本文將以目前台灣最大的網路新聞時事討論區──PTT Gossiping看板（以下簡稱「八卦板」）為研究對象，分析透過BBS媒介所形成的網路群眾文化，並探究其民主意涵。有別於一般網路公共領域的研究，本文將由「對抗性公共」與「狂歡節」這兩個概念切入，並借鏡俄國文學批評家Bakhtin所提出的「眾聲喧嘩」與「公共廣場」等說法，嘗試論證透過網路媒介所形成、並帶有集體性狂歡節色彩的社會互動空間，如何落實異於Habermas菁英式公共領域的公共生活想像。 就內容而言，本文可粗略區分為兩部分：首先我們將以Gossiping看板為例，從集體性的角度描繪網路群眾文化的樣貌（第二、三章），接著再進一步說明其民主意涵（第四章）。在第二章當中，我們將藉由回顧八卦板的看板歷程，說明本文所討論的八卦板「網路公眾」，在評論新聞、針砭時事的表面下，其實潛藏著某種不同於理性個人交往的社會關係形態；對於這樣的現象，我們可以暫且稱之為「網路起鬨」。在第三章，我們將透過集體亢奮與狂歡節的概念，進一步擴充網路起鬨現象的抽象意義，並嘗試說明：即便到了今天，人們透過網路媒介進行的互動，仍然表現出「非凡、例外」的強烈集體情緒；這樣的集體性，既不同於公共領域理性論辯的互動方式，亦無法簡單斥之為「非理性」的劣質文化。以此種互動關係樣態為背景，在第四章我們將著重討論帶有狂歡節特質的網路群眾文化，如何透過語言的運用，體現Bakhtin強調多元觀點的「眾聲喧嘩」概念；此種狂歡節語言，能夠跳脫代表語言中心化力量的Habermas公共領域設想，從而落實「公共廣場」概念所描繪的、強調對話而不強加共識的公共生活。最後在第五章結論當中，本文除了對全文進行簡要總結之外，並討論了「社會關係／mob-ility」、「遊戲」以及「日常生活」等等概念，嘗試為網路文化的進一步研究，提供可能的參考方向。 / Taking Taiwan’s largest internet news forum “PTT Gossiping” as research object, this thesis analyses the culture of internet crowds formed through the medium of BBS (Bulletin Board System), and explores its democratic implications. Different from existing researches of “internet public sphere”, this thesis set out its arguments by resorting to concepts of “counterpublics” and “carnival”, and concludes with the notions of “heteroglossia” and “public square”, both proposed by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin, to demonstrate how a collectively carnivalistic social space of interaction, formed by internet, can provide us with an alternative imagination of public life that is different from Habermasian (elite) public sphere. This thesis consists of two parts: firstly, it analyses the culture of internet crowds from the sociological perspective of collectivity, taking PTT Gossiping as example (Ch. 2 & Ch. 3); secondly, it elaborates the democratic implications of this culture (Ch. 4). In Ch. 2, we review the historical development of PTT Gossiping, in order to demonstrate that the “internet public” constituting this news forum shows a non-personal as well as non-rational mode of social interaction, which we can provisionally describe as “internet mobbing”. In Ch. 3, we elaborate the sociological meaning of internet mobbing, by resorting to concepts such as “collective effervescence” and “carnival”, arguing that the “extraordinary, exceptional” feature of strong collective emotions can still be observed nowadays in internet interactions. This collectivity is neither similar to rational, reasoning mode of interaction proposed by the idea of “public sphere”, nor can it be denounced simply as “irrational” or bad culture. Based on this kind of social interaction, in Ch. 4 we explore how the using of carnivalistic language by internet crowds can embody Bakhtinian heteroglossia. By emphasizing the value of multiple perspectives, the carnivalistic language use of internet crowds breaks away from Habermasian public sphere, and helps to bring about a public life depicted by Bakhtinian “public square”, encouraging dialogue rather than forcing consensus. Finally, in Ch. 5 we sum up the thesis, and discuss ideas such as “social relationship / mob-ility”, “game”, and “everyday life”, which can serve as possible directions for further studies on internet culture.

<p>Structured overlay networks form a major classof peer-to-peer systems, which are touted for their abilitiesto scale, tolerate failures, and self-manage. Any long livedInternet-scale distributed system is destined to facenetwork partitions. Although the problem of network partitionsand mergers is highly related to fault-tolerance andself-management in large-scale systems, it has hardly beenstudied in the context of structured peer-to-peer systems.These systems have mainly been studied under churn (frequentjoins/failures), which as a side effect solves the problemof network partitions, as it is similar to massive nodefailures. Yet, the crucial aspect of network mergers has beenignored. In fact, it has been claimed that ring-based structuredoverlay networks, which constitute the majority of thestructured overlays, are intrinsically ill-suited for mergingrings. In this thesis, we present a number of research papers representing our work on handling network partitions and mergers in structured overlay networks. The contribution of this thesis is threefold. First, we provide a solution for merging ring-based structured overlays. Our solution is tuneable, by a {\em fanout} parameter, to achieve a trade-off between message and time complexity. Second, we provide a network size estimation algorithm for ring-based structured overlays. We believe that an estimate of the current network size can be used for tuning overlay parameters that change according to the network size, for instance the fanout parameter in our merger solution.Third, we extend our work from fixing routing anomalies to achieving data consistency. We argue that decreasing lookup inconsistencies on the routing level aids in achieving data consistency in applications built on top of overlays. We study the frequency of occurence of lookup inconsistencies and discuss solutions to decrease the affect of lookup inconsistencies.</p>

This thesis is concerned with studying the behavior of a gossiping protocol in the specific sense meant by Ericsson; in the following pages I’ll introduce a Markov process which models the spread of information in such systems. The results will be verified by means of a discreet-event simulation. / Gossiping Protocols, are inherently random in behavior.Nonetheless, they are not structure-less. Their asymptotic behavior when implemented in large scales is the matter of focus in this thesis. / Tel: +46709700505 Address: Pinnharvsgatan 3 E lgh 1202 43147 Mölndal Sweden

Structured overlay networks form a major classof peer-to-peer systems, which are touted for their abilitiesto scale, tolerate failures, and self-manage. Any long livedInternet-scale distributed system is destined to facenetwork partitions. Although the problem of network partitionsand mergers is highly related to fault-tolerance andself-management in large-scale systems, it has hardly beenstudied in the context of structured peer-to-peer systems.These systems have mainly been studied under churn (frequentjoins/failures), which as a side effect solves the problemof network partitions, as it is similar to massive nodefailures. Yet, the crucial aspect of network mergers has beenignored. In fact, it has been claimed that ring-based structuredoverlay networks, which constitute the majority of thestructured overlays, are intrinsically ill-suited for mergingrings. In this thesis, we present a number of research papers representing our work on handling network partitions and mergers in structured overlay networks. The contribution of this thesis is threefold. First, we provide a solution for merging ring-based structured overlays. Our solution is tuneable, by a {\em fanout} parameter, to achieve a trade-off between message and time complexity. Second, we provide a network size estimation algorithm for ring-based structured overlays. We believe that an estimate of the current network size can be used for tuning overlay parameters that change according to the network size, for instance the fanout parameter in our merger solution.Third, we extend our work from fixing routing anomalies to achieving data consistency. We argue that decreasing lookup inconsistencies on the routing level aids in achieving data consistency in applications built on top of overlays. We study the frequency of occurence of lookup inconsistencies and discuss solutions to decrease the affect of lookup inconsistencies.