Information Society Technologies

Peer-to-peer systems have advantages over centralised server-reliant networks, but finding information among multiple distributed databases can prove difficult. European researchers solved the problem by adding Semantic Web technology to P2P networks.

Their open source system, developed under the IST programme-funded SWAP project, advanced the state-of-the-art in the use of ontologies, controlled vocabularies that formally describe objects and the relations between them, to add computer-readable descriptions to information stored on databases used by P2P networks. Such networks, which form the basis of many commercial file-sharing applications, permit information to be exchanged directly between users’ computers rather than having to upload it first to a server. The upshot is that users do not lose control over their information because it remains on their computer or database, but can still share it easily with other parties.

“However, because of the distributed nature of P2P systems it can be hard to find the information you are looking for,” notes Marc Ehrig, a senior researcher at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, which led the SWAP team.

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