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I have some friends that tries to set up an open wireless network across Brussels. They are using AODV for dynamic routing. The network is completely open: if you want privacy, well, you should use cryptographic tools (pgp, ssh, ssl,...) They plan to use IPv6 very soon.

I have some friends that tries to set up an open wireless network across Brussels. They are using AODV for dynamic routing. The network is completely open: if you want privacy, well, you should use cryptographic tools (pgp, ssh, ssl,...) They plan to use IPv6 very soon.

I have some friends that tries to set up an open wireless network across Brussels. They are using AODV for dynamic routing. The network is completely open: if you want privacy, well, you should use cryptographic tools (pgp, ssh, ssl,...) They plan to use IPv6 very soon.

Here's a couple of examples of networks that exhibit a scale-free topology.

1. WikiWiki.

   This shows that Wiki sites are characterized by the Pareto distribution (a.k.a. power law distribution).

2. RPM dependency graphs.

   Out of curiousity, I wrote a quick script to compute the distribution of the number of links in the RPM dependency graph. It does seem to follow the Pareto distribution.

3. Slashdot

   Although I have no easy way of verifying this, my gut feeling is that the network of Slashdot users is also scale-free, if we define the notion of a link between two users as follows. User bobdc is linked to user bugbear, if bobdc has replied to any of bugbear's post (or submissions) at least once.

   This definition allows us to introduce the notion of a CmdrTaco number, similar to the Kevin Bacon number. Specifically, user Joe Schmoe has the CmdrTaco number of 1, if CmdrTaco has replied to any of Joe's comments. If Joe responded to wuliao's post, then wuliao has the CmdrTaco number of no greater than 2, and so on.

Pareto distributions are pretty common. For example, the number of downloads on SourceForge follows the Pareto distribution.

This page provides a fairly comprehensive list of further reading on the subject.

Look at SeattleWireless' HowDoesThisWikiLookLike there are few pages with a lot of references to or from other pages, and many pages with few references. It seems to follow a 'power law' too(~ 'scale free').

So, the 'inside' of the web seems to follow the same rules. It is particulary interresting with wikis because of the unplanned, distributed growth (like the Internet).

As the belgian provider, where the pictures are, seems to be down. You can also see the pictures in ReseauCitoyen.be's TopologieDuWiki

I thing it would be a good idea to have a discussion on /. on the Wiki phenomenon (sites everybody can contribute to, like WikiPedia.com ( more than 95,000 pages!).

I know of only one book on the subject : "The Wiki Way: Collaboration and Sharing on the Internet" by Bo Leuf, Ward Cunningham (of c2.com, creator of the Wiki concept).

If you search Google for 'RecentChanges' (a good marker for wikis (?)), you get a lot of them, more and more (A survey by country domain sept->oct 2002)

There are some scientific papers at GaTech.edu

Look at SeattleWireless' HowDoesThisWikiLookLike there are few pages with a lot of references to or from other pages, and many pages with few references. It seems to follow a 'power law' too(~ 'scale free').

So, the 'inside' of the web seems to follow the same rules. It is particulary interresting with wikis because of the unplanned, distributed growth (like the Internet).

As the belgian provider, where the pictures are, seems to be down. You can also see the pictures in ReseauCitoyen.be's TopologieDuWiki

I thing it would be a good idea to have a discussion on /. on the Wiki phenomenon (sites everybody can contribute to, like WikiPedia.com ( more than 95,000 pages!).

I know of only one book on the subject : "The Wiki Way: Collaboration and Sharing on the Internet" by Bo Leuf, Ward Cunningham (of c2.com, creator of the Wiki concept).

If you search Google for 'RecentChanges' (a good marker for wikis (?)), you get a lot of them, more and more (A survey by country domain sept->oct 2002)

There are some scientific papers at GaTech.edu

You can find other 802.11b antenna experiments in Finland and in Belgium with HomeMade antennas (this is in french, sorry). The 'KoekelBerg2 experiments' show the signal strength for a 3.9 km link with home made helicals and tin cans. We also got -85/-98 dBm with a can on a side and a simple lambda/4 wire on the other (the measure is on this side). We don't know if the apparent better performance of tin cans over helical antennas (which are much more difficult to build) is due to some error in our helical design (based on Jason Hecker's design) or not. I've got some other links here And, just a note about dB's : adding 6 dB allows you to double the distance.

You can find other 802.11b antenna experiments in Finland and in Belgium with HomeMade antennas (this is in french, sorry). The 'KoekelBerg2 experiments' show the signal strength for a 3.9 km link with home made helicals and tin cans. We also got -85/-98 dBm with a can on a side and a simple lambda/4 wire on the other (the measure is on this side). We don't know if the apparent better performance of tin cans over helical antennas (which are much more difficult to build) is due to some error in our helical design (based on Jason Hecker's design) or not. I've got some other links here And, just a note about dB's : adding 6 dB allows you to double the distance.