last on Like a Swerving Commuter, a Selfish RouterSlows Traffic -- Is this another case of PR science?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

I sent this out initially because I still believe that one has to be very
careful in this game. I will assume that all did it in a spirit of advancing
knowledge of the field but I would hate to see the debate on technology
being conducted in the NYT.

Dave


------ Forwarded Message
From: "Allen B. MacKenzie" <abm23 () cornell edu>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 14:52:12 -0400
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] Like a Swerving Commuter, a Selfish RouterSlows Traffic --
Is this another case of PR science?

Dave,

With all due respect, I don't think that you've given the Cornell
researchers a fair assessment.  The work mentioned in the article has been
published in peer reviewed journals and conferences; the main results
mentioned in the article first appeared in 2000 in conference form [1] and
were published last year in the Journal of the ACM [2].

I saw this research mentioned via another internet source recently (CNET?);
I suspect that the Times reporter saw that story (or one like it) and
decided to report on it.  I am acquainted with Drs. Roughgarden and Tardos,
and I believe them to be first class researchers with high standards of
integrity.  While David Reed raises valid points regarding the applicability
of this work to the current internet, I don't believe that the researchers
were intentionally misrepresenting their work.  I simply believe that they
were making an effort to explain it in terms suitable for reporting in the
Times.

[1] T. Roughgarden and E. Tardos.  "How Bad is Selfish Routing?"  Proc. of
the IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 2000.

[2] T. Roughgarden and E. Tardos.  "How Bad is Selfish Routing?"  Journal of
the ACM.  49(2):236-259, March 2002.

Regards,
Allen (on IP via another email address)

------ End of Forwarded Message

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