Take some paper and write down your definition of a “peer-to-peer” network. No more than a paragraph and certainly not more than a page.
Then answer the following questions:
- Is sharing data essential to your definition?
- Are libraries peers if they have common users?
- Are books/journals peers if they have common readers?
- How should we deal with semantic inconsistency between peers?
Suggestion: Don’t confuse how something is done with it being done. Technique is important in terms of performance and other trade-offs but the question here is one of underlying principles. Once those are uncovered, then we can discuss how best to put them into practice.
For example, would you consider ants and bees to have social networks? Perhaps even peer-to-peer networks? Leaving aside swarm theory for the moment, just think about how you think information is conveyed in a colony/hive.