Today I watched an on-line demo of a product called XFire that shows a cool use of the new Peer Web technology. The demo shows how on-line gamers can use a peer web/chat program to enhance their gaming experience. Do you want to be able to play Doom with your friends or others within your friends networks? XFire may be the product for you.
So how does XFire make money? It is very interesting to read their license agreement. The privacy statement may reveal their business model
Xfire also collects, tracks and analyzes information that does not personally identify a user but rather is used in an aggregate form...
That's a really a kewl way to do market research! Give end users a useful tool and in exchange, you get anonymous data that you can potentially sell. How much is the data worth?
It's interesting to read the orkut terms as well. You actually have to be you in this brave new world of Peer Webs. No more hiding behind your masked identity.
...you must provide true, accurate and complete registration information to be an orkut.com member ...
and in their privacy policy:
The orkut.com service is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. Businesses, organizations or other legal entities may not use the orkut.com service for any purpose.
but that doesn't prevent them from making money off the aggregate data either
We may share both personally identifiable information about you and aggregate usage information that we collect with Google Inc. and agents of orkut in accordance to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.
So your personal information is protected and you are essentially providing the corresponding network owner with a market research data point.
Marc Goodner sent me email and used the acronym FOAF (Friend of a Friend) which is an RDF vocabulary published by Dan Brikley and Libby Miller. I could call them FOAF Webs, but alas, that sound more like a 4 lettered word that is universally understood to have often negative connotations ;). So I think I am sticking with Peer Webs.
