IP: Web sites preparing for Starr report onslaught

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: Web sites preparing for Starr report onslaught
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 06:40:46 -0500
To: believer@telepath.com

Source:  Fox News - AP

Web sites preparing for Starr report onslaught
 2.42 a.m. ET (642 GMT) September 11, 1998

 By Chris Allbritton, Associated Press

 NEW YORK (AP) � Web surfers hoping to view portions of Independent Counsel
Kenneth Starr's report when it goes online today instead may need to wait
in line. 

 An expert in high-volume Web sites said millions of Web surfers �
clustered around Web sites like people used to cluster around teletype
machines waiting for the latest dispatches from news wire services �
probably will swamp the government's computers. 

 "I would imagine a lot of people getting a 'Site Not Available'
(message),'' said J.D. Zeeman, who coordinated IBM's Web site for the
Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, earlier this year. 

 At one point, the Olympics site was getting more than 110,000 hits a
minute, Zeeman said. 

 By Thursday afternoon, the crush of people visiting the House's Web site �
called Thomas � prompted this message: "The Library of Congress is aware of
public statements announcing the availability of the Independent Counsel's
report at this site. As yet, the House of Representatives has taken no
action regarding the public availability of this report.'' 

 A House vote on releasing the report was planned for today. 

 "The technology exists to handle this kind of load today, but it literally
takes months to get it in place,'' Zeeman said. "Unless they've done
something, I wouldn't imagine they would be adequately prepared.'' 

 A congressional source said the House is adequately prepared, posting the
report on government sites and distributing formatted copies to Web sites
of major newspapers, magazines, The Associated Press and other news
services, and online outlets such as America Online and Yahoo! 

 The Web has become a popular way to distribute government documents in the
past few years, but the last time a government body tried to release
red-hot documents on the Web, it was a disaster. It was the case of Louise
Woodward, the British au pair accused of murder. 

 In November 1997, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Hiller B. Zobel said
he would release on the Web his decision to reduce Woodward's conviction to
manslaughter. Millions on both sides of the Atlantic who had followed the
story eagerly anticipated the first online release of a criminal court
ruling. 

 But a power outage delayed the ruling for hours, and heavy traffic at Web
sites made it almost impossible for people to read the decision once it was
online. 

 The foul-up with the Woodward decision, while embarrassing, was not
unique. News sites usually slow down, or even crash, when the always
increasing number of Web surfers rushes online for news. It happened during
the Woodward case, after the death of Princess Diana and during the recent
gyrations of the stock market. 

 The slowdowns are just the nature of news on the Internet. The parallel is
a newspaper that assigns many reporters to a major story such as the
Oklahoma City bombing, or printing a lengthy report by an independent
counsel. 

 "I guess when you think of throwing all sorts of reporters on a story,
you're straining resources,'' said Ruth Gersh, editor of AP's multimedia
services. "If you put up the report on the Web, it uses up resources which
we call bandwidth.'' 

 Congressional leaders expect the report to be available this afternoon
through these government Web addresses: 

 �http://thomas.loc.gov/icreport 

 �http://www.house.gov/icreport 

                  � 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
-----------------------
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
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http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
-----------------------




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