TO READ THIS STORY - you must have a paid subscription to Technology Review OR you can purchase special archive reading credits here. Choose from these great offers below.

I'm a paid subscriber please
log me in

I want to purchase this article for
only $1.99
(requires login)

I want to purchase five articles for
only $7.99
(requires login)

I want to buy
1 Year TOTAL Access for
only $24.95
(requires login)

Please note: Click here if you are currently a Technology Review print or digital subscriber and do not have access to this article.

Click here if you are an MIT alum and do not have access to this article.

July/August 2008

Internet Gridlock

Video is clogging the Internet. How we choose to unclog it will have far-reaching implications.

By Larry Hardesty

Star Wars: Episode IV according to a three-year-old.

An obscure blogger films his three-year-old daughter reciting the plot of the first Star Wars movie. He stitches together the best parts--including the sage advice "Don't talk back to Darth Vader; he'll getcha"--and posts them on the video-sharing website YouTube. Seven million people download the file. A baby-faced University of Minnesota graduate student with an improbably deep voice films himself singing a mind-numbingly repetitive social-protest song called "Chocolate Rain": 23 million downloads. A self-described "inspirational comedian" films the six-minute dance routine that closes his presentations, which summarizes the history of popular dance from Elvis to Eminem: 87 million downloads.

Select from the choices above
to read the entire article.

Customer Service

Magazine Services

•	Subscription FAQ
•	Pay Your Bill
•	Renew Your Subscription
•	Change Your Address
•	Check Your Start/Expire Issue
•	Feedback
•	Buy a Back Issue
•	Permissions/Reprints
•	Cancel Your Subscription
•	Digital Subscription Customer Service

Subscribe

•	New Subscription
•	Gift Subscription
•	Technology Review in Digital format
•	Free email updates
•	RSS Feeds

Other

• MIT Affiliates Only
• Copyright Permissions
• Emerging Technologies Conference

Advertise

• Print and online advertising
• List rental

Log In

Forgot your password? Register »

Videos

Now Playing:
Malleable Maps, Artistic Robots and Bubble Interfaces
[Full Story] [Larger Video]

Latest Videos

Malleable Maps, Artistic Robots and Bubble Interfaces

Top Stories Of The Day

Featured Content

White Papers

HP ProLiant Servers Family Guide
Drive greater business growth, lower your costs, and mitigate unplanned risks with powerful HP ProLiant servers. Read the whitepaper to learn how the HP Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio reduces cost and increases quality of service to your business.

Download Listen

HP BladeSystem for Growing Businesses
A BladeSystem gives you vital business solutions that are more affordable, take less time to maintain, use less power, and are ready to grow with you. Learn how its all-in-one design gives you the essentials to build, maintain, and upgrade your infrastructure from start to finish.

Download Listen

HP BladeSystem Family Guide
Learn how the HP BladeSystem family addresses the cost, time, and energy challenges that IT departments face. HP integrates the infrastructure essentials inside BladeSystem so that before it even arrives at your office, it has completed a lot of the hard work.

Download Listen

HP StorageWorks All-in-One SB600cStorage Blade
Do you need an affordable and reliable network storage solution that provides many of the management, consolidation, and data-protection features typically reserved for more complex storage products? HP StorageWorks’ all-in-one SB600c Storage Blade is the answer, and this whitepaper explains it all.

Download Listen

HP ProLiant 100 Series Servers Family Data Sheet
If you are in charge of the IT decisions for a small- or medium-sized company, this whitepaper is for you. HP ProLiant 100 Series servers offer affordable solutions designed to give your growing businesses plenty of flexibility for growth with the reliability for which HP is known.

Download Listen

HP Insight Dynamics – VSE Software
HP Insight Dynamics – VSE gives you a powerful tool kit to accelerate complex IT projects and simplify daily operations. It makes your infrastructure change-ready, with the freedom and flexibility of virtualization delivered across your physical infrastructure. Read the valuable whitepaper to learn how VSE can help your business.

Download Listen

Subscribe to Technology Review's daily e-mail update. Enter your e-mail address

More Technology News from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology