Module One Assignments
The Starfish and the Spider explores the concept of decentralized technologies and organizations, and how those can be a threat to our existing centralized methods that have been the status quo. These questions give some insight into how difficult decentralized organizations can be to effectively impact.
The Spaniards were unable to defeat the Apaches because they had no centralization. They had no capital city, they had no king or ruler, and they had no centralized wealth. The Spaniards' method of attacking always involved killing a ruler and sacking a city, but with neither of these to go after, their attack was disorganized and ineffective. This sort of decentralized structure has implications on modern events such as P2P file sharing, as discussed in The Starfish and the Spider. As major music labels such as MGM are discovering, it is nearly impossible to quash a resistance when that resistance has no leadership. The situation heavily mirrors that of the Spaniards and the Apaches.
A centralized organization is coercive system that generally operates under the clear leadership of an individual or highly centralized ruling body. Rules are set and enforced, and there is no question as to who determines those rules. A decentralized organization, on the other hand, has no clear leader, no hierarchy, and no headquarters. There may be figures that some will voluntarily choose to follow, but those figures have little power. It is an open system where the power is distributed amongst the people, and across a region.
A decentralized organzation does not have one clear leader, does not have a centralized leadership, and does not have a capital city or headquarters. It is an open system where the power belongs to the people and is spread across them throughout the region.
Napster had a centralized server that users could connect to in order to share music or other files with other users connected to that server. It also had an appointed CEO and was a fairly centralized organization. It differed from Kazaa, which had no central server to log into. Instead, users connected to others' computers directly in order to share files, which decentralized the power of the program.
Parts of it are relevant. Regarding Uber and Lyft versus existing cab companies, the theme of centralized against decentralized is apparent, with the existing taxi companies representing the former. Taxi companies have been long established, and all of their drivers and cars work for and belong to them. However with ride sharing services, it is up to the drivers working for Uber or Lyft to choose when they drive, what rides they accept, and in addition, they utilize their own vehicles. However, it is not an exact mirror of the situation of the record companies going up against P2P services like Kazaa or eMule. Uber and Lyft still have centralized offices that all of their drivers must check in with in order to receive rides. Those offices are subject to government restrictions and lawsuits, and therefore, their drivers are affected as well. If anything, Uber and Lyft are more akin to Napster than other types of P2P services.