Re: Metcalfes "imminent death of the internet" prediction

[Dave Crocker <[e-mail]>]

At 7:50 AM -0700 7/25/96, Per Gregers Bilse wrote:
>No, don't forget Dr. Metcalfe's definition of a collapse: "... when
>more than 50,000 people are denied their Internet access for more
>than an hour, let's call it an Internet collapse, ...".  By that
>definition the Internet has died when 100k people get no response
>from IBM's WWW servers.

	That, of course, is the problem with overly simplistic definitions.
In this case it feeds a verious serious failure to distinguish between
"failures of the net" and "failures of the information providers".

	Bob has been on a long-term campaign to raise people's awareness of
the limitations to the current system.  The issue is a valid one.  Bob's
style has been very consistent and always of the chicken-little variety.
That, I'm afraid, is highly counter-productive.

	Good message.  Bad tone.

d/

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Dave Crocker                                            [phone]
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