What is the best way to coordinate data over the Internet?
I've recently been subject to spam-like levels of Plaxo requests. Although Plaxo does some things I like (provides a remote copy of my contacts and a way to sync work and home contact lists) I would like to think there were alternative ways to handle the coordination aspect of what they do, i.e. keeping your contacts updated automatically.
If a number of users wish to coordinate data over the Internet, what tools are available to them? There are various ways in which a casual user can serve data; they could set up a web-site/web-service or join some P2P network. However if the problem is simplified to merely becoming a source of data then they can send it out as messages, the most obvious form being email.
I've seen estimates suggesting there are about 25 million web-sites out there, about 2 million users of some file-sharing network and goodness knows how many virus infected PCs that could act as servers to somebody. But Plaxo relies on messaging; you install an Outloo...