WebRTC is a new browser API designed for peer-to-peer video conferencing. But it is useful for more than just video. It is possible for the first time to build peer-to-peer web applications.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) has been used to achieve performance and data availability (BitTorrent), to provide privacy (Tor), and to disrupt long-held assumptions (Bitcoin). A recurring theme of P2P is that it empowers users.
Web apps are inherently accessible - an app can be loaded and run just by clicking a link. The combination of P2P and web has potential for disruptive apps with low barriers to entry.
I will describe building a distributed hash table (DHT) that operates in the browser, with an introduction to a reusable library that provides this functionality. I will talk about building apps on top of a DHT. And I will discuss issues of reliability, performance, and interoperability of WebRTC data channels.
Jesse is a JavaScript engineer at Jive Software and is an organizer of the Portland JavaScript Admirers user group. Jesse has particular interests in a less centralized web and in online identity. Writeups of Jesse's experiments can be found at http://sitr.us.