AllPeers Goes Open Source

We’ve always seen AllPeers as a way to add new capabilities to the web browser without facing the Sisyphean task of creating and marketing a brand new browser. So when we set out to create our Drag-n-Share Firefox extension, we didn’t just take the most direct route to deploying the functionality we felt our users would want. We also built a powerful platform with features that could be used by many types of next-generation web applications: a generic resource framework, a scalable data store and of course a full-fledged peer-to-peer network. By baking the tricky bits into the browser platform, we hope that AllPeers will simplify the deployment of applications that work with structured data (like microformats), store this data where it makes the most sense (whether on the user’s machine or on a centralized server) and make real-time communication between users a snap.

Of course, we’re unlikely to revolutionize the web all by ourselves. That’s why we’re proud to announce that we’ve opened up the source code for AllPeers to other software developers. We hope that this will encourage developers to join our community, help us to improve our code and create their own applications on top of our platform.

The best way for developers to learn about our platform is to visit our new developer site. We’ve made a major effort to provide documentation and guidelines for hacking AllPeers. Of course, you can never have enough documentation, and we’ll continue to make adding information to the site a major priority.

I’d never worked on an open source project before we decided to use Mozilla as the basis for AllPeers, so I didn’t really know what to expect. As it transpires, the experience has exceeded my expectations on many levels. Building on top of a platform is orders of magnitude easier when you can peer inside and figure out what’s going on. More importantly, the notion of “community” isn’t just theoretical in the open source world. Mozilla has become a major part of my life, and I spend a significant proportion of my time interacting with the new friends I’ve made, exchanging ideas, solving technical problems or just shooting the breeze with like-minded folks.

In addition to using their code, we haven’t hesitated to adopt the tools, practices and philosophy that have made Mozilla a success. I hope that by open sourcing AllPeers we’ll be able to give something back.

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14 Comments »

1. Respect!

   Comment by pascal — 3/7/2007 @ 7:58 pm

2. Congrats! Smart move.

   Comment by B.D. — 3/7/2007 @ 8:07 pm

3. Great Move! I am sure AllPeers will bring in a new wave in itself. Keep it up.
   And yes thanks from all of us for making it open source.

   Comment by Techknight — 3/7/2007 @ 8:39 pm

4. Well, it was about time! If I had more expierience and time, it would be a project that I could contribute code to. Maybe future…

   Comment by ctkroeker — 3/7/2007 @ 8:46 pm

5. Nice, thanks guys, that’s a great news.

   Comment by tatare — 3/7/2007 @ 9:02 pm

6. Finally, great

   Comment by Vincent — 3/7/2007 @ 10:17 pm

7. I never knew you were such a hippie, Matt! First you start thinking different, now you’re all about peace, love and open source. What’s next? Are you going to grow your hair out and start wearing bell bottoms? Ok, forget the hair part…

   Comment by Ben — 3/8/2007 @ 7:55 am

8. This is great to hear. There’s nothing like opening the code to spur innovation around a platform.

   Comment by Kimbro Staken — 3/8/2007 @ 8:16 am

9. so now I can really start to be helpful !

   Comment by Rémi — 3/8/2007 @ 10:28 am

10. open source or not allpeers si still a very bad piece of software. Wrong design.

    Comment by alex — 3/8/2007 @ 10:50 am

11. An excellent and long anticipated move! Congratulations friends!

    Comment by seber — 3/8/2007 @ 4:59 pm

12. Congratulations. You took a brave step and I hope that it is a rewarding one for you and your organization!

    Comment by Lloyd Budd — 3/8/2007 @ 11:19 pm

13. We are developing something similar. Maybe we can collaborate!!!

    Comment by Gurudatt Shenoy — 3/27/2007 @ 1:54 pm

14. Ask me, I liked ALLPeers a lot. And the concept reflects a lot with the NetAlter System which is more ambitious in developing a new browser / internet OS

    Comment by Gurudatt Shenoy — 3/27/2007 @ 1:56 pm

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