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Minitasking

Minitasking: Distinction / Net Excellence

Minitasking, a visual Gnutella client, tries to show the network structure and the dynamics of the protocol itself. At Prix Ars Electronica the German group schoenerwissen has been awarded a Distinction in the category 'Net Excellence' for it strangely engaging use of common internet technology.

Gnutella is the famous peer-to-peer file sharing protocol. With Minitasking the German group Schoenerwissen has developed the first visual file sharing client. Minitasking is a graphical browser that visually shows the relationships of the computers on that network. After connecting to the network, Minitasking represents other Gnutella servents it encounters as bubbles that vary in size and color depending on the amount of content they are hosting. When you enter a query for a file, the query is color-coded, and Minitasking then graphically 'zaps' other servents, visualizing how many matches that servent has with another bubble that matches the color of the query. At the same time, queries received from other servents float around the screen. Minitasking is written in Java and can be downloaded for free (a version is also provided that includes the necessary Java Runtime Engine).






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