If Everyone Uses the Internet, Could We Bring It to Its Knees?

More importantly, does the internet even have knees? Whatever, this article from the Wall Street Journal blogs on October 2 poses an interesting problem: if we all end up quarantined with H1N1, and we all get on the internet at once to telecommute, attend virtual school, or update our Friendbook status to "I'm Sick...waaaaah!", will we kill the internet?

Heck, in my neighborhood a good rainstorm seems to dramatically slow the interwebs down, so I'm not feeling optimistic. But the chances of everyone feeling well enough to telecommute at the same time are probably low, and the network would adjust itself over time. But you should definitely consider that things might slow down as part of your business continuity planning. People should also be able to do tasks that don't require connectivity -- whether it's having some of their work files stored locally or on a thumb drive, having paper-based stuff they can take with them, or what have you.

And for the love of god, do have a back up for your internet phone. Maybe we should have kept the land line, I'm thinking. Ai!