Early Internet Pioneer Claims The Internet Is Broken... But Oh Look, He's Selling The 'Solution'
from the marketers-dream dept
If I announced tomorrow that some key technology in widespread use today was fundamentally broken, but (oh yeah) that I was selling a solution that would fix it all, don't you think most reporters would first try to track down an independent third party to find out if what I was saying was actually true? Apparently not all reporters feel that way. So take it with a grain of salt when PC Authority writes a gushing article about how one of the internet's original designers, Larry Roberts, claims the internet is fundamentally broken. Roberts has been pushing this line for a while, and it's rather important to note that this is part of the marketing campaign for his company, which is trying to sell a "solution" to the problem. Yet PC Authority focuses entirely on the idea that the internet is broken, checks with no other third party, and only mentions at the very, very end of the article that Roberts' company just happens to be trying to sell a solution. Whether or not you believe Roberts' claims, you would think that a reporter wouldn't put what seems like a blatant press release and pitch it as a news article without at least getting some third party opinions.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: infrastructure, internet, larry roberts
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What?
Why on earth would I think that? Press-release 'journalism' has been the norm for as long as I can remember.
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Um...
Wha...? What news have YOU been reading the last 5+ years?? This is ALL the news is anymore, everyone is in everyone's pockets. So many "news" articles are just paper-thin whitewashes of press releases or "Favorable" articles thinly disguised as "news."
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Re: Um...
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Wait for the bloggers...
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Re: Wait for the bloggers...
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And yet, here we are.
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And?
Love and kisses,
William "Wild Bill" Rockefeller
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Confusion or bait?
A reporter? This sounds to me more like the modern definition of a "journalist," which is synonymous with "advocate."
I hope this helps.
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Why limit to the internet?
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get over it
It also turns out that the expert you would want to talk to about packet switching and flow control happens to be the guy that was already talking. The startup in question is not trying to sell a product so much as change the basic underpinnings of the internet. His plan is not to make huge amounts of money on changing a protocol and making it propriety, his plan is to help people change to a new open protocol and system that will run smoother. While his company has some plans to make money helping people with that it does not change the fact that he is correct about flow control on the internet.
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Re: get over it
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Re: It's not broke
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Hmmm...
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Techdirt reported it first
The PC Authority article's author was practicing journalistic aggressiveness - now, PC Authority can say, "We reported it first!"
And Techdirt can say, "We reported that someone else reported on something first!"
There's nothing truly unique about the PC Authority article. They were just hurrying to have their fingers in the information pie. All journalists need something interesting to report about...
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Re: Techdirt reported it first
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Yeah
The answer is "no!": http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/07/09/incorrect-base-assumptions-about-network-management/
--Kyle
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It's all just shades of
Most of what passes for professional journalism these days is so yellow, it should be published on old fashioned legal pads.
For those that need it explained:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism
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Surprised??
Then, if they were still interested, they should research the group or individual responsible. And THEN read the story with a skeptical eye.
And they wonder why newspapers are "dying". Tchyuh.
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Kickbacks for All
...he would (as I suspect many do) if he was getting a kickback!
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Anyone that knows anything about modern routers knows that all manufacturers rely on flows to optimise routing. This is not a new idea. Not even close. But the article contained no comparison with or even acknowledgement of competing technology. Is the Doctor's implementation fundamentally different from Cisco's, Juniper's, or any of the others'? How is it better? Who knows? Not the IEEE.
This may not have been published in one of their academic journals but some sort of critical review would have identified the fundamental flaw.
What is even more concerning is the question of whether or not the IEEE paid Dr Robertsin for his shameless plug.
PC Authority may have failed in parroting the IEEE, but the IEEE failed first
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In other news
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTs of f****** t-shirts !!!!!
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Re: In other news
Awsome !
btw, you been hiding under a rock again ?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release
I can't say I'm surprised to see that this practice has made the translation to paper journalism.
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