Voidmstr's law

Voidmstr's Law is a principle proposed by Dennis Wilen in 1992, which suggests a primary motive force for the development or expansion of communication capacities, in networked publishing systems. VOIDMSTR'S LAW is as follows:

"Bandwidth expands to fit the waste available."

This law is sometimes cited to explain the relationship between accumulation of contributed material in the public sphere as technology and communication system capacities progress.

Dennis Wilen is also known for the phrase, "It's the uploads, stupid." He is moderator/administrator of Web405, a list for "Southern Californians Who Work the WWW."

Law Corollaries

Traffic expands to fit the roads available.

Evidence may be found in Radiohead's Thom Yorke interview from the New York Times of Dec. 9 2007. There he says, "I mean, it's tempting to have someone say to you, 'You will never have to worry about money ever again,' but no matter how much money someone gives you -- what, you're not going to spend it? You're not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It's like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic."

See also

• Parkinson's law

References

• "Providers Race to Beat the World-Wide Wait". Wired. June 11, 1997. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1997/06/4378. 
• Burchell, Jeff (November 23, 2006). "Why there is no toxic's law". Wired Minds. http://wiredminds.typepad.com/wired_minds/2006/12/jeff_burchell.html.