IPv6 a Case of Confirmation Bias

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IPv6 a Case of Confirmation Bias

	By Yves Poppe Director, Business Development IP Strategy at Tata Communications
	March 31, 2009 Views: 9,187 Comments: 1

Is the glass half full or half empty? The human reflex of selective deafness to information or arguments countering one’s established believes lives on. The ISOC organized lunchtime IPv6 panel at IETF 74 in San Francisco illustrates the point. The half full perception is exemplified by one write-up on the event, the half-empty by another. A third write-up seems to be the closest to what constitutes objectivity, uncorrected for any confirmation bias of my own.

Natural pessimists continue to hide behind lack of business case, ROI, lack of customer demand, cost, complexity. Mention lack of backward compatibility and it appears under title of “fatal flow for IPv6”, mention a “broccoli approach to IPv6 implementation” and the bias will depend on whether or not one likes broccoli. When forced to swallow, they will probably go on a diet of hard to digest transition technologies and NATcho’s.

Natural optimists see a new world of applications and phenomenal opportunities stirring under the surface of the internet. They integrate IPv6 as part of their network equipment and service upgrade cycles and consider new application domains to satisfy humanity’s insatiable hunger to search, consume, produce and exchange information anytime, anywhere. When Google turned on AAAA’s for Google Maps, IPv6 traffic tripled within days. Trapped underground IPv6 lakes start to break the surface of an increasingly arid and parched IPv4 internet.

Maybe there is a genetic base and evolutionary benefit for our confirmation bias?

By Yves Poppe, Director, Business Development IP Strategy at Tata Communications

(Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these articles are solely those of the author and are not in any way attributable to nor reflect any existing or planned official policy or position of his employer in respect thereto.)

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It is kind of funny that several Dan Campbell – Mar 31, 2009 3:33 PM

It is kind of funny that several articles that came out of the ISOC panel referred to broccoli, carrots (and sticks) and even dogfood. Maybe it was because it was a lunchtime panel?

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