p2p definition (useful) by Michel Bauwens

So: what is peer to peer? Here’s a first tentative definition: It is a specific form of relational dynamic, is based on the assumed equipotency of its participants[v], organized through the free cooperation of equals in view of the performance of a common task, for the creation of a common good, with forms of decision-making and autonomy that are widely distributed throughout the network. Equipotency means that there is no prior formal filtering for participation, but rather that it is the immediate practice of cooperation which determines the expertise and level of participation. It does not deny `authority’, but only fixed forced hierarchy, and therefore accepts authority based on expertise, initiation of the project, etc…

P2P is a network, not a hierarchy (though it may have elements of it); it is ‘distributed’, though it may have elements of centralization and ‘decentralisation’; intelligence is not located at any center, but everywhere within the system.

From “Peer to Peer and Human Evolution”

http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=p2ptheory1#_Toc107024684