Blog Assignment 2

In today’s technological age, information and networks are joined at the hip. Within the digital realm, the distribution of information is no longer bound by physical transmission. While at the beginning networks provided little value to the masses, their evolution has grown to embroil every human with a connection to the Internet. Today, there are two types of digital networks. The Local Area Network, or LAN, is limited in scope, usually confined to a building or geographic area. At the other end of the spectrum lies the Wide Area Network, or WAN, which takes the concepts of the LAN and broadens them in scope to a global infrastructure. With Wide Area Networks, the audience for broadcasts and advertising has grown by leaps and bounds. The key question between businesses and consumers in the digital network revolves around “value.” Businesses and advertisers see value as market penetration; how many people can they get their message to? For the consumer, value has a different meaning. For the content creating consumer, having a wider audience is also desired as a facet of value. But it goes much deeper than that. The consumer also seeks interactivity with digital content as well as desires connections to others engaged in Web culture, providing the human aspect to all of this. Sarnoff’s law equates network value to a linear relationship with the number of people on that network. This is a very traditional approach that does hold its own in older forms of broadcasting such as television and radio where more people does equate to more money. Unfortunately, this law is losing ground as traditional broadcast methods are being replaced by streaming services, social networks, and consumer generated content. In the digital realm, a much more calculated theorem is needed. Metcalfe attempted to address this issue with his theorem, calculating that the value of a network is proportional to the square of its members. The Dot Com bubble burst this theorem as speculators found that the theorem merely represented a maximum value, not a realistic one. Reed’s Law does a great job creating a theorem that has a place in today’s cyber culture. Reed claimed the utility of a network increasing exponentially from a base 2, that initial connection. This outward spiraling of value represents the immense power social networks hold and the nodes created by groups of users. Online businesses and advertisers have increasingly tried to create these nodes by creating their own communities in which, often times, users are their best salesmen. The dynamic has shifted into the hands of the consumer as businesses face the scrutiny or applause of the public in a never ending cycle. In 5 years, I believe information will be disseminated through surfaces. With the production of translucent panels, advertisers will find it easier to place information in every area of daily life. The move away from paper will continue, with maybe only a handful of books the survivors. The phone in our pocket will be our gateway to every service, be it paying utilities, finding news, banking, insurance, gaming, etc. The app will be the hub of every facet we can imagine, all in the power of our hands, or as Apple hopes, strapped to our wrist.