Document compelling use cases for IPFS in the browser

[flyingzumwalt]

Collect descriptions of compelling use cases for IPFS in the browser. This info can then be used in #26

Background

@Gozala:

I probably have repeated this many times already, but I think most important is to figure out what IPFS in browser supposed to give users and try to figure out all from that perspective.

@Gozala in #22:

As to what I'm proposing - IMO there needs to be a particular, well defined feature that IPFS in browser provides that would gain a user traction. For example Opera shipped p2p file sharing, chat & static site server back in 2009 and so did AllPeers Firefox extension in 2006 but neither end up being successful, it's either due to lack of that particular feature or maybe they were just ahead of time. Either way I think it's something worth taking time to consider.

[flyingzumwalt]

Some things that are currently on the web but not accommodated by browsers: VR, Blockchains, IoT

[flyingzumwalt]

Things that create new possibilities in browsers

• disconnected operation & offline (ie. local chat, share files without access to backbone, easy way to load simple applications and work with the person next to you)
• when you're in an environment, being able to see local nodes around you (geographically local or metaphorically local, ie. nodes run by people with shared affiliations) and see which applications you can run with them -- similar to how airdop works on macs, chat, collaborative doc editing

Examples:

• @edsilv iiif 3D viewer
• @edsilv & @dignifiedquire iiif annotations
• @whyrusleeping p2p large file sharer

CREATING THE COUNTERPOINT TO: "your machine is a portal to the cloud."
INSTEAD EMPHASIZING: visibility of what's around you. Treating all data as social data and all interactions between nodes as social activity.

[flyingzumwalt]

Use case Inspired by @jefft0's comments in #21: bookmark a page and snapshot it and serve that snapshot to the network. Plus, by extension, copy that snapshot to any additional nodes (i.e. Newspaper, Library, Legal Proceedings) with cryptographic integrity checks.

UX probably similar to the Wayback Machine browser extensions and bookmarklet? https://blog.archive.org/2017/01/25/see-something-save-something/

[jefft0]

These Wayback Machine extensions require manual intervention for the user to click the snapshot button. The whole awesomness of IPFS is that I am already viewing a snapshot, and the link I bookmark or put in a blog post can automatically be a link to an IPLD object which has the snapshot plus the mutable IPNS link. The browser already needs to be IPLD-aware (to display directory objects, etc.), so it can handle this transparently for the user.