Supporting Social Networks With Agent-Based Services

Abstract

Current approaches to build social networking systems are based on a centralized architecture because it allows a simple browser-based user experience and makes easier and more efficient to implement many algorithms used in a social networking site (e.g., friend suggestion), However this kind of architecture has many drawbacks for its users, e.g., lack of privacy, lack of anonymity, risks of censorship and operating costs. This paper presents a system, called Blogracy, which uses widespread and stable peer-to-peer technologies, such as distributed hash tables and BitTorrent, for coping with intrinsic defects of centralized architectures and for being the basis of solid distributed social networking platforms. Moreover, Blogracy takes advantages of multi-agent systems for simplifying the implementation of social network services in a decentralized setting.