshaw; Tom Ngo, CTO, NextPage; Damien Stolarz, CTO, Static.com; and Jikku Venkat, VP of engineering, United Devices.
The steering committee and technical architecture council will meet this week in San Francisco at the Westin Saint Francis hotel to coincide with the O'Reilly P2P Conference being held at the same location.
"The Working Group is made up of the finest technical people in the peer-to-peer community," explained Brian Morrow. "It is a meeting of minds intent on solving problems, not a meeting of companies with hidden agendas. The Working Group is an independent, self-governing body that will explore and ultimately define the architecture and communication standards for peer computing and will solve issues surrounding security, copyright infringements, pre-standards interoperability and other hurdles the community now faces. I invite those who have hesitated to join the group in the past to come on board now and help us advance this exciting technology."
"It is gratifying to see the working group reach a turning point," said Bob Knighten. "Having a truly diverse council will increase awareness throughout the peer-to-peer community that the working group can be an integral rally point for moving this technology forward."
Tim O'Reilly, founder and president of computer book publisher O'Reilly and Associates, comments, "While it's too early to standardize much of P2P, it's not at all too early to create a forum that encourages people to find common ground, to emphasize the importance of interoperability, and to begin exploring just what it is that we need to agree on. The P2P working group has started a process and created a forum that is going to grow in importance over time."