An ABC News article headlined a story on the internet with "Is it Time to Scrap the Internet and Start Over?" And it is a question that a lot of people are asking these days. So much of what the internet is has evolved long after the original conception. So much so, it's become outdated.
"That's one way to put it," says Larry Roberts, who, in 1969, managed the Pentagon's APRAnet, the precursor to the Internet. "Another is that it's insufficient for the new kinds and new scale of today's transfers."
What he is talking about are the new things the internet is all of a sudden forced to do. The original conception of the internet was perfect for sending emails and maybe even swapping research data between universities.
It definitely wasn't meant to provide you with high-definition television streaming.
TNS and the Conference Board, two research groups both based in New York, have recently produced results to a study done in the US. According to the report, almost 16% of US households watch some sort of TV over the internet. In addition, their report showed that online audiences for a full episode have doubled since last year.
For those not in to the reports however, there's an easy way to see how the internet TV media is moving. Just watch the websites of major channels!
Over the past several years, we've seen websites go from having nothing but episode summaries and cast listings, to slowly entering the world of online streaming with maybe one or two shows. But now, all the major US networks are jumping all over themselves to get as much of their prime-time television online as possible.
It's a good sign, especially in an entertainment industry that is not known for its generosity towards the viewer or listener. They've seen the base line for their largest priority--revenue--can be reached by new forms of media.
But streaming shows, sometimes to many hundreds at the same time, is not what the internet is built for. Unlike an iTunes episode download where the show will run locally from your computer, streaming is reliant on a constant and stable connection. Without it, dialogue is dropped, scenes jitter and slow down, and sometimes episodes just halt altogether, leaving you wondering just who it was she was sleeping with, or who shot who!
The ABC article presents an interesting statistic that really underlines the current state of unpreparedness the internet is in. They refer to the 19 million Americans who watched the season premiere of Desperate Housewives, and note that, if that audience had watched it on the internet, it would have required 4.5 terabytes of Internet capacity each second.
The punch line to that? 4.5 terabytes of capacity is triple the amount used across the entire internet.
The problem. though is not that America has slow internet. It is that the ISP's do not want to invest in the technology to bring the fast internet straight to your doors.
Often you may hear of comparisons made between the internet in South Korea and America. People love to use it as the example of just how far behind America really is. But in reality, there isn't much anyone can do about it.
Picture a country like South Korea that is roughly the size of Maine and has a population density second only to that of Bangladesh. It is easy to bring fast internet to everyone; they're all living in each other's pockets! In America it is much, much harder, considering the wide open spaces and vast population spread.
Granted, companies like Verizon FiOS are attempting to bring the internet to people's doors. They hope to reach 9 million people by the end of this year with "fiber-optics network straight to your home."
But it seems that it is going to be a long time before countries like the US manage to partake in an internet that isn't on the verge of an electronic coronary.
Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.
