Michael Jackson rushed to hospital

[DaemonSeid]

MJ's death slows the internet to a crawl


Something to think about...how reliable is the net for a source of news? If we should remember one thing about this event is how long it took major news sources to not only update those pages but also how long to GET to those pages to even find this out.

Moreso, this event may start calling into question about the readiness of the net for a world changing event and making sure that everyone is able access it quickly.

If Michael Jackson's death can bring the net to a crawl...what would have to happen to shut it down and what should the wolrd do to beef up equipment to avoid that happening?

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

MJ's death slows the internet to a crawl

If Michael Jackson's death can bring the net to a crawl...what would have to happen to shut it down and what should the wolrd do to beef up equipment to avoid that happening?

If I recall correctly, the internets was pretty slow on 9/11 too. That was before the smart phone craze, so most people were internet surfing from home or an office, where they could also watch TV. I haven't seen a single televised item about MJ's death since I don't watch television; I did, however, find things out on my BlackBerry.

Do news outlets need additional servers to handle the traffic of a once-every-8 to 10 years type of event? Is slow internet just something we'd have to deal with during a Major Event?

[UGAalum94]

I question, on a what-does-it-say-about-us-on-a-cultural level, whether MJ's death should be the kind of event like 9/11 that slows the internet, but that's a different thread all together. I've got nothing against him, certainly, but it's weird that a pure pop star celebrity has turned out to be as significant in death to us as he has.

Even with the "slow" internet, information still got around a lot faster than I think it would have pre-net, and that's kind of the amazing part about it. How quickly after 911 was called did you know about Michael's collapse?

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I question, on a what-does-it-say-about-us-on-a-cultural level, whether MJ's death should be the kind of event like 9/11 that slows the internet, but that's a different thread all together. I've got nothing against him, certainly, but it's weird that a pure pop star celebrity has turned out to be as significant in death to us as he has.

Even with the "slow" internet, information still got around a lot faster than I think it would have pre-net, and that's kind of the amazing part about it. How quickly after 911 was called did you know about Michael's collapse?

good point...

In comparison:

My experience with 9/11

Wasn't sure until really maybe 10 or 11am just exactly what happened and my cowrokers and I went hunting down TVs to confirm

MJ's death

Within THE HOUR from collapse to confirmation, most of us worldwide what happened...even still the major newsnetworks were among the last to confirm it.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I question, on a what-does-it-say-about-us-on-a-cultural level, whether MJ's death should be the kind of event like 9/11 that slows the internet, but that's a different thread all together. I've got nothing against him, certainly, but it's weird that a pure pop star celebrity has turned out to be as significant in death to us as he has.

Even with the "slow" internet, information still got around a lot faster than I think it would have pre-net, and that's kind of the amazing part about it. How quickly after 911 was called did you know about Michael's collapse?

I got word within the hour. A lot of it has to do with social networking sites (Twitter) and tabloid sites (TMZ) becoming more popular. I'm sure if we had these things in 2001, we would have heard news just as quickly.

[AGDee]

The net did slow to a crawl on 9/11. Sites like CNN were not accessible due to the huge traffic. I had a co-worker come to my desk and ask if I could get the local news radio station in from my cubicle because she saw on CNN that a plane hit the WTC but then CNN went down. I turned on the radio minutes before the second plane hit. That news was spread in most places very quickly. I imagine if you were sitting in a classroom, you wouldn't have heard until that class was over, back then. Now, with smartphones and wi-fi everywhere, you'd probably have heard it within 10 minutes.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

The net did slow to a crawl on 9/11. Sites like CNN were not accessible due to the huge traffic. I had a co-worker come to my desk and ask if I could get the local news radio station in from my cubicle because she saw on CNN that a plane hit the WTC but then CNN went down. I turned on the radio minutes before the second plane hit. That news was spread in most places very quickly. I imagine if you were sitting in a classroom, you wouldn't have heard until that class was over, back then. Now, with smartphones and wi-fi everywhere, you'd probably have heard it within 10 minutes.

So...when all is said and done...do any of you folks are we better prepared to get big event news like that or are we still lagging?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

So...when all is said and done...do any of you folks are we better prepared to get big event news like that or are we still lagging?

Like Munchkin03 said, I think the concept of needing to "upgrade" the internet just for an out of the blue event is silly. The reason people hit the net so hard is because things were being reported before they were confirmed.

In case of a true national emergency, like 9/11, the Emergency Alert System still exists on TV and radio. Michael's death is not an emergency.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

The net did slow to a crawl on 9/11. Sites like CNN were not accessible due to the huge traffic. I had a co-worker come to my desk and ask if I could get the local news radio station in from my cubicle because she saw on CNN that a plane hit the WTC but then CNN went down. I turned on the radio minutes before the second plane hit. That news was spread in most places very quickly. I imagine if you were sitting in a classroom, you wouldn't have heard until that class was over, back then. Now, with smartphones and wi-fi everywhere, you'd probably have heard it within 10 minutes.

That was my experience - once word got out early that one of the planes had gone through Boston (where I was going to college at Boston U), the word started spreading pretty quickly. The fact that there was no cell phone service in the city slowed down the spread of info a bit, but that was probably outweighed by the fact that so many BU students were from NYC.

To be honest, I don't remember even checking the net about it that day, because so many people were talking about it on campus, and because there were televisions all over campus tuned in to the news stations.