In this paper we present a solution to the `Latest Gossip Problem'
for a shared memory distributed system. The Latest Gossip Problem
is essentially one of bounded timestamping in which processes must
locally keep track of the `latest' information, direct or indirect,
about all other processes. A solution to the Latest Gossip Problem
is fundamental to the understanding of information flow in a
distributed computation, and has applications to problems such as
global state detection or mutual exclusion.
Our solution is along the lines of that for message passing systems in
\cite{MNS1}, and for synchronously communicating systems \cite{MS1}.
Our algorithm uses a modified version of the {\em consume} and
{\em update} protocols of Dwork and Waarts \cite{DW}, where these
were introduced to construct a `Bounded Concurrent Timestamping
System'. As an application of our Gossip Protocol, we also indicate
a solution to the BCTS problem. The solution in \cite{DW} requires,
in addition to the read-write operations, special `garbage collection'
operations to be performed from time to time so that timestamps can
be reused. Our specialization eliminates the need for such an
operation, and maintains timestamps and latest information `on-line'.
