Exploring peer-to-peer infrastructure for Computer Supported Collaborative Work applications

Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) has been greatly enhanced by technology that provides almost real-time capture, replay, and sharing of content. “The cloud” has popularized ease of deployment for apps serviced through a centralized approach. In this work we propose a more aggressive design, decentralizing the location of shared content within a peer-to-peer structure. Ease of deployment is maintained through a novel architecture for a multilayer distributed cloud. This paper describes how this approach has shown promise in a prototype app, ThinkTogether, and the potential to enable a consistent user experience, even for remote peers sharing VoIP.