I have a new obsession hobby. This past weekend, I discovered BitTorrent, a cooperative distribution protocol for sharing large files. In my case, it’s a way to get concert recordings (of artist who approve of that sort of thing) without having to set up a snail mail trade with someone and hope it works out for the best. It’s fast way to distribute shows, too. I was able to download a show yesterday that was recorded the day before!
The key to scalable and robust distribution is cooperation. With BitTorrent, those who get your file tap into their upload capacity to give the file to others at the same time. Those that provide the most to others get the best treatment in return. (“Give and ye shall receive!”)
Cooperative distribution can grow almost without limit, because each new participant brings not only demand, but also supply. Instead of a vicious cycle, popularity creates a virtuous circle. And because each new participant brings new resources to the distribution, you get limitless scalability for a nearly fixed cost.
So, what’s the library world application of this kind of protocol? The obvious one that comes to my mind is distribution of electronic publications. If part of the difficulties of publishing electronically is the cost of maintaining the backfiles, then perhaps publisher should look into a BitTorrent-type distribution model where everyone who is interested in the electronic content shares the burden of distributing it on demand.
I’m not sure if this would work in libraryland, but it certainly makes it a lot easier to share concert recordings.
![](http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/living/people/8583153.htm">feature article</a> today about the resurgence of interest in shape note thanks to the move Cold Mountain. The article briefly describes shape note and it’s popularity in modern society. I used to sing regularly with both the <a href="http://cs.engr.uky.edu/~raphael/fasola.html">Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers</a>, and a group that meets weekly in Berea. This year I’ve gotten very busy, and it’s been easy to choose not to make the drive to these locations on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I should try to get to the big singing this Saturday, though.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="http://cs.engr.uky.edu/~raphael/fasola.2001.12.jpeg" alt="picture taken December, 2001 at a joint singing with the Berea Shape Note group at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Mercer County, Kentucky." width="497" height="218"></p>
<p><i>I’m in the front row wearing a dark shirt with a white turtle neck.</i></p>
<p><b>update (5/10/04):</b> I went for the last two hours of the singing. I don’t have enough stamina for a whole day, and I figured they could use my voice more then, when everyone else is getting tired. We had plenty of singers to make it sound good, and quite a few visitors sitting on the edges of the square and listening. Most of the visitors came because of the newspaper article and the movie <i>Cold Mountain</i>, but surprisingly enough, there were a handfull of singers there because of the newspaper article, too. We sang both songs from the movie soundtrack (<a href="http://www.fasola.org/index/L/282.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">I’m Going Home</a> and <a href="http://www.fasola.org/index/L/047b.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Idumea</a>), as well as a number of favorites. There were quite a few songs that I wasn’t familiar with, but thankfully others in my section knew them. We sang my favorite page-turner, <a href="http://www.fasola.org/index/L/254.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rose of Sharon</a>, too. I even led two songs, <a href="http://www.fasola.org/index/L/497.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Natick</a> and <a href="http://www.fasola.org/index/L/334.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oh Come Away</a>.</p>
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