It could prove that the predicted spread of the Swine Flu, or H1N1 virus, could bring the Internet to its knees as well as the populace of the world.

According to The Wall Street Journal (registration required), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are warning that as much as 50 percent of the United States population could be staying home if the H1N1 infections reach the pandemic levels they fear.  While businesses are making plans for workers to telecommute if this happens, people are beginning to wonder what may happen to the Internet if both workers and children are trying to access the Internet at the same time.

During the recent outbreak of the virus in the New York City area, over 60 schools closed, leaving 800,000 students home during the day.  While the Internet stayed up, it did not have the added factor of the parents also being home and trying to telecommute.  According to a recent study by Cisco, the Internet is at nearly 50 percent capacity from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. with business traffic, and then from 4 P.M. to 11 P.M. traffic surges past 50 percent, but the traffic shifts to video games and other forms of entertainment.

In short, 50 percent plus over 50 percent equals … well, you can see that comes to over 100 percent.

The Department of Homeland Security actually did a study on the effects of a pandemic on communications, and it did find that most people would experience brown outs or complete loss of Internet connectivity if something like this would happen.

It is being suggested that people attempt to limit their Internet connectivity during a time like this to help keep the Internet running smoothly, but the report suggested that 75 percent of homes would have to voluntarily comply for it to have any real impact.  There has been some suggestion that the government should enact legislation to allow for certain services be cut off to help maintain the health of the Internet in such a situation, but that is meeting with mixed reactions.

Considering that every Cyber Monday, the Internet shopping version of Black Friday, the Internet slows to a crawl, the odds of people voluntarily staying off of the Internet seems rather unlikely.  In other words: if the Swine Flu does go pandemic, expect the Internet to move at the pace of a snail.

If Time Warner gets its way, the magazine industry will be dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age.

It would seem that the magazine industry is finally realizing that it has to join the digital age, and Time Warner is trying to rally other publishers so that they can come up with a solution that the publishers control as opposed to relying on third-parties like Amazon.

Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore has asked SVP John Squires to come up with the ‘Hulu of magazines’, meaning a destination that people will flock to like the NBC/Fox/Disney video site that has taken the Internet by storm. That is certainly a tall order, but it could very well mean the survival of the industry as people continue to abandon print media at a faster and faster pace.

All Things D has the full content of the company memo:

To: Time Inc. Employees

From: Ann Moore

Re: How to Put the Genie Back Into the Bottle; Special Assignment for John Squires

It won’t be a revelation to any of you that the publishing business is changing rapidly. While print magazines are not going away, and while we have built vibrant websites with over 26 million unique visitors and 750 million pages views each month, it’s increasingly clear that finding the right digital business model is crucial for the future of our business. We need to develop a strategy for the portable digital world and to refine our views on paid content.

Given the magnitude of the opportunity, I have asked John Squires to take on a new role and devote his full time efforts this summer to developing the best business plan for the future. John’s qualifications for this assignment are ideal. He has a strong background in consumer marketing and digital content and has stature in the publishing industry, as well as with digital software and hardware companies. It is likely we will be seeking partners and allies in our quest to ‘put the genie back into the bottle’.

As many of you know, we are currently pursuing four related initiatives:

1. Evolving our current website businesses by identifying and developing consumer revenue streams.

2. Accelerating the creation of applications for smartphone platforms.

3. Developing new products and business models for portable digital readers.

4. Exploring partnerships with other publishers to develop the optimal retail store for our digital products.

John will need the support of many, including Consumer Marketing, Legal, Strategy and Business Development, and the Time Inc. titles. Please pitch in with all your resources available when he calls.

During this assignment, similar to the role I’m playing at the Style and Entertainment Group, I will assume responsibility for the News Business Unit.

A.M.

What I like is that they are looking at a multi-platform strategy, I think tying themselves down to just one device such as the Kindle would be a horrible idea. Consumers want media in a format of their choosing these days, so if Time can hit all the formats, it will have a better chance at succeeding.

Another month, another list of our top posts for the past month, in this case, September.

Judge Orders Google To Deactivate User’s Gmail Account – Not too surprised by this story being the top post of the month, and glad to see it is as it was an important story.  The decision by this judge to order Google to cut off the owner of a Gmail account for nothing that was their fault was a chilling wake-up call for people who live on the Internet.

WordPress Blogs Must Be Updated Immediately – Yet another example of how you need to keep up with security alerts from the makers of the software you use.  All previous versions of WordPress had been compromised, but a simple upgrade to version 2.8.4 made a quick fix of it.

Who Do You Blame When Your Blog Gets Hacked? – And then a follow-up to the previous post that not everyone took kindly to.

AT&T Launches 3G MicroCell To Boost Signals – And at long last AT&T is the final major cell carrier to launch an in-home femtocel solution.

Monopoly City Streets Coming September 9th – When you merge a huge global brand name like Monopoly with another huge global brand name like Google, of course people are going to be intrigued.