P2P “Common interests” Search Engine and Collaboration Platform

The objective of the P2People project is to research & develop a P2P collaborative framework and a prototype application to allow people to form "common interest" groups and provide those groups members with new ways to communicate, collaborate and make business together. While most innovative efforts focus on computer resources groups, P2People focuses on people. When group formation brings people together, new modes of collaboration are requested. The P2People approach to explore these issues is based on the concept of the "common interest group". A common interest group is a virtual community of users who share common interests, knowledge areas, business etc. Potential users of P2People may vary from Universities and Science groups, professionals, non profit organizations, file sharing enthusiastic people, fans groups, big and small corporations, etc. P2PEOPLE represents a P2P platform, which integrates the essential collaboration modules for virtual communities sharing "common interests". These essential modules will be established through the following collaborative channels:

• Mail or instant message - This channel will allow the P2PEOPLE user to send a message or an e-mail directly to the other P2PEOPLE user without knowing the e-mail address or using a central mail server.
• File Share - Will allow both users to send and receive files from one computer to another.
• Screen Share - One user will highlight part of its computer screen and the other peer user will be able to view on his screen what the first user is viewing.
• Chat - Direct P2P chat.
• P2P Voice - Both parts will be able to talk to each other directly.
• P2P Video - Video conference.
• e-Payment - Necessary when a virtual community is formed by professionals who provide their specialized services

All channels will be based on the "Common Interest" search engine framework, which will allow the user to define his interest to create virtual communities of peers.